Tom Boggioni

A Guardian report documenting the struggles of immigrant children forced to assume care giving responsibilities after their parents were detained by ICE prompted criticism from Katie Miller, wife of Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

The article, published 10 days prior, highlighted how ICE arrests have removed parents who served as primary caretakers and wage earners, leaving teenagers to shoulder adult responsibilities in their absence. The headline stated, "US immigration crackdown forces teens to caretake after parents are detained."

Miller, a former Trump administration staffer who has since launched a podcast, responded on social media with, "They can also just self-deport and go with their parents. What kind of parent just abandons their children?"

Miller's comment drew backlash from social media users who noted her mischaracterization of the situation. Critics pointed out that many of the affected children are U.S. citizens born in the country, making self-deportation impossible for them regardless of their parents' circumstances.

X commenter Murray Wells pounced on the podcaster with, “Parents are just taken from streets and job sites. It’s kidnapping by ICE not abandonment by parents. They warned us about you.”

“Sorry... you're referring to parents being captured and deported as ‘abandoning their children’...?” another user, also identified as Katie, asked.

“Katie cant ever see her own lack of empathy. They came here to provide for their families and so it’s a given that they will stay in order to work and provide,” suggested Trumputin.

AutismMom shot back, “WTF is wrong with you. Those kids are citizens.”

“What kind of person cheers on the separation of families, and at the same time preaches the value of having children and starting families?” DeeBunker asked.

Dingo Johnson suggested Miller should be more concerned with new Jeffrey Epstein files revelations.

Johnson dryly suggested, “Tweet about this since you care about children so much.”

You can see Miller's X post here.

Organizers of Turning Point USA's AmericaFest, held this past weekend in Phoenix, Arizona, hoped attendees would unite around a shared vision for the organization's future.

Instead, the event revealed significant internal discord and infighting, according to a report Tuesday.

In interviews with young conservatives who attended the gathering, the New York Times documented concerns about the organization's direction following founder Charlie Kirk's death. Multiple speakers spent considerable time attacking one another rather than presenting a cohesive message.

Andrew Gilbey, a 22-year-old student, expressed frustration about the fractured leadership: "Right now, we're just seeing hostility and division at the top, ... and it's trickling down to the lower half and to the grass roots. It's creating division instead of building a movement that keeps everyone together. I mean, what direction are we going in?"

New York Times reporter Nathan Taylor Pemberton noted that while dramatic confrontations unfolded on stage, the absence of Kirk—whom his widow Erika described as the organization's "peacemaker" in her opening remarks—has normalized disunity throughout the conservative coalition.

Phoenix resident Jack Oertle, 17, voiced similar concerns: "Things are just too fiery, and it's creating so much unrest and division. We don't need it. We've been watching Democrats tear each other apart for so long and now it's happening here."

A primary source of contention centers on white nationalist Nick Fuentes, whose prominence has created divisions extending beyond TPUSA and into the Heritage Foundation and among GOP lawmakers.

The controversy left some attendees dismayed. Laiken Combs, 22, stated, "I thought we were a party of free speech, so why are we attacking other podcasters for their viewpoints?"

Others took a harder stance. Corbin Wills, 25, an Arizona Christian University student, countered, "The party is going to fall to the wayside if we let these outspoken lunatics drive things."

"It's just ugly right now.," he added.

You can read more here.

A handwritten note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein to a convicted pedophile in which he claims Donald Trump “shares our love of young, nubile girls” left a MS NOW panel almost speechless on Tuesday morning.

Towards the end of the Morning Joe” episode that had been light-hearted all morning as the holiday weekend looms, the panel became deadly serious as co-host Jonathan Lemire read from the letter, included in the freshly released Epstein files.

As Lemire told his colleagues, the letter was supposedly mailed three days after Epstein died in his prison cell where he was being held on sex trafficking charges.

Written to Larry Nassar, sentenced to 60 years in prison for abusing hundreds of children and young women during the time when he was the team doctor for the United States women's national gymnastics team, Epstein lamented that they were in jail while Trump walked free.

Epstein wrote, “As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home. Good luck! We shared one thing… our love & caring for young ladies at the hope they'd reach their full potential,” before adding, “Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab s——h,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair. Yours, J. Epstein”

Lemire cautioned viewers, “Let's just pause on this one for a second. Yeah, first of all, there's that odd mention of taking a short route home, coming just days before Epstein's death, so we can speculate as to what that could be, but also flat out says that, you know, talking about President Trump, who was in office at the time, also appreciating the virtues of young girls.”

“Yeah, and this is one of those great examples we've been asking, why wouldn't the president want this information out if he had done nothing illegal, if there was nothing proven in these documents? Here's one great example of, you know, who knows how many,” co-host Joe Scarborough replied.

“And so obviously, this is the last thing that any politician would want out there where you have two, two convicted sex offenders talking about how the president loves young women just as much as them, but they're in jail and he's not.”

“Even if he didn't do anything that appeared to be illegal in those documents, why would he do everything he could to suppress the documents from the American people, actually seeing what's in the Epstein files?” he asked.

“At minimum, deeply embarrassing and raises all sorts of questions,” Lemire conceded.

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A MS NOW segment of JD Vance’s increasingly higher profile as he apparently makes a bid to claim the MAGA mantle from Donald Trump took a humorous turn Tuesday when it was brought up that Vance once used to equate the president with Hitler.

That was when co-host Joe Scarborough mimicked Vance’s voice, making him sound mentally diminished.

After first ridiculing Vance for once falling in love with San Francisco and the New York dinner scenes before he went full-MAGA, Scarborough noted the vice president’s biggest flip-flop as his ambition grew.

“It's crazy. This guy that like, was a hedge funder and the elite, you know, darling of like elite media and the east coast establishment, now being, ... you know, maybe he's Hitler, I don't know.”

“And then this is what I love, a guy, a guy he didn't go to University of Alabama [Scarborough’s alma mater] so he can be excused for like, you know, not being that smart, but a guy that went to the schools that he went to, saying, ‘Oh, I was, I said he might be Hitler because I was fooled by the media,” the MS NOW host said, mimicking Vance as sounding slow-witted.

He then exclaimed, “Oh, come on, come on. Seriously, we're supposed to believe you're too dumb? Like you listen to the media who, by the way, quote Donald Trump and show him day in and day out saying the words himself. And he says, “Oh, I said all that stuff because the media fooled me’? I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical that that's going to wash in 2028.”

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CBS News head Bari Weiss’s decision to “spike” a “60 Minutes’ segment detailing the horrific treatment of migrants sent by President Donald Trump’s administration to a brutal maximum security prison in El Salvador looks even worse now that the video clip was leaked online.

On Tuesday morning, the hosts of “Morning Joe” revealed that they had watched it and were incredulous that it was considered incomplete and needing more work, as Weiss later complained in a memo to CBS staffers.

Co-host Joe Scarborough took the lead in raking Weiss over the coals, telling his colleagues, “Oh, come on! This is the most ridiculous thing.”

Pointing to Weiss’s highly-publicized departure from the New York Times, he added, “And I think a certain person that used to write at the New York Times complained that whenever liberal editors wanted to scrap a conservative op-ed, they would scrub every single line. And that's exactly what happened here. Except now, of course, the shoe, once again, is on the other foot.”

Co-host Willie Geist chimed in, “And of course, '60 Minutes' again and again and again approached this administration for comment. They would have loved to have all these people sit in the chair, be on camera and answer these questions. But as they say in the report, the administration declined.”

“I know you guys talked about this yesterday, but it can't be said enough that particularly '60 Minutes', but all news organizations running a piece like this, whether it's television or print, they're not ‘Whoops!’ he added. “It's just a gauntlet of weeks of lawyers and standards and reporters and editors and producers and then the executives.”

“And also the idea that part of Bari Weiss’s explanation was, ‘Well, people know about this. We need to advance the story,’ Now, first of all, journalistically that's somewhat true,” co-host Jonathan Lemire remarked. “But at the same time, these are very different audiences. Like there's a '60 Minutes' audience which is different than the New York Times audience.”

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Remarks made by President Donald Trump on Monday when asked about the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files raised eyebrows on MS NOW Tuesday.

On “Morning Joe,” the co-hosts ran a clip of the president, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, stating, “They’re asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was finished.”

He then complained that the releases should stop because “a lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein. But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody.”

That led “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough to point out that, if the president is as innocent as he claims to be, who in the upcoming releases is he worried about?

“I just want to underline again that there has been reporting from this network and others that there's nothing in the files that prove Donald Trump broke the law. Nothing. So the question is, why does Donald Trump, why does the White House continue to drag its feet? Why does the administration continue to drag its feet and keep this story alive?” he asked.

“Why don't they just release all of this, get it behind them?” he added. “Again, if Donald Trump is not in these files in a way that causes him any legal problems — again, that's been all of our reporting — then who is he trying to protect? Because he doesn't care about friends. Who is he trying to protect by continuing to drag his feet on releasing these files?”

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President Donald Trump went off on the New York Times once again in an early morning attack Tuesday — this time without even specifying what the newspaper did that set him off.

After being quiet on Truth Social all Monday, just after midnight he warned the Times “must be dealt with” at some future time.

Taking to Truth Social, he began, “The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation.”

“Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never ending way, must be dealt with and stopped,” he menaced before adding, “THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! Thank you for you attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DJT.”

The president’s outburst came hours after the Department of Justice released another batch of the Jeffrey Epstein files that have cast a cloud over his second term with growing questions about the redactions from both sides of the aisle.

You can see his post here.

Following Charlie Kirk's death, Turning Point USA leadership appears to be charting an independent course that diverges from Donald Trump's preferences regarding the 2026 midterm elections.

According to Politico, after TPUSA's AmericaFest concluded Sunday, CEO Erika Kirk and Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer have made it clear their candidate endorsements may not necessarily align with Trump's wishes. This marks a significant shift from 2024, when TPUSA reliably supported Trump's preferred GOP primary candidates.

TPUSA is actively campaigning against Republican gubernatorial candidates Karrin Taylor Robson and Rep. David Schweikert in favor of Rep. Andy Biggs. The organization is simultaneously undermining Gina Swoboda, the Arizona GOP chair running for Schweikert's House seat, despite Trump's endorsement of her candidacy.

During AmericaFest, which drew approximately 30,000 conservative attendees, Erika Kirk publicly promoted only two candidates — Biggs and Vice President JD Vance as a potential 2028 presidential alternative, while Trump remains undecided.

Bowyer attacked Trump-endorsed candidate Swoboda on social media, writing, "Gina is a self-absorbed, bloviating, low-grade politician who does little to help the movement. She has used the AZGOP to prop herself up & isn't even good at it with her anti-Trump consultant. Huge embarrassment."

Politico reported that TPUSA, based in Phoenix, appears to be establishing dominance over Arizona's state party before potentially expanding its influence elsewhere.

Conservative campaign consultant Kevin DeMenna observed, "For any candidate that wants to succeed in Arizona Republican politics, they need to make their peace with Turning Point. And by that, I mean you're either with them or you're not. But I don't think there's any narrow path in between those two options."

Campaign advisor Chris Baker questioned whether TPUSA possesses sufficient voter influence to effectively challenge established Republican officials. "Expecting any one organization to supersede the candidates in the race, and that doesn't matter if it's Dave Schweikert or Robson, expecting one organization to play the role of kingmaker in a race like this, I think is asking a lot."

You can read more here.

As offices close for the Christmas holidays, the conservative Heritage Foundation faces a significant staff exodus with the prospect that many departing employees have no plans to return.

According to the Washington Post, Heritage President Kevin Roberts, a principal architect of Project 2025, the blueprint for government that's now being implemented under President Donald Trump, acknowledged late Sunday that the organization is experiencing substantial resignations.

In an email to remaining staff, Roberts wrote, "This weekend, most of our staff, from our legal and economic centers, are departing immediately. We wish them well, though the manner of their departure speaks volumes."

The catalyst for many resignations was Roberts' defense of Tucker Carlson's interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Carlson, a fired Fox News personality, conducted the controversial discussion, which has also created divisions within Turning Point USA.

While the exact number of departing staff members remains unclear, the Washington Post reports that 13 former Heritage employees, including three in leadership positions, have been hired by Advancing American Freedom, a competing policy organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. The group announced it raised more than $10 million to fund these hires.

Heritage official Andy Olivastro attempted to frame the departures positively, stating, "Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are nonnegotiable. Their departures clear the way for a stronger, more focused team."

Heritage Guide to the Constitution editor Josh Blackman published his resignation letter on the libertarian Reason website, directly criticizing Roberts. "Your actions have made my continued affiliation with Heritage untenable. First, your comments were a huge unforced blunder, and gave aid and comfort to the rising tide of antisemitism on the right. Second, in the wake of your remarks, jurists, scholars, and advocates have made clear to me they can no longer associate with the Heritage Guide they contributed to. Third, and perhaps most tragically, your actions have weakened the ability of the storied Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies to promote the rule of law."

"My resignation is effective immediately," he added.

You can read more here.

CBS News head Bari Weiss fired back at criticism from a CBS reporter over her decision to pull a "60 Minutes" report that was expected to be critical of the Trump administration. The reporter who oversaw the segment subsequently went public and called out her boss by providing behind the scenes details about the reporting interference.

Hours before the scheduled broadcast of an investigation into the horrific experiences of migrants detained by ICE and transferred to El Salvador's CECOT prison facility, Weiss pulled the report despite its having been reviewed and approved multiple times by the network's legal team and Standards and Practices office.

Weiss initially justified the decision by claiming the report lacked a response from the Trump administration. However, the reporter indicated that a response had been requested, but not provided by the administration.

The spiking of the story led the reporter Sharyn Alfonsi to send an email to her colleagues stating, “Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a 'kill switch'' for any reporting they find inconvenient."

Faced with widespread criticism, which has been a hallmark of her tenure since she was hired to head the news division despite her lack of qualifications, Weiss fired back at Alfonsi during a staff conference call on Monday morning.

According to Justin Baragoina of The Independent, Weiss “lashed” out and began, ”The only newsroom that I'm interested in running is one where we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest of editorial matters, and do so with respect."

She then offered, “I held that story because it wasn't ready. The story presented very powerful testimony of abuse in CECOT, but that testimony has already been reported... The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison... we simply need to do more."

“We need to be able to make every effort to get the principals on the record and on camera. To me, our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else. And that is my North Star, and I hope it's the North Star of every person in this newsroom.” she added.

A last-minute decision by CBS News chief Bari Weiss to ”spike” a “60 Minutes” segment that was expected to be critical of the Donald Trump administration was hammered on MS NOW on Monday morning, with the entire ‘Morning Joe” panel expressing a mixture of disgust and alarm.

Hours before the heavily promoted segment on migrants who were yanked off the streets by ICE agents and then unceremoniously shipped to a prison in El Salvador, known for brutality and horrific conditions, was to air, CBS announced it would be postponed.

Later in the day, Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who created the report, sent a note to her colleagues, pointing the finger at the controversial Weiss, who critics say got her job — despite a lack of qualifications — by becoming a conservative darling criticizing “cancel culture.”

According to Alfonsi, ”Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

She also added that Weiss wanted the producers to get comments from Trump advisor Stephen Miller and that the story should not run until the White House or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided comments.

However, as Alfonsi wrote, the Trump administration had been asked for comment and refused to respond.

That led the 60 Minutes journalist to write, “If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interviewed,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.”

According to Weiss, “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”

Not one member of the MS NOW panel bought the CBS boss’s excuses.

According to Mika Brzezinski, she worked on similar segments like Alfonsi’s when she was employed by CBS News after the 9/11 attack, and there is no one way that the prison story was not heavily scrutinized before being approved for broadcast by the lawyers.

“I’ve been there and those screenings, personally, I worked there, they are a living hell,” she said. “It is the most rigorous, most difficult process, it is an important process, and every frigging word, every frame of video is picked apart by editors to make sure they are correct.”

“I mean, they promoted it “she added.

”Bllionaires are compromising the most important journalistic institutions we have left in this country,” panelist Pablo Torre observed. “The game is obvious, and in this case, Bari Weiss, who was, by the way, not a reporter, not a journalist, is cosplaying as one and is poisoning the well of one of the last bastions of investigative reporting that gets funded.”

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A year into his second term, Donald Trump has undergone a major change in “tactics” as he deflects questions about his policies — and it's an indication that he is now “just running on fumes," an analyst wrote Monday.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte pointed out that the president has developed an over-reliance on deflecting questions while claiming he is not up to speed on the topic or person he is being asked about, and that often begins with, “I don’t know...”

That is a change from his previous deflections, where he promised everything would sort itself out in “two weeks.”

According to the columnist, Trump’s ignorance act could be just that, but she wrote that it is surprising for a man who has always boasted that he is an expert on everything.

“The president’s willingness to play the stupidest man alive is telling, because he is also a narcissist who has spent his entire adult life demanding that people believe he is the smartest, most handsome, most perfect person who has ever walked the face of the planet,” she wrote. “He’s dubbed himself a ‘super genius’ who understands every topic under the sun — including money, trade, history, international relations, travel, the military, ISIS and spycraft — better than anyone else.”

Noting that now the president, “just says ‘I don’t know’ until people stop asking,” she suggested, “The purpose of this gambit is to deflect accountability for his growing pile of failures, corruption and scandals. But the cumulative effect is to paint a picture of a man who is profoundly, almost impossibly, dim-witted.”

While admitting his latest way of deflecting questions is frustrating, she added there is a “silver lining” attached to it.

“Even Trump himself seems to be getting tired of his own tactics. He can’t manage to work up the energy for a more convincing deflection. He’s bored and tired, his polls are falling and, with three years left, his second term already feels like it’s running on fumes,” she wrote before conceding, “It’s a small thing, but one of the many green shoots suggesting that, while this is not the end of MAGA, it may very well be the end’s beginning.”

You can read more here.

Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche did the president no favors with his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday when he stumbled while trying to describe the women who were seen in a picture with Trump that was in Jeffrey Epstein’s possession, analysts said.

The now-controversial photo was in the big Epstein drop from the Department of Justice on Friday, was yanked from public view hours later, only to reappear again on Sunday after the removal started a firestorm.

Blanche, in his capacity as deputy attorney general, attempted to explain the DOJ’s actions, but only threw more fuel on the fire, claimed “Morning Joe” co—hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Scarborough first noted that Blanche called what the DOJ is doing with regard to releasing the files of the notorious sex trafficker an act of “transparency.”

“I wrote it down here because this is going to come back,” the MS NOW host said. “And this is a real laugher: ‘This is the most transparent process in U.S. history,’ he says, when it's of course, it's the least transparent.”

“And then, I’m really very concerned for Todd Blanche, because Todd Blanche seemed to suggest that Donald Trump was in a picture of victims, of Epstein victims, when he said, we only took down Donald Trump's picture because we didn't want to expose the faces of victims.”

“Oh my gosh,” Brzezinski blurted.

“Let’s chew on that again," Scarborough continued. “He said they had — why is everybody making such a big deal? We were trying to protect victims of Jeffrey Epstein when we took Donald Trump's picture off the files.”

“I don't know, if I were Donald Trump, I'd be very angry that Todd Blanche accused him of being with Epstein victims when there's no evidence of that whatsoever,” he suggested.

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A decision to have Donald Trump address the nation this past week that ended up being poorly received led a panel of New York Times columnists to suggest his White House brain trust is ineffectively managing him.

On Wednesday, the president gave a notably short 18-minute prime time speech that fell flat with supporters, including conservative broadcaster David Brody, who complained, ”That was a waste of time.”

Additionally, the president was ridiculed for shouting his way through it as he blamed his travails on his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

Using a pool report that the president turned to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles afterward and asked how he did and she reportedly replied,”‘I told you 20 minutes and you were 20 minutes on the dot,” the Times columnists wondered what game the White House is trying to play.

During the New York Times podcast with columnists Jamelle Bouie, Michelle Cottle and David French, Cottle observed, “One of the things that sort of struck me — the morning-after coverage of this, some media person who was in the room was saying that Trump looked to Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, and asked how he did. And she’s like: Well, I told you 20 minutes and you were spot on, so well done. So I got the sense that they had handed him this thing and told him to keep it short.”

After suggesting, “So I am just not sure what they’re hoping to accomplish with that, other than maybe to increase the calls for him to get another cognitive assessment,” she joked, “But I thought it was pretty magical.”

According to Bouie, “Well, I think that the aim is just to give him something to do. You put him out there to give this 20-minute harangue, and then you tell him it was great and everyone loved it and this’ll turn things around, and then he just goes back to going to his clubs and hanging out in the Oval Office.”

“Are you just suggesting they’re trying to keep Grandpa busy?” Cottle quipped to which her colleague replied, “I think they’re trying to keep Grandpa busy, and this is one way to do it.”

You can listen to their podcast here.

Sen Chris Coons (D-DE) sent the hosts and producers of MS NOW’s “The Weekend” scrambling after he pointed to a photo of a check from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein in payment for a woman that was included in the just-released Epstein files.

Brought on to talk about the Department of Justice’s foot-dragging of the files release in violation of a congressional order, Coons said just before he came on for his interview that he saw mention online about a $22,00 check from the president to sex trafficker Epstein.

“There were some new photos released of different powerful men in and around the company of Epstein,” the senator told the hosts. “One thing that I hadn't seen before was the sort of big fake check of $22,000 to Epstein from Trump, with some reference to having sold a girl. I do think there's more here, and it's worth more investigations to get to the bottom of this and put this to rest and respect the victims.”

“Senator, I'm sorry. That last claim that you just made. Would you mind expanding on that a little bit?” a concerned Jackie Alemany asked as co-host Eugene Daniels appeared shocked.

“I literally just saw this in an online search as I was coming to this interview about what's new in the Epstein files,” Coons admitted. “My impression from a brief review of several articles was that there was a photo of a fake check, the sort that's given at big events at what I think was Epstein's 50th birthday party by President Trump. I probably should be better grounded in citing that, but it was one of the things I don't remember having heard about before.”

“Got it. Okay,” the MS NOW host responded. “And our producer is saying there is a check in the files. We just we are not able to speculate further about the context of that check.”

The photo of the check in question appears to be one released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee back in September that set off a wave of outrage at the time.

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