TV News LIES

Republican backlash in Congress over President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs burst into view on Feb. 11 despite last-minute efforts by White House officials to stave off a public party schism.

The GOP-led House of Representatives voted to overturn his tariffs on Canada after six Republicans joined with House Democrats to rescind the emergency declaration the president has used as a basis for imposing taxes on imports from one of the United States' closest allies. Republicans still largely backed Trump, with a vote totaling 219-211.

The vote was the culmination of simmering frustration with the White House among some GOP lawmakers, whose patience for a long-awaited Supreme Court ruling over Trump's tariff power had run thin. Over the past year, a procedural trick allowed House Speaker Mike Johnson to block any legislation from his chamber challenging the president's favored foreign policy tool, which runs afoul of more traditionally conservative approaches to economics.

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A few GOP rebels on Tuesday issued a stunning rebuke of President Trump’s tariff regime, joining with Democrats to vote down legislation that would have banned members’ ability to call snap votes to repeal the tariffs.

Republican Reps. Kevin Kiley (Calif.), Don Bacon (Neb.) and Thomas Massie (Ky.) all opposed the rule, along with every Democrat. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was unable to win over the holdouts, despite delaying the vote from 1:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

“I don’t like putting the important work of the House on pause, but Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs,” Bacon wrote on X after the vote.

"Article I of the Constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch. It’s time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility. I also oppose using the rules votes to legislate. I want the debate and the right to vote on tariffs.”

Massie, a frequent rebel on Republican votes and top target of Trump, said that GOP leadership did not reach out to him at all to try to change his mind on the vote. He dismissed concerns that Democrats would force constant tariff repeal votes, repeatedly putting members on the record.

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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) shared the names of the six men he claimed were “likely incriminated” in the Epstein files on the House floor Tuesday.

Khanna’s comments come as the Justice Department has been under fire for how it has handled redactions in the documents, in some cases failing to conceal the names of victims while in other instances shielding the identities of those exchanging salacious emails with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who together co-sponsored the bill that mandated the public release of the files, both went Monday to review the unredacted version of the files now available to lawmakers at a Justice Department office. The duo told reporters that in their two-hour review they saw six names they thought could face criminal culpability based on the content of the files, with Massie describing the group as being “likely incriminated.”

Khanna, after revealing the six names on the House floor, said, “Now my question is, why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public? And if we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3 million files.”

“Now my bill is clear. The Epstein Transparency Act requires them to unredact those FBI files, and yet the Justice Department said to me and to Congressman Massie, ‘We just uploaded whatever the FBI sent us.’ And guess what? The FBI sent scrubbed files. That means the survivor statement to the FBI naming rich and powerful men who went to Epstein’s Island, who went to his ranch, who went to his home and raped and abused underage girls or saw underage girls being paraded — they were all hidden. They were all redacted. It’s a little bit of a farce.”

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Foreign aid spending is back in the U.S. government's budget, after a year in which the Trump administration cut billions of dollars to global health and humanitarian assistance.

On Tuesday evening, President Trump signed the spending bill that would fund much of the government through September 30.

In that legislation, Congress has allocated $50 billion for foreign aid in 2026 — a 16% cut from 2025. Still, it's a lot more money than the administration had signaled it wants to spend on foreign aid in its proposed budget.

The foreign aid package includes funding for a variety of issues, such as military aid to Egypt, Israel and Taiwan. However, it also includes money for initiatives aimed at supporting democracy, scholarship programs, U.S. embassy operations and health and humanitarian programs around the world.

Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the bill advances the priorities of the American people. "This fiscally responsible package would realign U.S. foreign assistance and make America safer and stronger on the world stage."

Aid groups also welcomed the package, even as they noted the reduction in funding for humanitarian assistance compared to previous years.

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Former President Bill Clinton blasted Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) on Friday as he and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare to sit for depositions in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

After Republicans and Democrats on the Committee threatened the Clintons with contempt if they ignored subpoenas, the couple agreed to testify under oath about their relationship with Epstein on Feb. 26 and 27.

The depositions are scheduled to be in-person, private and both videotaped and transcribed ― the same format the committee used when it heard from former special counsel Jack Smith during a closed-door hearing in December.

Hillary Clinton lashed out at Comer on Thursday, saying on social media, “If you want this fight ... let’s have it―in public.”

The former president offered his own blistering multi-part Comer critique on Friday, calling the investigation of the couple’s Epstein connections “pure politics” that only serve “partisan interests.”

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Survivors, lawmakers and watchdog groups accused Donald Trump’s justice department of withholding records it is legally required to release following the disclosure of millions of files from the investigation into the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The justice department on Friday released 3m pages of documents from its investigation into the millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with wealthy and powerful figures, including Trump and former president Bill Clinton. The release was an effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and, according to US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, includes more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, all subject to “extensive redactions”.

In a letter to Congress, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and Blanche indicated that Friday’s document “marks the end” of the government’s efforts to comply with the law, drawing sharp condemnation from Democrats and the bill’s authors.

Robert Garcia, the Democratic ranking member on the House oversight committee, which has taken a lead role in investigating the government’s handling of the files release, accused Bondi of breaking the law.

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