In The News Week Ending June 20th 2026

In The News Week Ending June 20th 2026

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Thank you very much, and I’d like to recognize Ms. Sykes from Ohio. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witness for being here.

I will say your expertise is energy, and I would hope that you would not invoke the words of Dr. Martin Luther King without adequate context because quite frankly, that is not your expertise. But since you want to talk about people unqualified and meritocracies, let’s talk about President Trump. Do you feel like your positions and policy statements are in line with President Trump? Yes, I hope so.

Do you love inflation? I love ending Iran’s ability to have a nuclear weapon. I think that’s existential for our future. Thank you, that was not my question.

Do you love inflation, yes or no? I love ending Iran’s… That is not my question. Do you love inflation, yes or no? No, I would prefer lower inflation. You would prefer low inflation.

Do you know that your boss, essentially President Trump, just stated that he loved inflation? He’s an entertaining hyperbolic guy who’s done tremendous leadership and on balance is driving inflation down. So it sounds like you’re unaware that President Trump just mentioned that he loved uninflation, and I certainly don’t want to get you in trouble with your boss, but it sounds like you don’t love inflation, but he does. But let me ask you this other question.

Are you aware that the United States was taking millions of barrels of gasoline from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz? We are preventing the flow of Iranian oil through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the question that I just asked you. Were you aware that the United States has been taking millions of gallons of oil from the Strait of Hormuz? I’m just not sure taking is the right word.

We’re preventing the flow of it. Well, thank you. Mr. Chair, if I may, can I play some audio from some comments that President Trump made in the Oval Office? Okay.

The numbers were great. I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now.

Something you didn’t know. Do you know we’ve been taking out Let’s suspend that. Millions of barrels of oil.

Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now. Mr. Secretary, it seems like you didn’t know about this either.

So why would the United States be taking out millions of barrels of oil from Iran? Well, it’s essential that we prevent oil sales from generating revenue for Iran to spend, to develop nuclear weapons and oppress the people. Mr. Secretary, I understand this might be an uncomfortable line of questioning and you don’t want to do it, but you are not answering my question. So I’m going to ask you again, and I’m going to hope that you will answer it honestly.

Did you know that the United States was taking millions of gallons of oil from Iran? I’m unaware. So do you think that the President is lying based on the audio that you just heard? And I will send it to you in case you say you didn’t hear it. Oh, no, I do not think the President is lying.

I think the President is talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil Do you think that war is casual? Do you think that it is appropriate to talk casually about war? I think you talk to all different audiences and you talk in all different styles. But I don’t have any serious objection to what he said. You don’t have any serious objection for someone talking about war casually? Do you have that objection? There are 13 service people who are dead.

There are hundreds more that are injured. But we should be talking about war casually. He treats this war deadly serious.

And he has worked tirelessly on this war. Mr. Secretary, you just said that he was speaking casually about this. He speaks 20 hours a day.

He speaks 20 hours a day in different styles for different audiences. He is the President of the United States of America. He is the Commander-in-Chief who is responsible for 13 service members who have died and hundreds more who are injured.

So you mean to say to me, testifying in front of this committee in the United States House of Representatives that it is appropriate for the Commander-in-Chief to talk about war casually. He speaks candidly, openly, and honestly. I think all of America benefits from that.

Well, I appreciate your attempt to protect your boss and to keep your job. But let me be very clear with you. It is not appropriate to talk about war casually.

He is clearly keeping you in the dark about what he is doing in Iran. And now you are sitting here in this committee unaware that the President just made an announcement about millions of barrels that they have taken from Iran and stated in that very, very clearly, people don’t know, but now we get to know. But unfortunately, he sent you here and you didn’t know it.

What is your response to that? I’m very proud to serve with President Trump. He’s been tremendous leadership in a time of great stress right now. I’m proud of what he’s doing, proud to be part of the team.

Well, I would not be proud if my boss sent me up Schitt’s Creek and left me here in a committee without adequate information and speaking casually about war. That is a horrible place to be. And I’m so sorry that you have to defend that.

That is beneath your honor. Gentlewoman’s time has expired. I’d also remind the gentleman that there was exactly 13 U.S. servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate in the disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Who’s next? Throughout the country believes that convicted sex offenders don’t deserve special treatment or privileges in prison. And yet Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, received perk after perk in prison. In July, she had a two-day interview with your deputy and President Trump’s former defense attorney, Todd Blanche.

Just days after that, Maxwell was transferred from a federal correctional institution in Florida to a minimum security camp in Texas, which she, as a sex offender, would normally be ineligible for. At this new facility, as the ranking member talked about, and by the way, it’s nicknamed Club Fed. Great show.

I love this guy. He’s so nice to me. Every time I watch, and I appreciate… You know, we’re not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am.

When somebody’s nice to me, I love that person. Even if they’re bad people. I couldn’t care less.

I’ll fight to the end for them. So I appreciate it. The Supreme Court’s not been acting very well, actually.

And Republicans, judges, and justices, they always want to show that they’re independent. I don’t care if Trump appointed me. I don’t care if he doesn’t make any difference to me.

I’m voting against him. Because they want to show their independence. You know? Stupid people.

Pam and I were over there with some people. We watched, and actually nobody knew what the hell was going on. Simple subject.

Simple subject. You know? I hope you were all watching that, Scott. Because we had some asks.

And, you know, we spend trillions of dollars on NATO. And when we need them, which we never do. We didn’t need them here either.

To be honest, I was really asking because I wanted to see what they’d do. We didn’t need them. We blasted the hell out of them.

Out of their end. The last thing I needed was NATO stepping in our way. Because they’re a paper tiger.

So we didn’t need them. But I asked anyway. And they probably think I’m the worst salesman ever.

I was the worst. They would have much preferred Franklin Graham or somebody that’s a good salesman than Trump. Because I’d say, we’d love to have some help.

Oh, President, I’m not sure that we could. Oh, that’s okay. You don’t want to do it? Well, then, well, if we… Oh, that’s okay.

You don’t have to do it. So he gets off public service. Man, that was easier than I thought.

Then I call up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the job. And I say… Congress creates 500 new felonies every decade.

50 new felonies every year where something that was legal a year ago is suddenly illegal. And I’ll give you an example. I’ve written about this a couple of times.

There was a woman working for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Hawaii. She was a GS-12, mid-level nobody. So to make some extra money, she and a business partner bought a boat.

They would take tourists out on the weekends to go whale watching. They’re out there whale watching one day and they come up on a pod of orcas. And the orcas are feeding on a seal carcass.

Somebody whistles at the whale. To, I don’t know, keep it near the surface? I don’t know. Nobody knows.

A couple of weeks later… FBI. She answers the door. Do you have this boat? Yes.

You take the boat out with tourists? Yes. Did you see some orcas a couple of weeks ago? Yes. Did you whistle at the whale? She said no.

Somebody did. But you know what? I videotape everything and I sell the DVDs to the tourists. So she gives the FBI the DVD.

A couple of weeks later, they raid her apartment. They take every DVD. They take her computer.

They take her phone. They seize the boat. And after an investigation, they charge her with one felony count of interfering with the feeding of a wild animal which is a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

She fought this thing for years. They ended up knocking it down to a misdemeanor. She took a plea to make it go away but she lost her job.

She lost her pension. She lost her boat. She lost her friendship with her business partner.

Is society better off because she was prosecuted? Are we safer because she was prosecuted? This kind of thing happens all the time. And let me make something crystal clear. I never said Jeffrey Epstein didn’t traffic other people, other women, and they’re not other victims.

This is the investigation we were given from 2006, 2007, and 2008 and the search warrants from 2006, 2007, and 2008. That’s what we’re working with. Wait, have you released all of the stuff that the FBI has seized from Epstein’s house? The computers, the emails, the file cabinets, the documents? What about the financial records? Have you released all of that? Everything the court has allowed us to release.

What court are you talking about? Three separate federal courts have come in and said… We’re talking about the evidence you’ve got. It’s got nothing to do with what those courts have. Do you have any idea how the law works? Do you want me to break the law in a federal judge’s order? No, I want you to follow your own word, Director Patel.

You said up there it was under the direct control of the FBI director. He had the black book. Everything I have direct control over, we have gone to court.

You haven’t. Complete your sentence. Everything you have direct control over, you said.

We have gone to court and everything we have direct control over and can lawfully release, we’re releasing. Much more has come out in the days since the American people and Congress have been demanding it. But it’s coming out in dribs and drabs.

Why don’t you just release the entire file as you promised to do? I literally just told you. There are multiple federal court orders. I’m not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity.

You didn’t join us when we filed court to release the court orders. You could have. You have lawyers.

You could have shown up. You didn’t do that. Let me tell you something.

Let’s talk about the witness interviews. 302s of witness interviews. Those are not subject to the court order.

Those are not subject to any fictional sealed order for a search warrant. Why aren’t you releasing those with the redacted names of the victims? We are releasing as much as legally allowed. That’s why we went back to court.

How is that not legally allowed? Sir, do you know how court orders work? Do you know how protective orders work? Actually, Mr. Patel, I was a prosecutor, a real prosecutor for 10 years. I know exactly how the court orders. You are hiding the Epstein files, Mr. Patel.

You are part of the cover-up. So, Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus? Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the President has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right No, let me stop you, Habeas corpus… Excuse me, that’s incorrect. President Blinken used it… Excuse me.

Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people including American citizens and hold them indefinitely for no reason.