An outraged Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) demanded an investigation after diners heckled President Donald Trump at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, Trump visited a restaurant in D.C., Joe's Seafood, for the first time in his second term. But he didn't know that members of the activist group Code Pink also had reservations.
"We actually had a reservation, and got it pretty last-minute, and went in," Code Pink organizer Olivia DiNucci told The Daily Beast. "[W]e didn't think they would be in such an open room—we thought he'd be in a different area—and we were placed really close to them."
After Code Pink released a video of protesters comparing Trump to Hitler, Luna suggested that a security lapse had allowed the group's First Amendment expression.
"Did someone leak the President's location to the organization that showed up to protest him? Was this code pink? How are they allowed that close to him?" she demanded to know in a post to X.
"Where was Secret Service and was there someone in Secret Service that leaked his location? This needs to be looked into," she added.
Donald Trump has found a kindred spirit in his Cabinet and spends countless hours on the phone with him until late at night as they watch TV and compare notes, according to a new report.
According to Axios founder Mike Allen, who appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday morning, Donald Trump has closely allied himself with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has, in the past, been at odds with other officials in the White House.
Just weeks ago Politico was reporting that White House insiders were questioning a proposal from the president for a “External Revenue Service” tasked with collecting tariff funds and additional reports that Lutnick might head up the effort, with an insider stating, “I was surprised when they gave it to Lutnick,” when it was in the planning stage.
On Wednesday morning, where MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called Lutnick “stupid,” Allen was asked about the relationship between the president and his much-maligned Cabinet member after reports that Trump was frustrated with him.
“Very interesting behind the scenes,” Allen offered. “Howard Lutnick and the president talk a ton. They talk a lot. At one in the morning. Trump calls Howard Lutnick a lot because he said he knows he's up. Howard Lutnick goes to bed around 1:30. He said the president goes to bed around two. So these two guys, third, New Yorkers, friends 30 plus years, one in the morning, they're on the phone.”
“Howard literally text him and say, ‘You up?’ and they'll watch TV together, watch Fox News, watch sports. So that's part of the significance of these comments Secretary Lutnick is very much channeling what's on the president's mind,” Allen added.
CNN's John Berman tried to pin down a Republican lawmaker on President Donald Trump's denials of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump denied reports about a bawdy birthday message he'd written to the late sex offender, and even sued the Wall Street Journal over it, but once Epstein's estate handed over the scrawled message to House Oversight Democrats, the president declared the topic "a dead issue," and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) was asked about the matter.
"What do I think about it?" Sessions said. "I think that what we've got to do is to continue our investigation. We want the truth. I want to be able to answer questions, and we're going to get there."
Sessions said he did not consider the matter a dead issue, and he said lawmakers are continuing to examine data and information, although he conceded the president might prefer to turn the page on the Epstein birthday book – which prompted another question from Berman.
"Well, okay, so it's not a dead issue for you, I mean, it is a dead issue for the president," Berman said. "What does that tell you about his level of curiosity about the Epstein investigation?"
Sessions tried to pin some of the blame on previous presidents.
"It's hard for me to know what the last four presidents have looked at in this whole issue," Sessions said. "It is brand new to Congress to begin its review of the documents and ask questions. The presidents probably worked through this a long time ago. They had the knowledge, they had the data, they had the information. He can draw a conclusion after six months. I have not drawn that conclusion yet."
Trump has denied signing the birthday note on a crude drawing of a female figure, along with an imagined conversation between him and Epstein about the secrets they share together, but Berman asked the congressman what he thought.
"Does it look like his signature to you on the bottom of that letter?" Berman said.
"You know, we're looking at that," Sessions replied. "We're also looking at people who are gathering together his signature at the time, and that's what we need to pay attention to. We've been provided the information, now what we need to do is draw our own conclusion."
"So to you, it's an open question about whether that's his signature on this document," Berman added.
"Well, evidently the president, who was not under oath, stated it was not his," Sessions answered. "The White House has stated that, so we will start from that perspective unless proven otherwise. But this is simply a small part of the entire questions. We need to we need to put together this information. Why did the last, in essence, for presidents not move forward on this? Where is the evidence? What is the scope of the entire matter, and we're still looking at that."
A key member of Donald Trump's Cabinet was raked over the coals on Wednesday morning after suggesting the government should profit from research being done at universities.
In an interview with Axios founder Mike Allen, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressed a unique view about government research funding that relies heavily on work being done by students and, if successful, benefits everyone.
"I think universities, who are getting all this money. The scientists get the patents, the universities get the patents and the funder of $50 billion, the U.S. government, you know what we get? Zero!’ he told Allen before adding, “In business if I gave them 100% of their money, I would get half the profits, with the scientists. So I think if we fund it and they invent a patent, the United States of America taxpayer should get half the benefit."
After viewing the clip from Axios, MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough lit up Lutnick for yet another example of the Donald Trump administration engaging in socialism — something previously anathema to conservatives.
“Wait, wait, wait, this is just full-blown socialism!” Scarborough exclaimed. “I mean, it's even beyond that. He's like, you remember when Barack Obama said, you know, you didn't you didn't do it all on your own, you needed the government. But we helped you and you got it? Could you imagine if Barack Obama said, ‘You know what? Because of that, we're going to take 10% here?'"
“And here are all these so-called, like capitalist billionaires that keep trying to scam off of companies, off of colleges,” he argued. “Like, I don't know Howard, but I can't believe he is so stupid as to not understand that when we, ––since World War II, gave universities that money for research that spread out and that helped, whether you're talking about the internet, whether you're talking about biomedical research, whether you're talking about research on, you know, Alzheimer's, or whether you're talking about research on on AI, all of these technologies, they accrue to the benefit of Americans.”
He then added, “And in a capitalist society, a rising tide lifts all boats. They pay higher taxes because they're successful and not giving the money back to the huge centralized state. And then they can tax them. But they're literally talking about accumulating more power in the centralized state. It is the most socialist thing.”
A pair of analysts warned on Tuesday that President Donald Trump appears to have suffered a "humiliating" blow from a U.S. ally, and it could have global repercussions.
Early Tuesday morning, Israel bombed the Qatari capital of Doha. Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor in the Obama administration, speculated on a recent episode of "Pod Save The World" that the strike was likely conducted using American military equipment that was sold to Israel as part of its war on Hamas.
The strike also put Trump in an awkward position, Rhodes argued. Trump is friendly with Qatar, as illustrated by the $400 million plane he accepted from them as a gift, and his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, once worked as a lobbyist for the Qatari government. However, Trump's other friend, Israel, is now attacking Qatar with weapons that Trump sold them.
"The Qatari prime minister had just met with Hamas to pressure them to take this Trump ceasefire deal, and this is completely humiliating for him," said podcast co-host Tommy Vietor, an Obama administration spokesperson. "His own country was bombed."
"Frankly, let's just add the U.S. to the list of humiliated countries," Rhodes said.
Rhodes mentioned that the U.S. has about 10,000 troops stationed in Qatar. Media reports indicate that the Trump administration wasn't notified of the strike until the missiles were in the air, which Rhodes said reveals a lot about the relationship between the two governments.
"This either punked Trump or Trump just doesn't care," Rhodes said.
There also could be global impacts from the bombing, he added.
"The other place where Hamas leaders tend to go is Turkey, and Israel has a lot of tensions with Turkey right now over Syria and other things," Rhodes said. "It's actually not inconceivable that Israel might strike in Turkey at some point."
"I'd remind you that Turkey is a member of NATO," he added. "We are at a point here where it's probably more likely that Netanyahu bombs a NATO country before Putin does."
"That shows you how absurd US foreign policy is," Rhodes said.
The lewd doodle that President Donald Trump reportedly sent to the late financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has now been made public, and in response, Trump and Republicans resorted to a flat denial, claiming the signature on the letter was forged. That assertion was seen as laughable by MSNBC's Chris Hayes, who pointed out that what's known about both the signature and Trump's long history of inappropriate behavior towards women suggests that it is indeed genuine.
"Every single page seems to convey what Donald Trump, on the record in print, told New York Magazine about Epstein back in 2022," said Hayes. "Same kind of wink-wink, nudge-nudge, right? He's a lot of fun to be with. It even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. What more evidence do you need to know that as president, Donald Trump has been lying to cover up something about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the nature of it, the things they did together, their shared interests? But now he's been caught red-handed, and he's pushing Republicans to just keep lying their way out of it."
Hayes played clips of a number of Republicans parroting Trump's denials of the signature's authenticity, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) suggesting someone manufactured it with an "autopen," and Rep. James Comer (R-KY) saying the Oversight Committee will not investigate the matter any further because "What does it have to do with anything?"
"What does it have to do with anything that Donald Trump wrote that letter to Jeffrey Epstein?" echoed Hayes. "Now the Journal and others proved pretty conclusively that the signature, the syntax of drawing itself are all obviously identical to Trump's over the years, Trump's allies keep lying about it. And again, to believe the letter is a hoax, you'd have to believe that it was forged by some mysterious third party in 2003, and then included and given to Ghislaine Maxwell, who included [it] in the book, not knowing it's a forgery, it was bound to give Epstein more than two decades ago from Ghislaine Maxwell because ... some aliens came down and made it up."
"I mean, that's not a denial. That's a pathetic conspiracy theory," said Hayes. "But that's what they're saying. That is their contention."
He then played a number of clips of Trump making creepy statements about young girls, including a remark that Tiffany Trump, as an infant, had her mother's legs.
"A normal thing to say about your baby daughter, right?" said Hayes. "A normal thing to say about your baby daughter if you're also a guy who hangs out with Jeffrey Epstein, talks about how he likes them young and also writes that letter to him, right? Normal stuff. And all of that is what Donald Trump and Republicans want you to forget. There's a reason that they're failing miserably."
Protesters shouted "Free Palestine," "Free DC," and "Trump is Hitler" at the president and some members of his Cabinet while they were inside a Washington D.C. restaurant on Tuesday.
Videos circulated on social media of protesters shouting inside Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant, which is a quarter of a mile from the White House. At one point, President Donald Trump appeared to mock the group. Trump stops and cocks his head in their direction, but it is unclear if the president said anything to the protesters as he walked through the restaurant.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also dined with the president.
🚨 BREAKING: A “Free Palestine” protester shouted “Trump is Hitler” at the President as he entered Joe’s Seafood in D.C. Trump stared the protester down and appeared to mock them before walking inside. pic.twitter.com/xSpbuD6O0d — Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) September 10, 2025
Far-right Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon proclaimed in a recent speech captured by People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch that white parents must instruct their children to fear and not to interact with Black people — and that any parent who teaches children to be loving and accepting of all races is feeding them a lie that could put their lives in danger.
"If you're a Christian white parent who loves the Lord and loves your children, you need to have The Talk," said Webbon. "The Talk that we're referencing is the talk that takes your children, according to their maturity, at the proper time, the appropriate time, and says, there are certain parts of town that you cannot go. And there are certain people that you cannot be around."
"If there's someone who is Black in our church, and they've been in our church and we know them and they love the Lord Jesus Christ, great. We're not talking about that person," Webbon continued. "But we're talking about when you go into a crowd of people, if you go into a crowd of strangers, and they're white strangers, there's some danger. If they're Black strangers, there is 30 times more danger. Them's the facts."
"And it is actually a failure of your parental duty, white parents, please hear me, if you teach your children growing up, if you lied to them, and say, all people and all races of people in our country are the same. They are not," he added. "You are actually depriving your child of factual, truthful information that could save their life."
Christian nationalism is an extremist political movement, beyond mere belief in Jesus Christ, that holds the United States was designed to be, and must be, subordinated under their interpretation of Biblical law. Central to their belief is the Seven Mountains Mandate, which says Christians, or at least their specific flavor of Christians, must take command of the seven supposed pillars of control within society.
White supremacist views are a frequent undercurrent within the Christian nationalist community, with some preachers openly praising the institution of slavery. And the movement has been growing in political influence under Trump, with the Department of Homeland Security even using Christian nationalist ideas in recruitment videos.
As US President Donald Trumpexpands his authoritarian takeovers of Democrat-led cities, more than 1,000 students from four universities in Washington, DC, walked out to protest the Republican's recent actions in the nation's capital.
Students from American University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Howard University are protesting Trump's deployment of National Guard troops and federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which have also provoked a lawsuit from DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb and a congressional resolution that aims to stop his takeover.
"Students are showing the country that we won't be silent while Trump tries to strip DC residents of our rights," American University student organizer Asher Heisten said in a statement circulated Tuesday by the youth-led Sunrise Movement.
"When Trump sends federal forces into DC, he is trying to intimidate and silence us," Heisten continued. "But students are proving that we will fight back to reject Trump's dangerous authoritarianism."
BREAKING: Massive student walkout at American University to protest Trump’s fascist federal takeover of DC. pic.twitter.com/W7EDgJDY3w — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) September 9, 2025
The students were joined by a pair of progressive lawmakers, US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
"Trump's federal takeover is a direct attack on democracy and the people of Washington, DC," Jayapal said in a statement. "The students leading today's walkouts are showing the entire nation what it means to resist authoritarianism with strength and solidarity."
The congresswoman told a crowd at Georgetown, her alma mater, that "this is an unprecedented moment in our country, where we have an authoritarian leader who is deploying federal troops to Washington, DC—to cities across the country, militarizing our streets, kidnapping people on the streets."
"The only bulwark that we have is the people, and so what you are doing here today is so important, because, at the end of the day, the checks and balances that were supposed to be built into our Constitution so that we could protect our constitutional rights are not working right now," she stressed, calling out Republicans in Congress and US Supreme Court justices for refusing to hold Trump accountable.
Acknowledging the thousands of protesters who marched to the White House on Saturday, Jayapal declared that "we are not powerless," a line that drew loud cheers from the crowd.
Markey, in his remarks at Georgetown, noted that when the president's supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in hopes of stopping the certification of his 2020 electoral loss, "Trump refused to send in troops."
"He allowed for that assault," Markey said of the attempted insurrection. "But now, here in DC, the president is attempting to create an impression that the crime rate is going up rather than down, that there is in fact a crisis here in the District of Columbia."
"And what he is doing, not just here in DC, but in Chicago, in LA, in Boston, is to try to characterize communities that are majority minority, that are majority Black and brown, as being unsafe to live," Markey noted. "And it's not a coincidence... It is to scare America. You cannot make America great again by making America hate again."
Markey argued that "this is not about policing, this is about political theater," and denounced Trump's DC takeover as a "charade."
Like the lawmakers, Georgetown student Scout Cardillo suggested that the DC takeover isn't just about the district. Cardillo told The Washington Post that "the effects of the occupation of DC and federalization of MPD is going to be felt throughout the country imminently, and it is on us to take a stand and fight back."
A high-profile anti-vaxxer clashed with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) during a hearing on Tuesday after Blumenthal accused him of sharing heated rhetoric about vaccines ahead of the shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August.
Robert Malone, whom the New York Times noted "spreads falsehoods about vaccines," disrupted a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on Tuesday to respond to claims made about him. After the hearing concluded, Malone skulked around the witness table and talked loudly to the witnesses.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) then swore Malone in and allowed him to respond to claims made against him.
One claim that Malone responded to was whether a post on his Substack, Malone.News, that contained a meme suggesting vaccines are similar to the game of Russian Roulette could have inspired the shooter to attack the CDC.
"The post that you did had consequences," Blumenthal, who made the initial claim against Malone, said during the hearing.
"In your mind!" Malone interrupted.
"I'm sorry?" Blumenthal replied.
"In your mind," Malone repeated. "You made an interpretation about the post. The bulk of Americans recognize humor."
Malone's post was published on Aug. 8, the same day that a gunman fired 180 rounds at the CDC campus in Atlanta, Georgia. PBS reported that the shooter wanted to send a message about COVID-19 vaccines.
"That's a pretty threatening post, I would say," Blumenthal said.
"If you think that's threatening, then you haven't watched Netflix," Malone replied.
It was just seven months ago that FBI Director Kash Patel revealed to podcast host Joe Rogan that there was over a gigabyte of information available around the investigation of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Now Patel has disappeared, joked a panel of political and legal commentators on MSNBC.
"Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace recalled that Patel told Republicans in Congress to "put your big-boy pants on and tell us who the pedophiles are."
In her frustration, she asked how he's "managed to disappear?"
When Political analyst John Heilemann recalled that the FBI runs a witness protection program, Wallace burst out laughing: "Maybe he and Dan Bongino—"
"Yeah, he and Dan Bongino are like, 'Hey this could be some useful technology for us right now. You go into the witness.' It's probably like living in Arizona someplace."
"They always go to Arizona!" Wallace agreed.
"I just can't help but think about this — Trump saying this is now a dead issue. I'm sorry, I don't know where those guys are. They are clearly like, laying low. The 'dead issue' thing just made me think, as we sit here on the eve of the release of the 'Spinal Tap' sequel, reminds me of another movie by that great director Rob Reiner, 'The Princess Bride,' where Miracle Max, played by Billy Crystal, says that Prince Wesley, 'He might look dead, but he's not dead. He's only mostly dead, which means he's slightly alive.' I think this story is definitely in the category," said Heilemann.
"No one in their right mind who has looked at the historical record of public record doesn't already know that Donald Trump had a very close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein for a very long time," he added, noting that there wasn't much "new" that came out of the info released thus far from the files.
"And that they said a lot of scummy stuff to each other. There's just — you look at the — the pictures speak a thousand words — of them, the way that they're leering at these women on the dance floor, all of that stuff. What do we learn? Anything hugely important? No. What we learned mostly is that there's probably a lot more where that came from," Heilemann said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about domestic violence, saying that domestic violence crimes are not crimes but “made-up” statistics to undermine his work.
Leavitt was asked, “What crimes was the president referring to?” when Trump said: “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see?”
She responded that the President “wasn’t referring to crimes.”
“That’s exactly the point he was making,” she continued, “but the president is saying, and that is that these crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.”
“I think the president has every reason to believe that, given the efforts of many reporters in this room, who actively seek to undermine the president and what he’s doing in our nation’s capital,” Leavitt claimed.
“We all know that deep inside, you all agree with this,” she added, apparently referring to federal troops occupying Washington, D.C., "because you all live here, and I’m sure you are very grateful for the administration’s efforts to make the city, which we all reside in, much safer for ourselves and our families.”
“Things that take place in the home, they call crime, you know, they’ll do anything they can to find something,” he said on Monday at a meeting of his Religious Liberty Commission. “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see?”
Calling Trump’s comment “alarming,” HuffPost on Tuesday reported that Trump was “suggesting that officials in the city were unfairly manipulating crime statistics to make him look bad.”
On Monday, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law and MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst, responded to the President’s comment:
“Domestic abuse is a crime. Marital assault and marital rape are both criminal conduct and anyone who commits them should be prosecuted. Full stop.”
Leavitt claims Trump "wasn't referring to crimes" in his bizarre comments about domestic violence yesterday 🤔 pic.twitter.com/rKwQiLk9ui — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 9, 2025
CNN contributor and New York Times podcast host Lulu Garcia-Navarro warned on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is taking a "double-edged" sword to the economy, as evidenced by the latest job numbers.
The Department of Labor published data on Tuesday that revised the previous quarter's job numbers downward by 900,000, which was the largest downward revision in the agency's history. The revision came about a month after Trump removed the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner because the agency published what he described as unreliable data.
Garcia-Navarro said the data BLS published shows there are "real problems" surfacing in Trump's economy.
"To me, what's most interesting about these numbers is manufacturing," Garcia-Navarro said. "There are some real problems in manufacturing."
Trump has made it a goal of his second administration to re-establish America's manufacturing base. To that end, he has implemented numerous tariffs that seek to protect American manufacturers from foreign competition.
"This whole idea that somehow manufacturing is going to be resurgent, I think, is showing a lot of weakness," Garcia-Navarro said.
The data also adds to the growing skepticism about the state of the U.S. economy. Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. economy is in good health, although some experts like J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon have their doubts.
“I think the economy is weakening,” Dimon told CNBC on Tuesday. “Whether it’s on the way to recession or just weakening, I don’t know.”
Garcia-Navarro said part of the economic weakness is being driven by decreased federal spending.
"You're seeing a double-edged sword here, where they are actually limiting the economy in two different ways that are showing," she added. "I think the word recession is a word that we haven't seen in a while, but we might be due for it."
