This episode of IHIP News reviews a week of political news centered on Donald Trump. The hosts discuss a new Epstein files discharge petition that reached 218 signatures, which forces a House vote on a second transparency act, and they question why the first act's files have still not been released.
They also examine Trump's recent posts about Iran and Vice President JD Vance, the firing of Alina Haba from her contract, and the White House press secretary Katie Zachariah's television defense of the administration. The hosts argue that the press gives Trump undue legitimacy and that officials who embarrass themselves often double down rather than reflect.
Listeners will hear the hosts' commentary and the context they give for each story.
In this episode Angie Sullivan, Jennifer Welch
This episode's transcript on the Epstein files petition and Alina Haba's firing was made with the technology behind HappyScribe's AI meeting assistant.
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All right, MAGA, the Epstein party is going to be facing a lot of consequences when Robert Garcia takes the helm at oversight. But in the interim, there is an update on the Epstein files—pop this up—might as touch breaking: the new Epstein discharge petition just hit 218 signatures. Every Democrat signed, plus Massey, Mace, Norman, and Fitzpatrick. That forces a House vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act 2, which would let survivors and state AGs sue the Department of Justice to release the files.
Johnson cannot stop it. Justice has a very pesky way of persevering, and that is such a good thing. You know, when I saw this, I just thought, isn't it ridiculous that the Transparency Act 2 even exists? Because we still—we had a law signed into—we had a bill signed into law, Epstein Transparency 1, a year ago, and we still don't have those files.
We have a Katie Feng who is continuing to go after Todd Blanch in the release of those files. He has not done it, still, a year later. And so now we have number 2. This gives me hope, because these survivors have been discarded, they have been shamed, they have been intimidated, they have been doxxed, but they are still fighting. And AGs, now that we've had this new election and we have Democrats in positions to become AGs, there is going to be a lot more prosecutions.
And I truly believe it's going to take a long time, but justice is coming with regard to—for these survivors. And I, for one, am very grateful for all the good work that they have continued to do in pressuring these people to vote to stop protecting pedophiles.
You would think that this would be a layup. I mean, it's just—what an indictment on the Republican Party. And think about all the assholes that, after Trump went in, they show up their whole online career, like libs of TikTok, was Epstein files, Epstein files, QAnon Epstein files. Pam Bondi releases these bullshit binders, and they all show up and they're like, "We have the Epstein files." It was a nothing burger, and now they never mention it. Ever. Somebody whose whole online identity was fighting against pedophilia.
As soon as they find out the pedophiles and the people mentioned in the files work for their team, all of a sudden they selectively don't care about pedophilia anymore, which isn't that just like a larger story arc for any sort of MAGA issue? Moving along, Josh. Trump, you know, again, we're at a Thursday in America and Trump is melting down online. He is literally on a bender on LISOCIAL, and the Republicans, the media, this just gets a complete hall pass for this.
Let's just do a little check-in. Apparently, according to Ryan, it is just banger after banger after banger. He and the bunny boiler are really, really at it. Pop this up. Trump, I have asked Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the massive corruption and crime taking place in Democrat-run cities and states throughout the US. We don't need a deal with Iran. We've got their money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we've got their straight.
So, Josh.
What do you say? I mean, he's—he's crazy. We talk about corruption. Like, he's the last person that wants to bring up the words corruption right now. Did he not just see the election, the repudiation of his administration, and all of the massive corruption? We've got this Nvidia story imploding about our race with China. We've got news stories dropping. We got Eric Trump and some robot company that he's going to make—I mean, it's billions of dollars of contracts with the government.
I mean, this administration is just one big crime syndicate, one big RICO, conspiracy act, over and over and over.
But do you think he's scolding—sorry to jump in—but do you think he's scolding JD Vance for his quote, op-ed, that he opposes the war? And this is kind of a public lashing in this tweet to say, "Okay, you have to deal with this." We all know bullshit. You know, Democrat-run cities where red cities actually have higher crime rates than blue ones, but what do you think?
Yeah, I mean, it could be. And there's also this thing he posts about the war, too. Like, we don't need a deal with Iran. I mean, what does that mean? I mean, seriously, are you just ignoring the fact that it's a problem and not going to do anything? Like, he just gets up there and says this shit, and nobody asks these questions. He's just unfit. And as mad as I get, I may be unfit to cover him in the stories. Seriously, I may be him. Because I read this shit every day and I just—I just think, God, that guy's our leader and the press doesn't pick any of this stuff up.
And he's—he just lies at will just every day and nobody checks it. And anytime you interview him and he says something, you know, they two-sides it. They act like there's this president who's given this statement and then this side should give this statement. And instead, it's this fucking lunatic, this crazy person is giving this statement. So frame it like that, how he's unfit and incompetent, and then two-sides that. And it's just—it's mind-blowing how they can offer any kind of articles about him where they give him legitimacy, that he's somehow like a legitimate person, president that has real opinions.
I mean, it's fucking mind-blowing.
The irony of the whole thing is the press has manufactured consent for him. And in doing that, he is burning down their business model. He is directly going after the First Amendment. So it's a suicide mission by these people that make money in the media to manufacture this bullshit consent to a man that is now talking about wanting to incarcerate journalists and sources of journalism. So it is just this kamikaze mission that everybody around him somehow thinks he's their friend or that they have to kiss his ass.
Because here's the thing about this bully: the people who haven't kissed his ass and have taken him to court and beat his ass, he shuts the fuck up about it. And he moves on to a weaker person. He only wants to fight with the weak. And so, all right, moving in, moving along. Somebody he's really mad at for her corruption is Alina Haba. And she was so loyal to him. You know, she went to that Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, walked out to, "All I do is win, win, win." And she was, you know, dunking on everybody there.
And now she's too corrupt for Donald Trump. Pop this up. Alina Haba's $50 million contract was terminated last week. Company fired her for, quote, "failure to perform duties." She will keep $6.5 million in salary and $8 million in signing bonus. The firing came days after the Times reporting prompted a Trump outburst.
Okay, so this is just—I love this so much. I have just been deep diving on this. Okay, let's go walk down memory lane. Alina Haba was hanging out at Bedminster Golf Course, and she wanted in Trump's inner circle. So she brokered a settlement in a sexual harassment claim that now is coming before the Office of Ethics in New Jersey, and they are going to try to disbar her for her behavior at this, bringing Trump's club back into it.
So you've got that going on. Then, in my opinion, he saw she's getting $50 million and I only got a small cut of that? Are you fucking kidding me? He says we had people reach out, we had people call. He thought it was—and I wrote it down here—obnoxious and outrageous that she was representing this family. And here's the thing: this family is a prominent, wealthy Venezuelan family that the family business that the family patriarch had been indicted in Puerto Rico.
And after she started representing him, representing the family, Trump pardoned that man. So this is the most—it's just the corruption on top of the corruption. And it just goes to show loyalty is a one-way street with Donald Trump. As long as you give him enough of the cut, in my opinion, that's what he's mad about. But I also think a lot of ugly things are getting ready to come out of one of his crown jewel golf courses. And he doesn't give a shit about Alina Haba. He never has. We have said this from the beginning: women are interchangeable in the Trump administration.
You look at who is fired, you look at who he goes after, it's always the women. And Alina Haba has found herself to be at the crux of his anger now. And that makes me so delighted in every way.
Don't forget the Mike Pence rule. Men are also on the chopping block. They're the last on the chopping block.
Chopping the last one.
But it's important to remind these MAGA men, and you can look no further than to Cornin, Flake, and other Republicans who he has sent out to pasture, Massey, etc. All right, moving along. Last story here, Josh. Katie Zachariah. And you might be asking me, "Honey, I have no idea who Katie Zachariah is." And I would say.
Unfortunately, I do know who she is.
Okay, all right. So she was the White House press secretary for like a day or two. And it was just horrible. Because I think that what we're dealing with right now is his poll that he can select people from. He started Trump 2.0 with fleabag bottom feeders that are fine with, you know, fine with covering up of pedophilia, fine with him being a convicted felon, fine with the Hang Mike Pence. They're fine with all of this stuff, right? So now the first pick of the Trump 2.0, some of them are jumping ships.
So now he's at the absolute bottom feeder hiring poll. So Katie Zachariah is still swarming around, and she's going on TV to defend the Trump administration. I just—I wish somebody close to her would say, "You don't have to do this, darling." Play the clip.
How do you think the president will be coping with this open criticism of the war by his vice president?
The president has been very clear. There is not any kind of odds right now. He made those statements very clear, both in his interview and across the board. Any kind of insinuation that there's this massive division happening is not actually understanding the relationship between the president and the vice president.
Let me make a larger observation here. It seems like these people in Trump's orbit that humiliate themselves, that after they humiliate themselves, they go take victory laps. And let me bring your attention to that senator that was asking Jack Smith questions, I think. I remember how he was setting it up for him being in Atlanta.
Oh, yes.
Oh, yeah. Otherwise, I'm a Missouri hawks. And just totally bombed that fucking question and Jack Smith's answer. And what does he do? He goes on the podcast circuit immediately thereafter and proclaims victory about how he really got in Jack Smith's ass. And the same with this lady. You know, she lasted two or three days, got fired. And most people are going to kind of tuck and run a little bit and maybe fly under the radar and just kind of like go on and find another path and another career.
Not her, man. He wants to get on TV and put on a bright pink shirt and try to answer these questions and continue to spew this bullshit for Donald Trump and just double down on her idiocy.
It's remarkable.
And that's what all of them do. Instead of just like having a moment of reflection and thinking, "Man, was I really not qualified for that position? I just didn't do a very good job. How can I get better? How can I atone and learn more or be a better..." You know, they don't do that. They don't even have that thought. Instead, they just double right back down to, "You know what? I'm going to go be an idiot again. I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to share this with the world. I'm not going to learn any lesson from this."
Not going to be an idiot on private.
I'm going to display my idiocy 100%. A full stop.
When you worship Donald Trump, who every single day wakes up and is the biggest idiot imaginable, I mean, look at the reflection poll closing argument speech, the show-and-tell presentation.
Yeah, exactly.
He's modeling like this is leadership.
Doubling down.
And they do it. They follow his lead. They don't see what he did with the reflecting poll. And here we have algae, algae.
Yeah, and all of those cases they investigated with the reflecting poll, they lost. Like in court, all of it, everywhere. And so what does he do? He doubles down and has some poor son of a bitch handing pictures of algae on the day of the election or the day before. Like the craziest thing in the world.
All right, that's all we have for this episode. Make sure you're subscribed here on YouTube if that's where you're watching. Become a member if you'd like. Join us over on Substack. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and order my book, New York Times bestselling, Not Today, Fascists. And we will be back later on News.
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