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Hey, everybody. It's Tuesday, I think. Is it Tuesday, Riley? Yeah. Wait, yeah. Yeah, okay. Tuesday. We concur. It's Tuesday. And this is DSR Daily, and I'm David Rothkoff, and that was Riley Fessler, and somewhere out there is Minnestine. Are you out there, Minnestine? Somewhere. Somewhere. So here we are to walk you through a few of the big stories of the day and throw in our two cents. So shoot, somebody. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have rejected a White House counterproposal on Homeland Security funding, labeling it incomplete for failing to address demands for stricter ICE oversight. The negotiations are fueled by the recent failed shootings of two protesters by federal agents in Minneapolis, prompting Democrats to seek new use-of-force standards, judicial warrant requirements, and an end to racial profiling. With a partial government shutdown looming this Saturday, Republicans remain resistant to these demands, citing concerns over agent safety while proposing their own measures, such as proof of citizenship requirements for voting. If no agreement is reached, funding for critical agencies like FEMA and the TSA could collapse, potentially mirroring the travel disruptions seen during previous lengthy government closures. Yeah, I mean, first of all, you know, agent safety. I mean, is it that ICE agents are actually being shot or injured? I don't recall that. I think it was actually us that has to be protected from them because they're a bunch of undertrained thugs with anger issues and weapons. But leave that aside. Do I think this will come out? Well, no, I don't. Will there be a shutdown? I don't know. We'll talk about that in some of our other pods this week. But I do think that at the end of the day, the solution will be inadequate. I'm still skeptical. I know Dems are being tough now. That's happened before in the past. I also want to keep my eye on that thing that was buried in Riley's little statement there, which he referred to as requiring proof of citizenship for voting, which is the SAVE Act, which is going to make it harder for millions and millions of people to vote. And it's designed to do that because, you know, the theory on the GOP side is that it'll keep away sort of core Democratic voters who don't have the resources or the means to go get a passport, go get a new birth certificate, that kind of thing. And it's incredibly pernicious, one of the most grotesque examples of voter suppression we've seen. So you've got to keep an eye on that one, too, because the Republicans are scared out of their mind at what the outcome of this election will be. Because right now, if the election were held today, they'd lose the House, they'd probably lose the Senate. And the new Congress would start attempting to reverse many of the things that were done here. Would Trump veto? Probably. Would some of the vetoes be overridden? That remains to be seen. But it will certainly be a different world. And they are petrified. It's February. We are nine months away. And this is going to heat up. You know, I mean, this is going to surpass the ICE story, although we must always remember that the ICE story is partially a story of giving the president a predicate for sending troops into the street to suppress voting that way. And Steve Bannon he of the Epstein files has already stated that that was a strategic call Okay, that was too long a response to a first story, so I'll try to be concise here. The U.S. said it struck a vessel allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people and leaving one survivor, marking the second such strike in four days. The Trump administration argues the renewed boat strikes resumed in late January after a brief pause are necessary to curb illicit drug flows with dozens of strikes in September, killing at least 120 people. Critics, including Colombian President Gustavo Petro, have condemned the operations as potential war crimes, citing civilian injuries and deaths. Yeah, I mean, you know, there is this sort of fundamental principle that we as a country were founded on, which is that everybody deserves due process and that the United States, you know, believes in that idea and that we don't just put people to death summarily because we don't like the way they look or we don't like the shape of their boat or we don't like where their boat has gone. even if they are trafficking in drugs. The penalty for trafficking in drugs is not the death penalty. So this is wrong on every level. It's wrong with foreign policy. It's wrong legally. It's wrong morally. And that's why they're doubling down on it, because they somehow think that it makes them look tough to their base, or perhaps it provides a story to distract from Epstein or cratering economy or the fact that they have no other agenda. Whatever it is, it's wrong on every level, and it doesn't achieve anything positive on any level. Top immigration officials are set to testify before Congress this week regarding the Trump administration's controversial enforcement operations in Minnesota, which have faced intense scrutiny. While the administration recently withdrew 700 officers from the region, local leaders and lawmakers remain critical of the aggressive tactics that have reportedly swept up illegal refugees and residents without criminal records. Republican committee leaders hope the testimony will provide a much-needed transparency to turn the temperature down on frequent violent clashes between federal officers and protesters. Won't have that effect at all. It'll just turn the temperature up between the critics of the president and the members of his administration, because undoubtedly they will say, well, why don't you take off your masks? And they'll say, well, we'll be doxed. And then they'll say, well, why don't you, you know, not shoot civilians? And they'll say, well, the civilians pose a threat if they get in our way. And we'll go through this discussion around and around. And then, you know, possibly, I mean, Pam Bondi is going to be going up to the hill soon. You know, we know what they do. We know what Besant did. We know what other members of the administration do when they go up. And that is, if they don't have an answer that they think is a, you know, adequate pushback to the questions they're getting, they'll just attack these people who are asking the questions. They'll just do oppo research on Democrats and try to change the subject or not answer the question. So these things end up being a bit of a circus, not super constructive. Does that mean the conversation should not be held? No, it should be held. I'm just trying to set your expectation in the right place. A classified whistleblower complaint alleges the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, withheld top-secret intelligence for political reasons, but two inspectors general found the key allegation not credible and said the complaint did not meet the legal standard for an urgent concern. concern. Gabbard's general counsel warned the whistleblower's attorney against directly briefing Congress due to the risk of illegally disclosing classified information, even as lawmakers received redacted copies of the complaint months after it was filed. Democrats criticized the long delay and seek further scrutiny, while Republicans back Gabbard, who denies wrongdoing and says she acted appropriately, once told the complaint had been shared, had to be shared. Yeah, I mean, you know, this administration has no credibility in these matters. The main thing that this administration does is obstruct justice and cover up the crimes and the missteps of its own members and the friends of the administration, you know, drug dealers and white collar felons and January 6th insurrectionists and the like. And, you know, that is why no matter what Gabbard says, nobody is going to believe her. The assertion that seems to be circulating out there about what this complaint is, is that somebody close to the administration was providing information to or in contact with the foreign government in a way that was inappropriate. and that does sound like the kind of thing that is appropriate for whistleblower's complaint. I haven't seen the evidence. I don't know who the two inspectors general were who looked at it. By the way, Minna, I was really happy that you did say inspectors general instead of inspector generals, like attorneys general. It's a little nuanced, but here inside the Beltway, it the kind of thing that makes everybody smile quietly to themselves Anyway meanwhile Tulsi Gabbard is involved in an effort involving the president to try to suggest that the 2020 elections were stolen That's bad. But I do want to remind everybody, that's not the purpose of the effort. Yes, Trump can't get over the 2020 election. He can't believe that Joe Biden beat him. but that's not the issue here. If they can prove or if they can allege in some kind of credible way or if they can find a shred of evidence or even if they can't find a shred of evidence and their assertions are credible, they will make assertions that foreign governments are trying to manipulate the election and that therefore the government, the federal government should take over and control these things and once again put their thumb on the scale to help offset public revulsion at the policies of this administration and guide the November election away from the result that would be the result of a free and fair election. This is Tulsi Gabbard's main job right now. It's also, I think, Pam Bondi's main job right now. Right now, everybody is circling the wagons for an assault on voting rights in the United States like we have never seen. And I say that knowing full well that for years we denied voting rights to people of color. For years longer, for well over a century, we denied voting rights to women. So it's not like we have a perfect record on that. but it does seem like this administration wants to make us travel backwards in time. shopify.nl it's time to see what you can accomplish with shopify by your side starting a business can be overwhelming you're juggling multiple roles designer marketer logistics manager all while bringing your vision to life shopify helps millions of business sell online build fast with templates and ai descriptions and photos inventory and shipping sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl that's shopify.nl it's time to see what you can accomplish with shopify by your side starting a business can be overwhelming you're juggling multiple roles designer marketer logistics manager all while bringing your vision to life shopify helps millions of business sell online build fast with templates and ai descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. U.S. lawmakers Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey have accused the Department of Justice of improperly redacting millions of pages of Jeffrey Epstein's files, claiming the FBI scrubbed documents earlier this year in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. While Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asserts a commitment to transparency and has begun restoring some non-victim names, lawmakers remain critical of the omission of high-profile individuals they believe are incriminated within the files. The release has also drawn fierce backlash from survivors and, after some documents, inadvertently exposed victims' personal information and photos, an error DOJ attributed to technical and human mistakes. Remember the survivors, folks? Remember the people who were attacked? By the way, they took unredacted copies of the Epstein files that have been released, and they made them available to members of Congress yesterday in a closed room, only on a computer. and the congressmen could not bring their staff or the congresspeople could not bring their staff. But coming out of those discussions, we've heard even more heinous assertions that some of the girls that were attacked, some of the girls that were exploited and abused, some of the girls who were raped were 14, 13, 12, 10, nine years old. So let's try to focus back here, okay? focus back not on the legal pulling back and forth or the games that are being played, but on the fact that for most of the past 15 years, 19 years now, this effort has been organized by our government or tolerated within our government, Democrat and Republican administrations alike. at protecting the powerful people involved and not getting justice for these women. And it's time they got justice. It's time the truth came out. It time those who were involved were held accountable If there are expired statutes of limitation they should also be held accountable to court public opinion It time And it doesn seem to be going away Even as yesterday, Jelaine Maxwell went to the Congress, went through an exercise by which she pleaded the fifth and divulged no information and then said, but I would be happy to provide information if I am given clemency. And in that case, I could provide the kind of information that would show that, for example, the president is not culpable. Now, this is a notorious sex trafficker who lied repeatedly to the FBI, who is now saying, I will say whatever Donald Trump wants if he gives me a pardon. Ro Khanna or other members of Congress talking about this yesterday also noted that she shows no remorse. She doesn't think she did anything wrong. She deserves to be in jail for the rest of her life. Well, here we are Tuesday. It's warming up a little bit here, I'm told. They're in the D.C. area, so perhaps we'll be out of the deep freeze for a while. And that will be just in time for all of you to go out and do your Valentine's Day shopping. Riley, have you done your Valentine's Day shopping? I have. And does your girlfriend listen to this podcast? Yes. Sometimes. So I'm not willing to disclose. You're not willing to disclose? No. The puppy. The puppy you got her. The big, giant St. Bernard puppy that you thought was the perfect Valentine's Day gift? Now you've ruined it. Oh, sorry. I thought we agreed not to talk about that on air. Yeah, I'm sorry. Wouldn't that be a hilarious Valentine's Day? Not just a puppy, but a St. Bernard puppy? I think there's a certain person out there who would really love that. But in general, I would say probably better to play it safe on Valentine's Day. Yeah, probably. It's a bad idea. Minna, take this. Write this down. No St. Bernard puppies. Already written down. Filed away. In our meeting notes. Yeah. And do you do, because you introduced me to this term, are you celebrating Galentine's Day, Minna? I am celebrating Galentine's Day. I sent all of my Valentine's Day cards out to all of my girlfriends. So I'm a big fan of celebrating Galentine's Day and Valentine's Day. And any day that gives me an opportunity to tell the people in my life that I care about them and that they're amazing. So any day that gives me that opportunity, I'm doing it. I love liberals. Don't you love liberals? They're just so full of love. They're like Bad Bunny. But is Galentine's Day Friday the 13th? I'm just like Bad Bunny, and I appreciate you saying that because not a lot of people have been saying that since this. I think you're just like Bad Bunny. And to be honest with you, we should all be more like Bad Bunny. I mean, I think that would be an aspiration. But just one last question on this because I'm ignorant and old. Galentine's Day, is that the day before? Yeah, it's the 13th. Friday the 13th? Yes. Not every year, though. Yeah, well, this year, it's Friday the 13th. I know that. Every day this year is Friday the 13th. Oh, Friday. Now, there's a sequel to a series of movies that could have a big orange murderer in it. Did you see the AI version of Melania that was circulating out there? No. It's kind of a Melania as a horror movie with like, it's very like weird, but in some ways kind of great. Google it. All right. Sorry, folks. We don't usually recommend AI slop here, but occasionally if it's funny. And we'll go look for more today. and we will also be teeing up and doing other podcasts. We've got our political team coming in to talk about where we are at this moment, what to worry about, the SAVE Act and everything else, Simon Rosenberg and Tara McGowan. We've got our Deep State Radio coming. We've got Words Matter coming. We did a great civil consciousness yesterday, which I encourage everybody to listen to. There's more on AI energy and climate. There's the Daily Blast every day. There's so much. I mean, let's be honest. You don't need the rest of the media if you have the DSR network. You just don't. You just don't. You don't have to go and be scrolling all day. You could just listen to our stuff while you're in the gym getting healthier and have all this other free time to, like, write poetry or stuff. Take care of your St. Bernard. Well, that's it for us today. Thank you, Raleigh. Thank you, Minow. Bye-bye. bukan
