Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): The day after the nothing speech

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

The day after the nothing speech

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB & THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS & THE COMMON ILLS -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

CONVICTED FELON DONALD CHUMP SPOKE TO THESE REPORTERS THIS EVENING AT THE WHITE HOUSE -- MUST CREDIT BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB & THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS & THE COMMON ILLS. HE SEEMED DAZED AS WE WERE USHERED INTO THE OVAL OFFICE. "DID YOU LIKE MY 'SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY THIRD TERM' LINE," HE ASKED.

NO, WE DID NOT. AND WE DID NOT HEAR ANYTHING NEW IN HIS SPEECH. IT WAS THE SAME NONSENSE HE'S BEEN SPOUTING FOR MONTHS AND YEARS. NOT ONE WORD WAS ABOUT BRINGING THE COUNTRY TOGETHER. HE HAD NO POLICY SUGGESTIONS, LET ALONE PROPOSALS.

THE CLOSEST YOU HAD TO A POLICY PROPOSAL WAS THE PROGRAM YOU CLAIMED THAT WOULD GIVE AMERICANS 401KS AND THAT'S SOMETHING PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN SIGNED INTO LAW IN 2022.

THAT WOKE THE SLEEPY GRUMP UP.

"I HAVE SHOWN AMERICA WHAT WINNING IS!" HE SHREIKED. "NEVER BEFORE HAS AMERICA WON! ONLY WHILE I AM IN THE WHITE HOUSE DOES AMERICA WIN!"

REALLY? WE DIDN'T WIN IN WWII? OR IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR? OR DURING THE POST-WAR ECONOMY? WE DIDN'T WIN WHEN WE CAME UP WITH VACCINES AND IMMUNIZATIONS? WE DIDN'T WIN --

"NO!" HE HISSED, TOSSING HIS HEAD BACK SO HARSHLY THAT HIS JOWLS SHOOK AND HIS COMB OVER FELL TO THE SIDE. "PEOPLE TELL ME, 'WE'RE NOT USED TO WINNING IN OUR COUNTRY UNTIL YOU CAME ALONG'."

THESE PEOPLE WHO TELL YOU THAT, WE ASKED, DO YOU SEE THEM RIGHT NOW?

"YES, I DO!" CHUMP YELLED AND POINTED TO AN EMPTY SPACE ACROSS FROM HIS DESK.

IF THE ECONOMY IS DOING SO GREAT, AS HE FALSELY CLAIMED, WHAT ABOUT SPEAKER OF THE CLOSET MIKE JOHNSON TELLING CBS NEWS YESTERDAY OF THE ECONOMY -- CHUMP'S FAILED ECONOMY -- THAT "YOU DON'T FLIP A SWITCH RIGHT AFTER THE ELECTION AND IT ALL JUST IS FIXED MAGICALLY"?

CHUMP'S EYES WENT WIDE AND HE STARTED TO SPEAK BUT SUDDENLY HIS HEAD DROPPED TO HIS CHEST, HIS EYES FIRMLY SHUT, AND HE BEGAN SNORING.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Let's start with the big news, Convicted Felon Donald Chump's actions have been covered up by Attorney General Pam da Bimbo Bondi. Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:

The Department of Justice withheld multiple documents including allegations against President Donald Trump from its release of files on alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, according to an investigation by NPR.

The Department of Justice failed to release documents relating to three interviews the FBI conducted between July and October 2019 with a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her as a child. Only the first interview, conducted on July 24, 2019, is available to the public. In that conversation, she doesn’t mention Trump at all.

However, the woman’s allegations against the president still appeared in a 21-page slideshow included in files. “[REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit,” the FBI said. “In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out.” This allegedly occurred in the mid-1980s when she was “approximately 13-15 years old.”

A record of the FBI interviews does appear in the files—on a list of discovery files given to Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell before her trial. By allowing Maxwell to retain information that the public does not have, Trump’s DOJ has enabled her to maintain potential blackmail over the president, according to independent journalist Roger Sollenberger.

Colby Hall (MEDIAITE) adds:

On Tuesday morning, NPR published a stunning report on serial numbers and discovery logs that do not line up with what the Justice Department has posted online. Some of the missing materials relate to allegations involving President Donald Trump. The department declined to explain the discrepancies.

Congress ordered the release of these files. The DOJ controls the archive. Reporters compare internal catalog numbers to public postings and find gaps. The department offers assurances but no reconciliation of the record.

The allegations are grave — they involve claims of sexual abuse of minors — and they remain unproven. FBI case files contain interviews and leads that do not automatically translate into charges. That distinction matters, and it makes the integrity of the release process more important, not less.

The Epstein rollout has been ragged from the start. Victim names were exposed and then corrected. Documents were pulled down and reposted. Privacy reviews were cited. Deadlines were blamed. Now the public learns that dozens of pages reflected in official logs are not available for review. Even if each decision has an internal explanation, the outward picture is disorder in the execution of a congressionally mandated transparency law.

Disorder produces the same practical result as concealment. The public cannot tell what is complete, what is withheld, and why. The record becomes contestable. Accountability drifts.

Last week, I argued that the Epstein file rollout carried the feel of a cover-up because the public was being asked to trust a process it could not independently verify. NPR’s reporting moves that concern from instinct to documentation. When internal logs point to pages the public cannot see, the question stops being rhetorical and becomes procedural.

There is also a political fact that cannot be ignored: This is very clearly Donald Trump’s Justice Department. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche serve at his pleasure. The release process that now appears to shield him from clarity is being overseen by officials loyal to him. That reality demands a level of precision and documentation that leaves no room for doubt.

The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued the following statement:

For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor.

Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor.

Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the President of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover up.

And the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee also issued this yesterday:

Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement after it was exposed that the Department of Justice withheld and removed some Epstein files related to allegations that President Donald Trump sexually abused a minor, a violation of both the Oversight Committee’s subpoena and the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

“For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor.

“Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice. Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes. Oversight Democrats will open a parallel investigation into this.

Under the Oversight Committee’s subpoena and the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these records must immediately be shared with Congress and the American public. Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the President of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover up,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia

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Dan Mangan (CNBC) reports it as follows:

The Department of Justice has withheld from public disclosure in its Epstein files database memos and notes about FBI interviews, including those of a woman who has alleged President Donald Trump sexually abused her when she was a minor, MS NOW reported Tuesday.

The woman, who was interviewed in July 2019 by the FBI about allegations against convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, alleged that "Trump forced her to perform oral sex on him 35 years ago, when she was 13 or 14 years old, and subsequently hit her," MS NOW reported, citing a source who has reviewed unredacted documents.

"That allegation appears in a 2025 PowerPoint presentation detailing each of the FBI's Epstein-related investigations and a spreadsheet of unconfirmed tips called into the bureau's National Threat Operations Center reviewed by MS NOW," the outlet reported. "MS NOW has found that of at least four interviews the FBI conducted with the woman related to the Epstein investigations, only one memo — and no handwritten notes — reflecting such an interview is included on the DOJ site."

MS NOW's report came hours after NPR first reported that the DOJ withheld from its public database of Epstein documents files related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor.

DOJ "also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump," NPR reported.

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