ICYMI: Today in Politics, Bulletin 482. 10/16/26

                                                                                                                                       

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Today in Politics, Bulletin 482. 10/16/26 Ron Filipkowski Oct 16 … After disastrous appearances on Sean Hannity and Fox & Friends over the course of 12 hours following her embarrassing press conference where she took 3 questions, Trump has fired press secretary Katie Zacharia after just 5 days. … The writing was on the wall when Hannity started the interview with his Trump Admin Exit Interview Voice, then started playing music over her to get her off the air when it became obvious after a few minutes that rehabilitating her was a lost cause. Hannity is Trump’s unofficial Chief of Staff, and the Orange Menace was certainly watching the train wreck play out. Hannity: “You had your first moment as press secretary. It’s been widely panned. It only lasted 14 minutes. You took 3 questions. You took the bar but didn’t pass, is that correct. Zacharia: Correct.” Zacharia: “I feel I really stepped up to the plate with very little prep time. I received briefing materials that morning. Then I delivered some breaking news - I’m one of the first press secretaries to deliver staff changes. I feel I did my very best to deliver for the American people.” Hannity: “Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better? Zacharia: I was on the job for one day so instead of taking questions I probably should have stepped aside but instead I delivered breaking news.” Zacharia: “They have said I only took questions from conservative outlets. However, The Daily Mail is not known to be a conservative outlet or friendly to conservatives.” (The DM reporter she called on is a former Fox reporter). Zacharia: “I moved to China where I did get a job in an international practice of a Chinese law firm. I was doing cross country border transactions and multimillion dollar shareholder agreements. Hannity: I know that part. But did you ever take the bar exam a second time? Zacharia: I did not. “ Hannity: “You said you consulted with many people and they advised you it was okay to call yourself a lawyer but not an attorney, correct? Zacharia: Correct. Hannity: There’s a report out tonight that showed 15 social media posts where you identify yourself as an attorney. Zacharia: I think they were retweets and I corrected the record and said it’s not endorsing the title, they were retweets of a title that had been given.” Hannity: “Why get in this drawn out definition of an attorney and a lawyer? Why didn’t you just say I never practiced law? Zacharia: When I moved back from the US, it was never my intent to go in to the practice of law. When I went to engage in media and give legal analysis I consulted attorneys on whether I could be labeled a lawyer. I wasn’t being paid for legal advice. I was giving a general review of the legal circumstances surrounding it.” Hannity: “Why did you only take only 3 questions and what will you do differently next time. Z: I will absolutely be very well prepared on the briefing. I do love questions. I would love to build a relationship with all of those members of the press (the producer starts playing music to get her off) so there is a substantive component for having an ability for us to interact. And I will be very prepared, Sean, and I will step up to the duty of President Trump has asked me to for the country.” … The camera then showed Hannity with his head down looking defeated: “Alright, we wish you the best of luck in your new position.” … Then she did an interview with Fox & Friends this morning while speaking outside the WH: Q - “When is the next press briefing? Zacharia: “I will be working in close coordination with the communications dept to determine when the best next time for a press briefing is and I’m really looking forward to working with the press and everyone here and it’s really a true privilege and I am excited to do it and it’s gonna be a wonderful journey and we have a lot to look forward to as a country and there is no better president to work for than President Trump because he’s just the most hardworking incredible man and I’m grateful to be here.” Q - “Do you still have the confidence of the president? Zacharia: I’m standing here and I hope to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.” Q - “Do you wish you had disclosed to the president about not passing the bar? Zacharia: Those questions weren’t asked.” Q - “One of the biggest challenges for Republicans is the inflation rate and gas prices. Inflation is up 3.7%, and gas is up 9%. Zacharia: I would urge Americans to be patient. Trump is doing everything he can.” “The legacy media wants the focus on me because they want to be distracted from the major wins Trump is making for America.” … Zacharia also did an interview with right-wing media outlet Human Events where she was asked who her greatest political influence was growing up: “The entire fountain of my conservative upbringing was Rush Limbaugh.” … Then Trump’s press gaggle outside the WH a few hours later: Q: “Would you have liked to have known that Katie Zacharia didn’t pass the bar? Trump: Katie has been treated very badly by the media. Very very badly. Very unfair. I just asked her, is this for you? And she’s a nice person. I’m going to let her make that decision. Sean Hannity was a little bit tough. Katie is off to a start that, the news has been so nasty to her. I told her, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider.’ Maybe it’s not for her.” "I told Katie that in my opinion she was treated very very unfairly by the news. Let's call it the fake news. I said, 'Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this.' We're talking about doing something. I want her to have a good life. She's being brutalized by the media." … Laura Loomer posted: “Here me out. Press Secretary Laura Loomer.” … WH Communications Director Steve Cheung posted this two days ago: Q: “You said you're gonna put some of your own money into the ballroom. Are you? Trump: I may do that. When they run out, I'll be there, okay?” … Records show that Trump hasn’t paid a single dollar out of his own pocket for the ballroom, despite repeatedly insisting that he was going to pay for it when the project was announced. But if you go to a Trump rally the attendees will insist that he paid for the whole thing. Q: “Was it you or was it Elon Musk who decided to temporarily pause Starlink access for the Ukrainian military? Trump: I don't know if it was anybody, because it wasn't me, and I don't think it was Elon.” Q: “If it wasn't you, then who gave the order for Starlink to go down in Ukraine? Trump: I don't know. I think it’s the same, I’m pretty sure it never came down. It’s the same as it always has been.” … Zelenskyy: “I told Trump: If you enable Starlink access inside Russia, we can quickly destroy their ballistic missile launchers. Putin would come to the negotiating table, and I wouldn’t need to destroy a single energy facility. But instead, they shut down Starlink. They didn’t expand coverage - they restricted it.” Q: “You want Zelenskyy out. Have you forgotten that Putin started the war? Trump: Well, you know, I know the details, okay? And at some point I'll release the details. I want that war ended.” … Zelenskyy responded: “We don’t use Starlink for our responses inside Russia. We use Starlink to intercept jet-powered ‘shaheds’ that attack our civilians and kill families. Starlink wasn’t turned off – its speed was reduced. And when the speed was reduced, we were unable to intercept a certain number of jet-powered ‘shaheds.’ We couldn’t use a tool that helps protect people. That’s very painful and frustrating. … We also use Starlink for mid-range strikes against enemy military targets in our temporarily occupied territories. We couldn’t do that when the restrictions were in place. And third, what matters most is people. Our warriors, who spend weeks and months on the front line, receive food and water delivered by drones using Starlink. … Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is it being restored now? Yes.” We have lifted the paywall on all our content for 6 weeks leading up to the midterms. Normally about the first third of these daily Bulletins are available to free subscribers. Everyone can also participate in the comments below. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I’m off Saturdays and will be back with the Bulletin in Sunday night recapping the entire weekend. We are heading out on our last fall foliage tour of the year before the rest of the leaves drop and we gear up for winter. A crisp clear day is in the forecast so it should be fun. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribed … Trump sat down for a one-on-one interview with Newsmax: “I watched an interview of a young woman the other day from Ukraine. And she said, ‘President Zelenskyy has destroyed our country. Zelenskyy has taken our men away from us. Our men have no legs, no arms. Our men in many cases in mental institutions or they’re dead.’” … He’s talking about former Ukrainian TV host Diana Panchenko, who has been sanctioned in Europe for spreading Russian propaganda. Q - Are our weapons stocks low because of the Iran War? Trump: It wasn’t what I did with Iran it was what Biden did with Ukraine. They gave Zelenskyy massive amounts of Patriots and Tomahawks.” On the Russian invasion: “Had the general not made a wrong turn onto farmland instead of going on a concrete highway it would have ended in one day.” … WSJ chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov: “I have been thinking about why Trump has this obsession with trashing Ukraine’s valor in the spring of 2022, when Ukrainians defeated the Russian armies around Kyiv and forced a withdrawal from northern Ukraine, essentially securing the country’s independence. … Why does he keep insisting that it only happened because Russian tanks took some mythical wrong turn and got stuck in the mud? I think the answer is that if you are convinced that Russia is invincible by definition and that Ukraine must surrender to make your life easier, then you just can’t accept the notion that Ukraine has managed to defeat Russia in the existential battle of Kyiv in Feb-March 2022. … Because accepting this fact also means accepting that Ukraine has cards, and that its defeat in the war is not preordained, no matter how desirable.” “It should end soon. I find Zelenskyy to be more difficult to deal with than Putin. Zelenskyy is not a good guy for us to deal with. I’m not a big fan of Zelenskyy. They’ve destroyed that country.” … Former Rep. Tom Malinowski: “Zelenskyy followed the sensible advice of pro-Ukraine Republicans - flattered and thanked Trump, agreed to all his crazy ideas (like the mineral deal), praised peace talks that were obviously going nowhere. And still got screwed. So not sure what he’s supposed to do here.” Q - “Are you going to pardon members of your admin: “I’m allowed to do a self-pardon. I don’t want to see people that work for me go through years of nonsense having to hire lawyers and everything else.” … Univ of CA professor Branislav Slantchev: “The demented clown is so deep in his lies that he can’t make them even remotely believable. This asshole is trying to pin all the failures of his own idiotic policies on Ukraine. What a pathetic weasel: Fact: the US didn’t send a single Tomahawk to Ukraine. We used over 1,000 - about a third of our inventory - against Iran. Fact: the Ukrainians did not sell Western weapons. These absurd claims were explicitly debunked when they surfaced about Mexican drug cartels having US military weapons. These came from US storage facilities and have nothing to do with Ukraine. Fact: We did not send $350 billion in weapons and cash to Ukraine. Even after allowing for the fact that the valuation of the old equipment that was gathering moths in storage, some of it to be decommissioned soon, was just accounting (since it was paid for a long time ago), we sent less than $150 billion. The cash component was much, much less, and it went to support the budget to keep basic govt functions running.” … WaPo: “WH aides, who have kept clashes muted during Trump’s second term, have begun jostling more openly for power as they brace for widespread midterm election losses and internal upheaval, according to interviews with 20 staffers, advisers and people close to the president. The interviews paint a picture of infighting that has started to resemble the pitched battles of Trump’s first term. … Believing that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles might step down after the election, a handful of Trump aides, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, top housing official Bill Pulte and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, have begun angling for the position should it become available. … The past week in the WH has been ‘the new Wild Wild West,’ one Trump ally said. The jockeying started in earnest last week after Trump first reached out to Katie Zacharia about joining the admin as the new WH press secretary, a move he made without consulting Wiles. The unilateral action by the president was viewed internally as undermining Wiles. … Trump has also vented about the midterms and the two outside advisers quarterbacking his political strategy, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, who are close allies of Wiles. Among those who have been in contact with Trump is former aide Corey Lewandowski, a fierce rival of Wiles’s, who is supportive of Pulte.” … JD Vance was campaigning in MI against Abdul El-Sayed: “You deserve better than a little weasel who should shut his mouth and show a little gratitude to the country that gave him everything.” … El-Sayed responded: “You know, it’s funny. JD Vance called me a little weasel today. I’m like, no, no, no. What you’re talking about is a fucking Wolverine. You could take your Buckeye and go shove it somewhere else. Here, we might be Wildcats, we might be Spartans, we might be Wolverines, but we will never be Buckeyes.” “Vance was just in MI. He had a cute little rally in Monroe. He invited the 5 people who like him. But imagine being the candidate for MI and having to invite somebody from OH to campaign for you.” “At his little rally, he wanted to raise questions about my commitment to America. And let me tell you, nobody understands how deep and profound the gift of this country is like a kid who was born here but for the accident of history that allowed that to happen. I got a front-row seat to what my life might have been had I not been born in America.” “So don’t lecture me about America. I know America. And I know that in America we’re big enough to guarantee health care to our people rather than taking it away. In America, we’re big enough to invest in unions rather than busting them. In America, we don’t tell people what to believe. We value their beliefs. In America, we don’t question the outcomes of democratic elections.” … Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson had another debate last night in the Maine senate race: Q: “Do you regret voting to confirm RFK Jr? Collins: No. He was very helpful in expediting the release of the low income heating assistance program.” Q: “Can you name a time when you voted against your party and Trump and it changed the outcome? Collins: At one point, I had organized people to vote against Secretary Hegseth. As you undoubtedly have read, at the very last minute one of our Republicans changed his mind. Otherwise he would've been defeated for that job. Moderator: So it didn't change the outcome.” Jackson: “Here’s what I know - 100% of the time when Donald Trump needs Susan Collins for a vote, he gets it.” Jackson: "Elon Musk is running ads for you. In fact, they're running ads in Portland, OR, for you. But you also got an ad where you use a Teamster official saying that he supports you. He's asked you for a cease and desist." Jackson on his campaign financial report: “We had over 200,000 people that gave to our campaign. I had to make sure that this report was done right. It was my first one. I don’t have Trump getting me out of investigations like you do.” Q - Make the case for why the country would be better off if Democrats took over the senate. Jackson: We wouldn’t be doing tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country. We wouldn’t be putting $70B in ICE, they’re actually murdering people. We wouldn’t be doing insane trade wars that cripple our economy. We wouldn’t be in Iran, blowing up our fuel prices. People are going to start losing their businesses, losing their homes because of Republicans doing what Trump wants.” … Washington Sun reported that his latest finance report shows that Sen. Mitch McConnell has refused to spend a single dollar from his PAC to help Republican candidates in the midterms. The retiring senator has $7.4 million in his PAC and does not seem to have any intent to help Republican candidates with it in 2026. … Cook Political shifted 11 more House seats towards Democrats: “Half of our latest House ratings changes, all of which are shifting toward Democrats, are in OH, NE and KS - 3 states that, for the same reasons, also have competitive Senate races.” … NYT: “Young Voters Turn Their Backs On Trump and His Party. In 2024, more than half of young men - 55% - supported Trump, a dramatic departure from past elections when young Americans largely supported Democrats. Young women swung right as well, though not in such striking numbers. … Now, Democrats hold a slim, 1% advantage with young men, a group that is politically up for grabs. Around 10% of young men remain undecided. Among young women, 31% of whom supported Trump in 2024, the analysis found that support for the Republican Party had been cut to just 13%.” … Trump’s updated midterms rally schedule: Oct. 16: Dalton, GA Oct. 17: Highland Heights, KY Oct. 19: Wichita, KS Oct. 20: Greenville, NC Oct. 21: Clemson, SC Oct. 22: Sioux City, IA Oct. 23: Fort Myers, FFL … From Trump’s rally today in GA: “I don’t think Ossoff is a good looking man. I actually think Mike Collins is good looking man. He’s all man. Rick Jackson is a very handsome beautiful looking guy.” On the WH: “It's a very cool place. There's a handsome soldier, like all these guys. We are allowed to have big strong handsome soldiers now. And he goes, the president has arrived. They never did that when I walked into Trump Tower or Mar-a-Lago. See, there are reasons to be president.” On Ossoff’s win over David Perdue in 2020: “It was a rigged election. David actually won that election by a lot. I sent David to China. That's what you get when you lose an election. We send you to China.” “Ossoff spent money on makeup—by the way, I wear very little and I do it myself. If you don’t put a little on, you look like a dead person. I don’t want to look that way.” On El-Sayed: “I’m the president. I can call you whatever the hell I want Muhammad. His name is actually Abdullahalalalala baa ba ba Muhammad El-Sayed. So his middle name is Muhammad.” … WaPo: Heidi Levine, a WaPo photographer, was "knocked to the ground, "kicked repeatedly and stripped of her cameras and phone" today in the West Bank as Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians gathering olives. The company issued a statement about the incident: … The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement: “The brutal beating of Heidi Levine is neither isolated nor the first on a journalist covering the olive harvest in the West Band. It’s part of a disturbing pattern of violence and harassment against journalists regardless of their nationalities. These repeated assaults are taking place in an environment where perpetrators have little reason to fear consequences. Israel’s failure to ensure accountability is emboldening those who attack journalists, while the international community’s continued silence sends a dangerous message that these violations can continue unchecked. CPJ has repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to put an end to these attacks and protect journalists, yet the violence continues.” … Washington Sun: “Alaska Is Becoming a Swing State. After being a firmly Republican state for most of its existence, AK has slowly but steadily moved left in recent elections, becoming more supportive of Democratic candidates at every level of elected office. … By 2024, the state was more politically similar to right-of-center battlegrounds like OH and IA, where Democrats are often at least competitive statewide, than to the conservative strongholds like WY and ID it used to resemble. … And unlike OH and IA, AK is continuing to move left: An analysis of presidential results found that from the 2000 election to 2024 election, AK shifted 20 points to the left relative to the national popular vote. That’s the 4th most of any state, trailing only VT, CO and UT.” … Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola had a debate in their Alaska senate race: Q - “Can you give examples of times that you have denounced Trump’s derogatory personal attacks: “I’ve denounced it before, like his Megyn Kelly comments and other things like that.” … One example. From 2015. Lots of disgusting personal attacks since 2015. And of course his only is example is when Trump attacked a Fox host. Sullivan: “We, we weren’t supposed to get these questions beforehand, were we? Moderator: Neither one of you got questions beforehand. Absolutely not. Sullivan: Okay, I’m just watching my opponent read from questions that seem to be answered. Mary Peltola: I’m prepared.” Peltola posted after the debate: “Last time he got caught copying my answers. This time he’s complaining because I came ready. It’s called being prepared, Dan.” … Politico: “A controversial State Dept political appointee embroiled in an email fight with the deputy secretary of state was fired from his role as a special envoy just hours after POLITICO published a story recounting the clash. A US official confirmed that Paolo Zampolli was fired, saying that his status ‘as an envoy has been terminated and he is no longer a government employee.’ … Zampolli, a personal friend of Trump, was fired hours after the story recounting the months-long feud he had over email with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. The two officials quarreled over authority and chains of command, with Landau attempting to keep Zampolli focused on his role as a cultural envoy. … The fight was notable not only because of the personal attacks and accusations of defamation, but also because more than a dozen govt officials were included on some of the email chains, including Dan Scavino, the presidential personnel director. … In the 1990s, Zampolli worked as a modeling agent who represented Melania Trump and introduced her to Trump. Zampolli was named to the board of the Kennedy Center during the first Trump admin and the president appointed him to be the US special representative for global partnerships in his second admin.” … Attorney Eric Deters, who Kim Guilfoyle allegedly asked to pay off her $100,000 Amex bill, released an interview he conducted with an American attorney in Greece named John Constantine. Constantine was wearing a red Make Greece Great Again hat and said he is a lifelong Republican. … Constantine alleged that Guilfoyle was accepting bribes from a man who was an agent of the Chinese who also had ties to Iran. He claims that he attempted to notify State Dept and other US govt authorities 45 days ago and received no response. He claims he has documentary proof but that was not presented at the interview. … He also makes several other somewhat explosive allegations about her behavior in Greece. If you want to watch the full interview, you can find it posted by Deters on his social media pages. Since he did not provide any additional evidence yet of the allegations made by Constantine, I won’t go into any detail about them here. … Mediaite: “Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former US ambassador to Greece, boasted to colleagues about her sex life when she worked at Fox and even showed X-rated photos she had taken, according to Fox News contributor Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery. … Kennedy said that while Guilfoyle was at Fox, the future diplomat showed her and others a picture of a man’s credit card, which was paired with an image of the card owner’s penis: “Kimberly showed me and several of our friends pictures of his Amex black card – front and back. The images were matched with a corresponding picture of the card holder’s private parts. There were at least 3 sets of these credit card-penis pairings.” “In fact, Kimberly talked about sex so cavalierly that she made Samantha from Sex and the City seem like Greta Thunberg.” … Greek City Times: “Greek television presenter Anthi Voulgari has claimed that former US ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle may be leaving Athens with unpaid bills for hair and beauty services, adding another controversy to the American diplomat’s abrupt departure from Greece. … Speaking on MEGA television’s morning programme Koinonia Ora MEGA, Voulgari suggested that Guilfoyle’s lavish lifestyle in Athens may have left some expenses unsettled: ‘I’m hearing she’s leaving without settling her bills. Hair appointments, beauty treatments - various places, apparently.’ … The remarks quickly attracted attention in the Greek media, particularly given Guilfoyle’s reputation for glamorous appearances and her prominent presence at social and political events throughout her time in Athens. … Guilfoyle will reportedly not receive a traditional farewell meeting with Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas following her abrupt departure as US ambassador to Greece. The former ambassador would ordinarily be expected to make courtesy visits to Greece’s president, PM and foreign minister before leaving her post. … However, the circumstances surrounding her departure have reportedly put those diplomatic formalities in doubt. A senior source at the US Embassy in Athens said that the usual protocol for outgoing ambassadors would not be followed in Guilfoyle’s case. The Greek president’s office confirmed that there would be no ceremony or formal visit in Guilfoyle’s case.”