Trump obliterates an aide’s efforts to downplay his comments – again

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/05/politics/leavitt-trump-contradict-nationalize-elections

Trump on Tuesday laid waste to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s efforts to pretend he didn’t say something as controversial as he did. And this has become an altogether familiar exercise.

The controversy du jour in the Trump administration right now is Trump having floated nationalizing elections.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” Trump told former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino in a podcast episode published Monday. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

So up stepped Leavitt to suggest that Trump hadn’t actually said what he said.

She claimed Trump was instead referring to Congress passing the SAVE Act, a bill that aims to combat noncitizen voting in federal elections – something that is already illegal and that experts say rarely happens.

And sure enough, Trump on Tuesday made clear that he meant what he said. Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins what he meant by nationalize the election, he made no mention of the SAVE Act and doubled down on the idea of the federal government asserting a more expansive form of control

Republicans fear Trump backlash could cost them Senate control

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5723418-republicans-fear-trump-backlash-could-cost-them-senate-control/

Senate Republicans are concerned that public backlash to President Trump’s handling of the economy and his aggressive deportation policies could give rise to a Democratic wave that not only sweeps away the House Republican majority, but also threatens their own three-seat majority in the upper chamber.

The latest alarm bell rang over the weekend when Democratic candidate Taylor Rehmet won a state Senate seat in a North Texas district that President Trump won by 17 points in 2024, a stunning upset that GOP senators say should serve as a “wake-up call” heading into November.

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity told The Hill that voters across the political spectrum aren’t happy with Trump’s handling of the economy and inflation, and a growing number of independents are turned off by his administration’s aggressive deportation tactics in Minneapolis.

Prosperity?

Hellbent’: Trump is reassembling his 2020 coup crew amid 2026 midterm panic

Rand Paul on Trump call to ‘nationalize’ elections: ‘That’s not what the Constitution says’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5722041-rand-paul-trump-call-to-nationalize-elections/

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he does not support President Trump’s proposal for Republicans to “take over” voting procedures in more than a dozen states and “nationalize” the midterm elections, declaring the president’s call to action blatantly unconstitutional.

“That’s not what the Constitution says about elections,” Paul said in an interview Tuesday with MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle, when asked about the president’s statement that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”

Trump doubled down on his call for the GOP to “nationalize” voting Tuesday, despite efforts by the White House to soften his previous statements on the issue. He said the federal government should take a more active role in running elections to combat what he called “corruption.”

Haredi Jew assaulted in Zurich

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/02/03/haredi-jew-attacked-zurich-antisemitic-assault/

A 26-year-old Haredi man was the victim of an antisemitic attack in Zurich on Monday night. Around 8:15 PM, Zurich city police received a report that a Haredi man had been attacked by another individual.

Officers who arrived at the scene found several people preventing a man from fleeing. The detained man had attacked the 26-year-old Haredi Jew with his fists without any provocation from the victim. Thanks to the help of several passersby – including a Hasidic man and another non-Jewish individual – the attacker was held until Zurich police arrived. The attacker repeatedly shouted offensive and antisemitic remarks, even in the presence of police officers. The Haredi victim sustained minor injuries in the incident.

Trump’s Push to ‘Nationalize’ Elections, Explained

 https://time.com/7366147/trump-nationalize-voting-federalize-elections-fraud-republicans/

As President Donald Trump continues to allege widespread electoral fraud benefitting Democrats, his latest attempt to upend U.S. elections in the name of correcting that fraud is a call for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting.

The Constitution decentralizes the U.S. election process and has specifically left the President out. Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 states that “the Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators.” 

In practice, this means local officials across thousands of jurisdictions administer elections and tabulate votes, with safeguards built in that the American Bar Association says makes it “almost impossible for systems to be breached on a scale to affect federal or state results.” 

At the heart of Trump’s push are repeated accusations that previous U.S. elections were rigged. Trump has claimed that he won the 2020 presidential elections over his then-opponent Joe Biden, despite state and federal officials as well as numerous courts rejecting such claims. “The 2020 election, I won that election by so much,” Trump told Bongino. “Everybody knows it.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D, Calif.), meanwhile, accused Republicans of “desperately trying to rig the rules for future elections” instead of trying to win on their policies. “The right to vote is fundamental, and Congress should be working to make it easier, not harder, for eligible Americans to participate.”

Hamas strengthens and the PA returns — this is no recipe for security and stability

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-strengthens-and-the-pa-returns-this-is-no-recipe-for-security-and-stability/

Israel went to war after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre with two essential goals: to get back the hostages, and to destroy Hamas and any other potential deadly threats to Israel. Among the subsequent conditions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also vowed to impose was that there would be no role for the Palestinian Authority in a postwar Gaza unless the PA underwent radical reform.

With the return of all the hostages, living and dead, and the Trump administration’s declaration that we have now entered phase two of the US president’s broad Gaza peace plan, however, Hamas still rules half of Gaza, is targeting Israeli troops in the other half, and is not planning to disarm. And the PA, in more and less overt guises, is assuming a significant role during this fuzzy period of semi-war, semi-ceasefire. The Mahmoud Abbas-led PA, that, in a previous iteration, Hamas murderously and swiftly booted out of Gaza when seizing power there almost 20 years ago.

At President Donald Trump’s instruction, the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been reopened to limited entry and exit of people. And it is the PA, along with Egypt and European representation, that is managing the process — a fact that official Israel prefers not to acknowledge. (Israel, it should be stressed, is vetting and thus determining who is permitted to come in or go out, just not at the crossing itself.)

Rabbi Kook’s “Shemonah Kevatzim" - now in English

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/421969

During the course of our discussion about his new book, I asked: “While Rabbi Kook's teachings have had a profound influence on almost every sphere of life in Israel, his books are still not to be found in most Haredi yeshivot. Considering that Rabbi Kook was a universally recognized master of Halakhah and as stringent as can be, what do you think led to such harsh resistance to his teachings throughout the Haredi world?"

“Originally," Shulman answered: “Rabbi Kook was greatly respected throughout the Torah world. He was only opposed by the old haredi Jerusalem leadership because of his Zionistic views. Unfortunately, this polarizing outlook was zealously spread. I hope that as people in the haredi community search for an expansive, creative, and illuminating vision of Torah they will overcome any negative preconceptions they may have about Rabbi Kook and allow themselves to discovers the wonder of his teachings."

Cassidy, Blunt Rochester grill NIH director on Denmark fixation: ‘That’s a crazy idea’

 https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5721096-bhattacharya-denmark-health-policy/?tbref=hp

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) on Tuesday questioned a top Trump health official on the administration modeling policy around Denmark, a largely homogeneous country of just over 6 million people.

“Now if we pattern after the place that is wealthy, we’re not meeting the needs of those that are poor,” Cassidy said, pounding his fists into the hearing desk. “I have to admit, I was kind of like, ‘What? We’re like Denmark?’ I was just kind of like that’s a crazy idea.”

Cassidy, a longtime physician prior to being elected to Congress, has repeatedly butted heads with Kennedy when it comes to vaccine policy changes. Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary despite his long history of promoting vaccine skepticism.

Greene: MAGA ‘was all a lie’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5718355-marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-maga-lie/

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said President Trump’s Make American Great Again slogan was a “lie,” saying his first year back in office was focused on obliging wealthy supporters.

“I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors,” Greene said in a Wednesday interview with radio personality Kim Iversen. 

“The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom,” she added.

Year-old child dies of measles in Jerusalem, in 14th fatality of outbreak

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/year-old-child-dies-of-measles-in-jerusalem-in-14th-fatality-of-outbreak/

A 1-year-old child died of measles Wednesday morning, health officials in Jerusalem said, marking the 14th fatality in a months-long outbreak that has swept through ultra-Orthodox communities and areas with low immunization rates.

However, a small increase in the number of parents choosing not to vaccinate “is enough to rapidly trigger the kind of outbreak that we’re seeing now in Israel,” said Prof. Michael Edelstein, a public health expert at Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine.

One reason that people are skeptical about vaccines is that “they have been so successful that diseases like measles have almost disappeared,” said Edelstein.

Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/02/03/homeland-security-administrative-subpoena/

Homeland Security is not required to share how many administrative subpoenas it issues each year, but tech experts and former agency staff estimate it’s well into the thousands, if not tens of thousands. Because the legal demands are not subject to independent review, they can take just minutes to write up and, former staff say, officials throughout the agency, even in mid-level roles, have been given the authority to approve them.

Proponents describe administrative subpoenas as critical tools that allow investigators to avoid protracted judicial reviews to obtain information that could, for example, help them identify someone sexually exploiting a child or track down a suspected drug trafficker.

Speed is what makes them so useful, former and current federal investigators told The Post. With no external bureaucracy, the government can obtain phone, financial and internet records in days.

Detractors argue that the lack of independent oversight and the secrecy with which they can be wielded threaten core democratic principles.

Thune rejects Trump’s call for GOP to take over and ‘nationalize’ elections

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5720386-thune-trump-federal-elections/

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday rejected President Trump’s call for Republicans in Washington to “nationalize” voting in the United States and “take over” the management of elections in 15 states.

Thune said that while he strongly supports requiring voters to show identification to prove they are citizens, he does not support the federal government seizing the power to run elections, noting the Constitution gives that power to the states.

Trump Doubles Down on Calls for Republicans to Nationalize Elections

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-doubles-down-on-calls-for-republicans-to-nationalize-elections-f0ae3f92?mod=hp_lead_pos3

President says federal government agents should be involved in counting votes, a role the Constitution explicitly grants to states

President Trump doubled down on his view that Republicans should “nationalize” voting in the U.S., questioning whether certain states should continue running their own elections as spelled out in the Constitution

“I want to see elections be honest, and if a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it,” the president said Tuesday in the Oval Office, flanked by congressional Republicans during a bill signing ceremony to reopen the federal government.

Greene rips ‘weak’ Republicans after Trump post targeting Massie’s wife: ‘You make me sick’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5720641-marjorie-taylor-greene-defends-massie/

After President Trump slammed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and his wife on Monday, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) criticized her former Republican colleagues for not standing by the Kentuckian.

She also said “all the weak Republicans in the House stay silent refusing to utter even a word of support for their ‘friend’ Thomas Massie.”

“Shame on every one of you. Cowards. You make me sick,” Greene concluded.

Massie became a target of the president’s ire for co-sponsoring the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the Justice Department to release all files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Illiberal America: A History

 I'm reading "Illiberal America: A History" by Steven Hahn and wanted to share this quote with you

"One of the dangers in writing a history of “illiberal America” is laying out a story that appears to overemphasize continuities at the expense of changes. And, to be sure, there are features of illiberalism that tend to show up again and again. These features include the overriding will of the community, the suspicion of outsiders and quick resort to expulsion, the recognition of rights and standing chiefly in local or limited arenas, the abiding desire for cultural homogeneity often enforced coercively, the resistance to some forms of authority (often of the state) together with easy submission to those of place and faith, and the embrace of hierarchies of status and power."

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/0aAhOgHX

Melania’s DARK PAST gets OUTED by EPSTEIN FILES!!

Trump wants to nationalize elections

What science says we’ve been getting wrong about exercise

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/02/03/exercise-longevity-stairs-blue-zones/

Doctors and physiologists point to studies that show tiny, regular bursts of effort — like climbing a few stairs — can capture many of the benefits of the gym.

Movement tracking studies show even tiny, regular bursts of effort — as short as 30 seconds — can capture many of the health benefits of the gym. Climbing two to three flights of stairs a few times per day could change your life. Experts call it VILPA, or vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.

“The message now is that all activity counts,” said Martin Gibala, a professor and chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Canada. And perhaps nothing’s better than stairs.

Images of NYC mayor with Jeffrey Epstein are AI-generated. Here’s how we know

 https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-mamdani-mother-epstein-files-ai-photos-4d2adffd9790a83b34abf1eaf6cee349

Multiple AI-generated photos falsely claiming to show New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a child and his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, along with other high-profile public figures, were shared widely on social media Monday.

The images originated on an X account labeled as parody after a huge tranche of new Epstein files was released by the Justice Department on Friday. They are clearly watermarked as AI and other elements they conThe images were created with artificial intelligence. They all contain a digital watermark identifying them as such and first appeared on a parody X account that says it creates “high quality AI videos and memes.”tain do not add up.

The photos began circulating after an email emerged in which a publicist, Peggy Siegal, wrote to Epstein about seeing a variety of luminaries, including Clinton, Bezos and Nair, an award-winning Indian filmmaker, at 2009 afterparty for a film held at Maxwell’s townhouse.

While Mamdani appears as a baby or young child in all of the images, he was 18 in 2009, when Nair is said to have attended the party.

Donald Trump Approval Rating Falls Across Every Major Issue in New Poll

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-falls-poll-3-11457843

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has slipped across every major policy area, according to a new national poll of Americans.

It signals a broad—if modest—shift in public sentiment on multiple fronts as the 2026 midterms move into view, with voters citing inflation and immigration among their top concerns, while also expressing misgivings about immigration enforcement tactics in Minneapolis and across U.S. cities.

Trump’s overall job approval slipped to 45 percent in January, down from 47 percent in December, with ratings declining across key issues including the economy, immigration, and foreign affairs, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.

Approval on “administering the government” declined to 43 percent from 45 percent in the previous survey, and his rating on handling inflation—already a chronic weak spot—fell again to 39 percent from 40 percent in the previous poll, matching his lowest score in a year. Tariffs and trade policy sank to 39 percent as well.

Why Republicans Are Finally Confronting Trump’s Emergency Powers | George Will

Why Trump betrayed his base on Jeffrey Epstein

 https://www.vox.com/on-the-right-newsletter/419784/trump-epstein-maga-rebellion-populism

But there’s something even deeper at work here. In telling his supporters to move on from Epstein, Trump is betraying a fundamental structure of his political movement: its populism. He is showing, in short, that MAGA is not truly a movement of the people against the elites, but rather, a politics that revolves around Trump himself.

Mudde saw, long before Trump, that the future of Western politics would be shaped by populist politics. By “populism,” he did not just mean generic anti-establishment politics, but something more specific: “an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people.”

The key word here is “ideology.” Populism is not merely a rhetorical style pitting elites against the people, but a genuine belief that this is the true axis of political conflict. In the populist worldview, the people have a unified set of common-sense beliefs (“the general will”) that would fix politics if implemented. The only reason it is not happening, for the populist, is that malign elites are preventing the people and their champions from holding power.

In a populist movement like MAGA, the “people” are defined narrowly as only those “good” or “true” Americans — meaning typically, though not exclusively, white rural Christian Republicans. Trump presents himself as their champion against the malign forces of globalist liberalism, personified by the Washington political establishment and coastal cultural elite (a construction that easily and regularly shades into antisemitism).

“What about the Epstein story is so uniquely infuriating?...It’s the frustration of normal people watching a certain class of people get away with everything every single time,” Tucker Carlson said in a Friday speech at the Turning Point USA conference.

Boston-area Jewish day school to close after 25 years, saying its model is ‘no longer sustainable’

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-885389

For two decades, MetroWest Jewish Day School eked out an existence in the suburbs of Boston, providing what parents say was a warm and nurturing Jewish education to just dozens of children. Now, the school says it simply cannot go on. MetroWest will shutter at the end of the academic year, officials announced last week.

Located in Framingham, Massachusetts, MetroWest Jewish Day opened in 2003 and enrolls students in pre-K through eighth grade. In its closure announcement, the school said it has served more than 300 students from over 30 towns in the greater Boston area over 25 years. According to social media posts, graduating eighth grade classes are typically between five and 10 students.

Currently, there are only about 20 students enrolled across all grades, school officials said. The school’s website shows 15 faculty and staff members.

The closure follows a spate of recent closures of small Conservative or pluralistic Jewish day schools across the country, including in New Jersey, New York City and Arizona. Many of the schools had seen enrollment dwindle sharply, although Orthodox schools are faring better.

'Highly suspicious': Sen. Whitehouse blasts Trump FBI's raid on Fulton County elections site

Gabbard defends presence at elections raid

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/02/gabbard-defends-presence-at-elections-raid-00761564

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told lawmakers Monday that President Donald Trump personally asked her to be on site as FBI agents executed a politically sensitive search warrant at an Atlanta-area elections office, according to a copy of a letter sent by Gabbard and obtained by POLITICO.

Trump continues to claim the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden, and Georgia has long been at the center of his unproven claims of widespread fraud.

Even before news emerged about the call, Gabbard’s presence at the raid alarmed Democrats and current and former state election officials because the director of national intelligence is traditionally focused on foreign intelligence matters and rarely if ever plays a direct or highly visible role in domestic criminal investigations.

Judge sides with Democrats against Trump, nixing latest limits on lawmakers’ access to ICE facilities

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5718981-trump-administration-lawmakers-detention-visits/

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s latest bid to limit lawmakers from conducting unannounced visits to immigration detention facilities, ruling that it likely runs afoul of oversight measures that Congress implemented. 

Classified Whistleblower Complaint About Tulsi Gabbard Stalls Within Her Agency

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/classified-whistleblower-complaint-about-tulsi-gabbard-stalls-within-her-agency-027f5331?mod=hp_lead_pos10

A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.

The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle about how to assess and handle it, with the whistleblower’s lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint. Gabbard’s office rejects that characterization, contending it is navigating a unique set of circumstances and working to resolve the issue.

Donald Trump Denies Being ‘Friendly’ With Epstein

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-denies-being-friendly-with-epstein-11454545

President Donald Trump denied being "friendly" with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a Truth Social post Monday, claiming newly released Department of Justice (DOJ) information reveals Epstein and author Michael Wolff "conspired" to damage him and his presidency.

Trump also said he never visited Epstein's private island while alleging "almost all" Democrats and their donors did, and threatened legal action against unspecified members of "the Radical Left."

The president did not provide evidence to support his claim that Democrats and their donors visited Epstein's private island.

Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, commented in a recent Vanity Fair interview that "there is no evidence" Clinton made repeated trips to Epstein's private island, countering earlier claims made by Trump on social media. She also said Trump "is in the file" but that "he's not in the file doing anything awful."

Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Angel Ureña, issued a statement in December addressing the former president’s appearance in the files: "The White House has not been hiding these files for months, only to dump them late on a Friday afternoon to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they will try and hide forever.

"So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this is not about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be. Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton.

"There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continues relationships with him after. We are in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.

Ketogenic Diet’s Hidden Risks Named in Mouse Study

 Ketogenic Diet’s Hidden Risks Named in Mouse Study

While mouse findings do not always translate directly to humans, the study does potentially begin to address gaps in long-term safety data for ketogenic diets—which have been widely adopted for weight loss and diabetes management—despite limited evidence on what happens if a strict ketogenic diet is followed for long periods of time. 

Chaix also said: “One thing that's very clear is that if you have a really high-fat diet, the lipids have to go somewhere, and they usually end up in the blood and the liver.”

Molly Gallop, the study’s lead author and a physiologist, told Science Alert that she “would urge anyone to talk to a health care provider if they're thinking about going on a ketogenic diet.”

Justice Department gets BAD NEWS on Epstein files

ICE Meeting Cold Open - SNL