March 3, 2026

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly, Ctd. Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: “Two top aides to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer were forced out Monday night amid an internal investigation into claims of misconduct by top officials in the department, people familiar with the matter said. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff, Jihun Han, and deputy chief of staff, Rebecca Wright, were given 24 hours to resign after the White House told Labor Department leaders to fire them, one of the people said.... Investigators have spoken with several dozen witnesses in an inquiry that has expanded to include claims that Mr. Han and Ms. Wright tried to steer department grants to favored political operatives. In interviews with The New York Times, more than two dozen current and former department employees described a toxic workplace characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides and a deeply demoralized staff.”

Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has 'proactively agreed to appear voluntarily' before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Chair James Comer announced Tuesday.” 

With a great deal of help from Aaron Rupar, Joe Jervis reprises some of Trump's stupid remarks delivered [Tuesday] morning during a press availability with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (who will always be Fred Mertz to me). Trump is glad to welcome Trump to the White House because, Trump says, his own father -- also named Fred -- was born in Germany. (He wasn't.) Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite has more on Trump's rant. (The "stupid island" Trump talked about is Diego Garcia, one of a chain the U.K. transferred to  Mauritius, following a 2019 International Court of Justice ruling. According to Art Intel, "Under the deal, the UK retains a 99-year lease to operate the joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia." Trump wanted to use the base for his Iran adventure, and he deemed U.K. PM Keir Starmer too slow in approving the U.S. proposal.)

Scott Nover & Liam Scott of the Washington Post: “Since the United States and Israel launched a joint strike against Iran on Saturday..., Donald Trump has taken a blitz of calls, often dubbed 'exclusives,' with a list of eager reporters. Among the many interviewers: Natalie Allison of The Washington Post, Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times, Kristin Welker and Peter Nicholas of NBC News, Jake Tapper of CNN, Bret Baier and Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News, Jonathan Karl and Rachel Scott of ABC News, Barak Ravid of Axios, Michael Scherer of the Atlantic, Nikki Schwab of the Daily Mail, Jon Levine of the Washington Free Beacon, Mychael Schnell and Laura Barrón-López of MS NOW, Steven Nelson of the New York Post, Connor Stringer of the Telegraph, Dasha Burns of Politico, and Libby Blanca Alon of Israel’s Channel 14 News.... The calls have largely been quick, leaving little time for interrogation.... Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, said the array of direct interviews offers Trump an opportunity to relay his talking points without being subjected to a cross-examination.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: These one-on-one calls put Trump in total control of the conversation. He already enjoys the dominance that comes with being the POTUS*, and on top of that, he can and will hang up the minute the reporter asks a question he doesn't want to answer. I've linked a few stories where the reporters kind of boast about their "exclusives," but the content was fairly useless. 

Marcy Wheeler: “Marco Rubio confessed yesterday that the reason Trump started a war with Iran is because Israel was determined to strike Iran (using intelligence obtained from the CIA), the US assumed Iran would attack US forces in response, and so they just joined the attack in an attempt to preempt the attacks on US targets.... That is a positively insane statement, equivalent to admitting that the US is renting out half its military and gobs of American taxpayer cash to Israel rather than simply telling Israel, no. And it happened largely through the gatekeeping of Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, pretending to seek peace while at the same time monetizing their role.... 'We were surprised,' Trump admitted, apparently without understanding how fucking stupid this makes his entire team look, that Iran would attack Arab states sitting like ducks in close range from Iran.... Perhaps that lack of preparedness is why the US had personnel located in a tactical operations center in Kuwait, effectively a double-wide trailer with some concrete barriers outside, which is where — at last count — six Americans died.” Read on. Update: Oops, RAS got here first. Sorry for failing to give credit where credit was due. ~~~

~~~ James LaPorta of CBS News: "At least six Americans were killed in a strike on a tactical operations center at the Shuaiba port in Kuwait.... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the deadly strike was caused by a powerful Iranian weapon that made it through both air defenses and the operations center's fortifications.... Hegseth said during a news conference at the Pentagon, '... in that particular case, [the weapon] happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.' But ... three U.S. military officials questioned the assertion that the building was adequately fortified. They told CBS News the operations center was a triple-wide trailer made into an office space.... The trailer's only fortifications were T-walls, which are steel-reinforced concrete barriers ... used to protect military personnel from explosions, rocket attacks and shrapnel.... But T-walls could not protect the facility from an overhead strike.... Prior to the attack, there were discussions ... about whether the tactical operations center in question should not have been used, as it concentrated too many U.S. troops in a location that wasn't defendable." Sources noted other shortcomings in the defense system at the site.

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration indicated on Tuesday that it planned to renew its defense of executive orders that it had leveled against law firms, a sharp reversal a day after asking a court whether it could abandon the fight. In a motion filed with the appeals court in the District of Columbia..., the Justice Department formally asked to withdraw its request on Monday to abandon the cases against four law firms.... On Monday, the administration, in a court filing, asked an appeals court if it could walk away from its appeal of victories the firms had won against the White House. The move was a significant concession by the White House that it could not stand behind its orders.” The link may be a gift link. The NBC News story is here. ~~~ 

     ~~~Marie: So it Trump was embarrassed/infuriated to be caught backing off one of his bullying campaigns & ordered DOJ to fight on. 

The New York Times is liveblogging a Senate hearing in which Kristi Noem is the star witness. ~~~

~~~ Michael Gold & Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, repeatedly declined on Tuesday to apologize for suggesting that two American citizens killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were domestic terrorists. Asked by Democratic and Republican senators about comments she made in the aftermath of both shootings that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti had committed acts of domestic terrorism, Ms. Noem did not retract her remarks. She said repeatedly that her characterizations came from immigration officers in Minneapolis. 'I was getting reports from the ground, from agents at the scene,' Ms. Noem said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. 'And I would say that it was a chaotic scene.'” ~~~

~~~ Eric Bazail-Eimil of Politico: “Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) threatened Tuesday to use aggressive procedural measures to bring Senate work to a standstill if Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fails to respond to his offices’ inquiries about an immigration crackdown in Charlotte, North Carolina. An irate Tillis, who is retiring this year from the Senate, ripped into Noem during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, saying that he would use his power as a senator to hold nominations and prevent bills from getting to the Senate floor.... The announcement from Tillis, who has called repeatedly for Noem to leave her post, would represent a rare escalation from any senator — in particular one from the president’s party — in the face of frustrations with a member of the Cabinet. Such a move, if he follows through with his threat, would hijack much of the Senate’s standard operating procedure.”

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration on Monday over a decision to withhold more than $200 million in Medicaid funds from the state, which has seen widespread fraud in social service programs.... In the new lawsuit, Minnesota officials asked a judge to restore most of the $259 million in funding that the Trump administration cut off last week. The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, said that the federal government had “weaponized Medicaid against Minnesota as political punishment.” Vice President JD Vance said last week ... that the Trump administration had to 'turn the screws on them a little bit so they take this fraud seriously.'” 

Georgia. Rick Rojas & Johnny Kauffman of the New York Times: “A Georgia father was found guilty on Tuesday of ignoring warning signs and allowing his son unfettered access to an assault-style rifle that prosecutors say the teenager used in a deadly school shooting. The jury deliberated only about two hours before concluding that the father, Colin Gray, 54, was guilty of more than two dozen charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, stemming from the attack on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Two students and two teachers were killed. Prosecutors said that the father had given his son, Colt Gray, the AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas gift, letting him keep it in his bedroom. The elder Mr. Gray did not take it away even as his son’s behavior became more volatile and he showed signs of an obsession with school shooters.” 

New York. Stefanos Chen & Winnie Hu of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the federal government’s attempt to end New York’s congestion pricing toll was illegal, handing a major victory to the state in its defense of the first-in-the-nation traffic reduction plan, which the Trump administration had tried for more than a year to kill. While other legal challenges remain, the 149-page decision by Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan ends, for now, a heated battle between Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has become a staunch defender of the program, and the White House, which has claimed, without offering evidence, that it would harm the region’s economy.” The link may be a gift link.

Marie: This just popped up on my YouTube feed. Neil Sedaka died last week. Sedaka wrote and sang some of the dippiest pop songs I ever heard. But there was this: ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, Sedaka never got to Russia. According to Art Intel, "Although he was accepted to compete in the prestigious 1966 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, Soviet authorities disqualified him just before he was due to leave because of his reputation as a singer of 'American capitalistic rock'n'roll'." ~~~

~~~ Okay, this is more on point: ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~ 

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Trump & Netanyahu's war against Iran are here. From the pinned item at 6:00 am ET: “The State Department closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Tuesday after drone attacks and urged Americans to depart immediately from 14 Middle East countries, as Iran expanded its retaliatory strikes on American targets in the widening regional conflict..... As the Trump administration signaled that the assault on Iran could go on for weeks, the Israeli military said that it was carrying out additional strikes in Iran. Israeli forces also said they had seized areas of southern Lebanon and targeted weapons storage facilities in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, as part of an escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which said it had fired 'a swarm of attack drones' at Israel. 

“In another sign of the widening conflict, Qatar’s Defense Ministry said its air force had shot down two Su-24 bombers coming from Iran. It was the first report that, in addition to missiles and drones, Iran has also sent warplanes toward its Gulf neighbors. A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps official vowed that 'not a single drop of oil' would pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Traffic has already slowed to a trickle after the Revolutionary Guards warned ships away over the weekend, though Iran had not directly threatened them.”

Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: Donald “Trump and his top aides warned on Monday that the U.S. military campaign in Iran would intensify and potentially stretch on for weeks, as fighting spread across the Middle East and the death toll continued to rise. 'Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes,' Mr. Trump said at the White House, in his first public event since the fighting began on Saturday. 'Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that.' Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Mr. Trump’s prediction that the fighting would continue, saying 'the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military.... The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,' Mr. Rubio said ahead of a classified briefing with senior members of Congress. He said that the United States would continue to strike Iran until it had achieved its objectives, including destroying Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities....

“The U.S. military’s Central Command announced on Monday that two more American service members have been killed in the war, bringing the number of dead troops to six.... Earlier in the day, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the U.S. military was bolstering its forces in the Middle East, sending more troops and fighter jets to the region.” A related AP report is here.

Warren Strobel, et al., of the Washington Post: “... the Trump administration gave shifting rationales for its decision to attack Iran, even as U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports said they saw no sign the country had posed an imminent threat to the United States.... Donald Trump and his top national security aides ... emphasized Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles rather than its nuclear program as the principal threat. But they provided different descriptions of the danger. At his first public event since the attack began, Trump on Monday never mentioned a key part of his original rationale for the war: deposing Iran’s theocratic regime.... What Trump had outlined over the weekend as an effort to devastate Tehran’s rulers so that the Iranian people could take over was, by Monday, 'not a so-called regime change war,' in the words of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a third line of reasoning. The United States, he said, knew Israel was going to strike Iran, which would lead to counterattacks against U.S. forces and potential casualties, and decided to strike first to minimize the risk.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So according to Little Marco, the U.S. attacked a sovereign nation and killed its leader -- and innocent schoolgirls and our own troops -- because "Bibi made us do it." ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Roth & Joseph Gedeon of the Guardian cover much of the same ground the WashPo writers do.  

Reuters, published by the Huffington Post: "U.S. Marines opened fire on demonstrators during the storming of the Karachi[, Pakistaon,] consulate over the weekend, two U.S. officials said on Monday — a rare use of force at a diplomatic post that could sharply escalate tensions in the country amid widespread protests over the killing of Iran’s leader. Ten people were killed on Sunday when protesters breached the compound’s outer wall after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes on Iran. Citing initial information, the two U.S. officials said it was unclear whether rounds fired by Marines struck or killed anyone. They also did not know whether shots were also fired by others protecting the mission, including private security guards and local police.... Pakistan is home to the world’s second-largest Shi’ite community after Iran."

Aaron Boxerman, et al., of the New York Times: “Three American jets were shot down over Kuwait during 'an apparent friendly fire incident' while they were taking part in the campaign against Iran, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement on Monday. 'During active combat — that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,' the statement said. All six crew members 'ejected safely, have been safely recovered and are in stable condition,' Central Command added, extending its gratitude to Kuwait for participating in the operation against Iran.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Marie: If you don't have access to the NYT's liveblog of events related to the U.S.-Israel/Iran war, I copied many of the entries reporters made yesterday. They appear just below the break on yesterday's page.

Marie: Numerous reporters and commentators noted throughout the weekend that Trump had not appeared in public since he began the war with Iran. Well, he showed in the East Room today with a physical suggestion of why he was in hiding ~~~

~~~ Edith Olmstead of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: “... Donald Trump appeared to have a large red rash on the back of his neck Monday. While speaking at the White House about his illegal war with Iran, Trump was spotted with a dark red patch of skin peeking out from under his collar. In a photograph taken by AFP photographer Saul Loeb, a large scab is visible.... Possible causes of a red rash could include contact or atopic dermatitis — also known as eczema — psoriasis, or heat rash. It could also be caused by shingles. A statement from Captain Sean Barbarella, a Navy emergency physician serving as the president’s doctor, claimed that Trump was using a 'very common cream on the right side of his neck, which is a preventative skin treatment prescribed by the White House doctor.'... Trump’s right hand also appeared discolored in another photograph by Loeb.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times picks up the story. ~~~

     ~~~ MB: I guess Barbarella there wants us to think the treatment caused the rash & scab, but it sure seems more likely that the treatment is meant to, well, treat the rash. I'm a better long-distance doctor than Olmstead; I'm going to guess the cause is syphilis! ~~~

     ~~~ AND there was this: ~~~

Trump: "Finally, we honor one more American soldier, a fallen warria of world. Of wars. And really, terra.”

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) Mar 2, 2026 at 1:37 PM

First Tariffs, Now This. Trump Just Can't Stop Messing Up the Global Economy. Peter Goodman of the New York Times: “The American and Israeli bombing of Iran, and Iranian reprisals throughout the region, set dangers in motion that pose a substantial threat to global economic fortunes.... Any event that extends the conflict or threatens sources of oil and gas is likely to lift energy prices to levels that would sow inflation. That could prompt central banks worldwide to raise interest rates, pushing up the costs of mortgages, car loans and other borrowing. And that would choke off consumer spending and business investment — a classic pathway to a downturn.”

Paul Krugman on the costs of war, especially for us little people: "Ordinary Americans feel that Trump is setting billions of dollars on fire with no idea how that is supposed to work out, and that they will end up paying the price. And they’re right." 

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “While the war as a whole has been broadly denounced as illegal by critics who point to its lack of authorization from Congress or the United Nations Security Council, the ayatollah’s killing raises particular legal questions.... It is generally agreed that in wartime, a country’s military commanders are lawful targets. It is also generally agreed that civilian officials with no military functions — like a health minister — are not lawful targets unless they are directly participating in hostilities.... A civilian leader who commands a military force is a messier situation. Still, under the laws of armed conflict, a civilian leader who controls the military is likely to be a legitimate military target in an active war.... [The armed conflict] began with the very strike that killed Ayatollah Khamenei, which complicates the question of whether he was a lawful military target at the time of the strike. In peacetime, it would be murder to kill a member of a foreign military or any government official who is not engaged in an imminent armed attack.... Rebecca Ingber...,  a former senior State Department lawyer, [said,] 'A state can’t backfill a justification for killing a head of state by unlawfully starting an armed conflict.'” There's more.

Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: “In public, Mr. Trump appeared to take a circuitous path to military action, alternating between saying that he wanted to strike a deal with Iran’s government and that he wanted to topple it. He made little effort to try to convince the American public that a war was necessary now. And the limited case he and his aides made included false claims about the imminence of the threat that Iran posed to the United States. But behind the scenes, his move toward war grew inexorably, fueled by allies like Mr. Netanyahu who pushed the president to strike a decisive blow against Iran’s theocratic government; and by Mr. Trump’s own confidence after the successful U.S. operation that toppled the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.” MB: The link may be a gift link.  ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Definitely worth a read. For instance, there's this: “In [a Situation Room] meeting..., Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine told the president that a war could lead to significant American casualties. Days later, Mr. Trump ... wrote on Truth Social that General Caine had said that any military action against Iran would be 'something easily won.' Other administration officials were similarly misleading in private sessions with lawmakers.”

Heather Cox Richardson: "The Economist’s Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom noted that Trump appears to be workshopping the causes for his attacks on Iran and his goals for the war by talking to journalists.... Matt Gertz of Media Matters noted today that Trump, who watches the Fox News Channel consistently, appears to have shaped his attack on Iran in response to encouragement from FNC hosts.... Trump’s strikes on Iran could have had something to do with the increasing heat over the Epstein files or his fury that the Supreme Court struck down his tariff walls.... Possibly he was responding to pressure from Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, or both. Whatever their immediate trigger, the strikes fall in line with the ideology of cowboy individualism that began to take over the Republican Party in the 1980s and which, under Trump, has turned into brutal displays of dominance." Read on. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Robert Reich echoes my oft-repeated sentiment in a Substack titled, "Trump Hasn’t a F*cking Clue What He’s Doing": "He’s winging it. He believes he can somehow pull it off because he thinks he’s invincible. It’s Trump’s M.O. He loves to create chaos because chaos allows him to improvise — to impose his own narrative on a flood of events, dodge responsibility for failures, take credit for successes, and create illusions of glory and victory. But the chaos he’s ignited in the Middle East is so large that the narrative may already be out of his control. The conflagration is escalating and spreading too fast. Just three days in, he’s making conflicting and inconsistent decisions and providing conflicting accounts."

Steve Benen of MS NOW: “By all appearances, there was a foundational lie at the heart of the talks [between the U.S. & Iran]: Trump wanted to destroy the government that he and his team were negotiating with. For the president, failure wasn’t just inevitable, it was apparently desirable, since he was principally focused more on regime change and less on a diplomatic breakthrough. The goal wasn’t to negotiate the terms of a nuclear agreement with a foreign adversary, since the U.S. administration intended to start killing the leaders of the foreign adversary in the middle of the negotiations. Thomas Greminger, a former European diplomat who ... deals with conflict resolution, told the [New York] Times: 'This is basically abusing diplomacy to cover up a military operation.' Greminger added that, going forward..., countries could 'think twice about reengaging if you’re faced with this kind of bad faith behavior.'”

Betting on War. Judd Legum, et al., of Popular Information: “For some, the consequences of [Trump & Netanyahu's war] were fatal.... For others, the beginning of the war was simply a money-making opportunity. In the hours before the strike, six newly-created accounts on the prediction market Polymarket raked in nearly $1 million by betting that the U.S. would strike Iran by February 28. Many observers, including the analytics site that first flagged the suspicious trades, suspect that the accounts benefited from insider knowledge. But it’s impossible to say for sure. The international version of Polymarket, where the bets were made, does not require users to identify themselves and accepts bets in crypto.... Overall, “$529 million was traded on contracts tied to the timing of the strikes” on Polymarket, Bloomberg reported. The White House 'denied anyone in Trump’s orbit was behind the lucrative trades.' It’s unclear which members of the administration would be considered 'in Trump’s orbit.' Donald Trump Jr. serves as an advisor to both Polymarket and its chief rival, Kalshi.”

An R.S.V.P from Hell. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner for his first time in office, ending a boycott over the gathering of journalists he has repeatedly derided as unfair and biased against him. In a Monday post on Truth Social, Trump said the WHCA asked him 'very nicely' to be the honored guest at the dinner and he accepted.” Here's Politico's report.

Stephen Groves of the AP: “Former President Bill Clinton distanced himself from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in closed-door depositions with lawmakers, according to videos that were released Monday by a House committee. The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, show how Bill Clinton told the committee that he had ended his relationship with Epstein years before the financier entered a 2008 guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Hillary Clinton told the committee she never even recalled meeting Epstein. Both closed-door interviews before the House Oversight Committee were taken under oath Thursday and Friday. ~~~

     ~~~ Video of Bill Clinton's full depo is here. Video of Hillary Clinton's full deposition is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Annie Karni & Michael Gold of the New York Times list some takeaways from the depositions: “Mrs. Clinton fought for months to avoid testifying before Congress on the Epstein matter, and she remained defiant throughout the deposition about being forced to appear. Her answers and body language dripped with disdain.... Mr. Clinton, who presented a more relaxed demeanor..., minimized his ties to Mr. Epstein, portraying their relationship as 'cordial' and businesslike rather than a true friendship. He said he had not engaged in any sexual conduct with women or girls that Mr. Epstein introduced him to, that he never visited Mr. Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and that he did not witness any sexual acts while traveling on Mr. Epstein’s plane. As for the now infamous image of Mr. Clinton reclining in a hot tub with a woman whose face is blacked out, he said: 'I don’t know who that is,' but added that he never had sex with her. The former president told the committee that he was first connected with Mr. Epstein in 2001 or 2002 by Larry Summers, his former Treasury secretary.... 

“Mr. Clinton said that he discussed Mr. Epstein with Mr. Trump about 20 years ago at one of Mr. Trump’s golf courses. The former president said Mr. Trump had told him that he had fallen out with Mr. Epstein over a 'property deal.' 'He said, “You know, we had some great times together over the years, but we fell out all because of a real estate deal,’” Mr. Clinton recalled.  'And he said, “I’m sorry it happened.' That’s all.' Mr. Clinton said that Mr. Trump 'never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein either.' He did not, as Representative James R. Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the committee, claimed afterward, exonerate Mr. Trump.” ~~~

~~~ Hailey Fuchs of Politico reports on Hillary Clinton's testimony. Fuchs & others at Politico report on "the biggest revelations" from Bill Clinton's deposition. ~~~

~~~ Here's what happened when Hillary Clinton learned Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) had released a photo of her giving testimony, in violation of rules the committee itself had set and imposed: ~~~

Patel Really Doesn't Know What He's Doing. Carol Leonnig of MS NOW: "When FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran.... The firings came as Patel claimed — without evidence — that the team of FBI agents who investigated Trump’s hoarding of top-secret records at his Mar-a-Lago club had engaged in improper investigative steps. But his gutting of the global espionage unit, known as CI-12, also came days before Trump launched ... a series of bombing strikes on Iran.... A previous bombing strike on Iran ordered by Trump in his first presidency was followed by a series of Iranian operations on U.S. soil to try to assassinate Trump and some of his aides.... This global espionage team helped uncover numerous counterintelligence threats from foreign governments...."

Jonah Bromwich & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Monday abandoned its attempts to impose potentially crippling executive orders against law firms that refused to capitulate to the president, walking away from its appeal of victories the firms had won against the White House. With a brief due this week, Justice Department lawyers told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that they were no longer interested in pursuing the cases and were voluntarily asking the court to dismiss them. The decision is the White House’s most significant acknowledgment that the executive orders cannot be successfully defended in court. The move is particularly striking given that some firms opted to reach deals in a bid to head off executive orders that ... [Donald] Trump’s Justice Department said it would no longer stand behind. The battle over the executive orders had roiled the legal establishment and led many firms to submit to Mr. Trump rather than face the existential threat his directives represented. The orders barred the firms from government business and suggested that their clients could lose government contracts, spurring widespread panic in the legal profession.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: “The four law firms that last year chose to fight ... [Donald] Trump’s illegal intimidation campaign have won vindication.... The executive orders that Mr. Trump signed early in his second term were based on the lie that the firms had done something wrong.... The president attacked a bedrock principle of the law, which is that everybody deserves legal representation. He sought to frighten lawyers from representing people who had the temerity to criticize him.... Nine ... firms folded and struck deals intended to mollify the president. The deals included promises to perform millions of dollars of pro bono work on behalf of Trump-friendly clients. These nine firms all failed a high-stakes character test.... Democracy in this country remains under threat from Mr. Trump. But it has better than a fighting chance so long as Americans are willing to fight.” Update: the link has been changed to one that may be a gift link. A Politico story is here.

Sarah Blaskey of the Washington Post: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement dramatically cut its basic training program amid a hiring spree meant to speed up the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, records obtained by The Washington Post show, corroborating a whistleblower’s claim. After former ICE instructor Ryan Schwank testified during a congressional hearing last week, the Department of Homeland Security denied any reduction in the amount or quality of training provided to ICE recruits. The previously undisclosed records obtained by The Post show that, as the whistleblower said, ICE last year removed about 240 hours from its basic training program, or more than 40 percent of instructional time.” Emphasis added. 

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Rebecca O'Brien & Evan Gorelick of the New York Times: “The [Education Labor Department]’s inspector general has opened an inquiry into allegations of professional misconduct by [Secretary Lori] Chavez-DeRemer and her closest aides. Investigators have spoken with several dozen witnesses and reviewed evidence and allegations that the secretary used department resources for personal trips, that she was having an affair with a member of her security team and that her aides tried to steer grants to favored political operatives. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband has been barred from the department’s headquarters, after female staff members accused him of making unwanted sexual advances. His lawyer has said the accusers were working with department employees, whom he did not name, to force Ms. Chavez-DeRemer out of office. Police and prosecutors have said they would not bring a case against her husband. In interviews, more than two dozen current and former department employees from across the political spectrum described a toxic workplace characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides and a deeply demoralized staff.” Thanks to Ken W. for the correction. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “Two leading Republican senators are asking the Trump administration to approve a $200 billion tax cut without congressional approval, as the GOP aims to improve its economic approval rating with voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) will send a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday urging him to use executive authority to reduce some of the taxes paid on capital gains — a change that would lower the tax burden on Americans selling stocks, businesses, homes and other assets, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release. The senators argue the administration does not need congressional approval to make the shift, although some conservative legal experts and Treasury officials have disagreed with that conclusion in the past....

“The plan pushed by Cruz and Scott has been sought by conservatives for many years. Under current law, an investor who bought $100 worth of stock in 1990 and sold it today for $300 would currently owe capital gains taxes on the full $200 in profit. But the $100 investment in 1990 would be worth roughly $230 in today’s dollars after accounting for inflation. Under the Cruz-Scott proposal, the investor would only owe taxes on that $70, rather than the full $200. That is why the proposal is known as 'indexing capital gains for inflation.'” 

Ann Marimow of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Monday sided with a group of religious parents, temporarily blocking California from using policies that generally bar public-school teachers from outing transgender students to their parents. A group of Christian teachers and parents asked the justices to intervene on an emergency basis, contending that the state had adopted a policy that requires public schools to hide students’ transgender status from their own parents and to facilitate their social transition, even over their parents’ objections.... In its order on Monday, the court’s conservative majority granted the emergency request of the parents with religious objections, saying they were likely to succeed in their legal challenge to California’s policies.... The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan criticized her conservative colleagues for being hasty, essentially prejudging a significant issue on an emergency basis and without full briefing or oral arguments. The court also acted before the appeals court had formally resolved the matter.” The AP's story is here.

Abbie VanSickle & Grace Ashford of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would keep in place a New York congressional map, overruling a judge who had found that the map violated the Constitution by diluting the power of Black and Latino voters. The emergency decision, which was unsigned and did not include a vote count or reasoning, as is typical in such cases, was a victory for Republicans, and may help them keep a seat in Congress. Although the court’s decision is temporary, allowing the old map to remain in place as legal appeals continue, it means the map will most likely be used for the midterms.” The NBC News story is here.

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Florida, et al. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Tens of thousands of Americans are losing access to treatment for H.I.V. as nearly 20 states impose restrictions on assistance programs and several others weigh such changes. The states, led by both Democrats and Republicans, are tightening requirements for people benefiting from Ryan White AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, or ADAPs, according to an analysis released on Monday by the health research group KFF. The programs help pay for H.I.V. medications or provide them free to some people, and pay insurance premiums for others. H.I.V. medications suppress the virus to undetectable levels, eliminating the chance of spreading it to others. Interrupting treatment may lead to an increase in new infections and in AIDS cases. Moreover, some people may try to extend their supplies by alternating days or sharing their pills with others. If the virus replicates in people with only partial protection, it can become resistant to the medications. People living with the virus may then pass the resistant virus on to others. The biggest change took effect in Florida on Sunday, when officials cut off benefits for at least 16,000 residents living with H.I.V. The state also will no longer cover Biktarvy, the most widely prescribed H.I.V. medication.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is such a good and necessary place for our tax dollars to go that I cannot understand why any legislator would cut the program unless the "reason" is bigotry. 

New York. Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: “The New York attorney general’s office has ordered a major Manhattan hospital to resume providing puberty-blocking medication and hormone treatments to transgender adolescents, just two weeks after the hospital had stopped doing so. The hospital, NYU Langone Health, had closed its Transgender Youth Health Program after the federal government threatened to pull federal funding from hospitals that provided gender-transition treatments for adolescents. For more than a year, the Trump administration has sought to prevent hospitals from helping adolescents transition, asserting that many of the children are impressionable and confused and that the medical treatments maim and sterilize them. In response, many clinics and hospitals in the United States have scaled back or stopped providing gender-related treatments to children.”

Texas Congressional Races. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: “Tuesday’s primary elections in Texas mark the start of the yearlong midterm battle over which party will control Congress. And both Democrats and Republicans have drawn bruising primary battles in the marquee Senate race. In the Republican contest, where Senator John Cornyn faces a challenge from Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, the campaign has been especially personal. Mr. Cornyn repeatedly highlighted allegations that Mr. Paxton had committed adultery in his former marriage.... Both Democratic candidates for Senate — Representative Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico, a state legislator — spent their final hours in Houston, rallying supporters in the state’s largest city.” 

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Cuba. Luis Ferré-Sadurní & David Adams of the New York Times: “President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba called on Monday for an 'urgent' transformation of the country’s economic model, according to Cuban state media, as Cuba confronts an oil blockade by the Trump administration that has deepened a humanitarian crisis on the island.... 'We must focus immediately on implementing the most urgent and necessary transformations to the economic and social model,' Mr. Díaz-Canel said in a speech to the Council of Ministers, the highest body of the government, according to state media. Mr. Díaz-Canel’s calls for change, which were vague and light in details, appeared to be a direct response to the United States’ increased pressure on the Communist regime and a stark acknowledgment of the toll the U.S. oil blockade has inflicted on Cuba, which is facing one of its most severe economic and humanitarian crisis in decades.”

France, et al. Mark Landler of the New York Times: “President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France would expand its nuclear arsenal and deepen cooperation with European neighbors to deter attacks, a landmark shift in its nuclear doctrine that reflects how an aggressive Russia and a retreating United States are redrawing the security contours in Europe. Mr. Macron’s speech, delivered on a day when the war with Iran threatened to spiral into a regionwide conflict, illustrated France’s willingness to take on a new role in a dangerous world. But the timing was also a reminder of Europe’s limitations after decades of sheltering under America’s nuclear umbrella.”