Raw Story

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to hold both Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas to testify about their knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein.

“They possessed information directly relevant to the investigation,” said Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the committee. “The Clintons had documented relationships with Epstein and Maxwell, evidenced by numerous photographs, flight log records, wedding invitations, and other materials.”

The committee approved holding the Clintons in contempt on Wednesday afternoon, which, if passed in full and ultimately referred to the Justice Department, could result in criminal charges that could land both the Clintons in jail for up to one year and fines of up to $100,000 each. The House is expected to vote on the bill in "two weeks," Comer has said.

The measure was met with opposition by Democratic members of the committee, including Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who accused Comer and Oversight Republicans of having a double standard in terms of their focus on the Clintons, and apparent lack of focus on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s continued violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), which required the Justice Department to release all Epstein files by Dec. 19.

“It is shameful, illegal, and unconstitutional that the Department of Justice has released 1% of the files! Where is the pressure to get Pam Bondi to release the files?” Garcia said.

“Instead, your focus and the committee is focused on whoever you perceive to be your enemies and the enemies of Donald Trump. Because let’s be clear: we want to talk to President Bill Clinton, we want him to answer our questions! We also want to understand why Pam Bondi refuses to release all the files.”

Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) moved to add an amendment to the committee’s measure to hold the Clintons in contempt, an amendment that would hold Bondi in contempt over her continued violation of the EFTA. The proposal, however, was shot down by the committee’s Republican majority.

Donald Trump’s attempt to claim Greenland has alarmed global observers, with commentator Sabrina Haake arguing that the former president’s rhetoric is empowering authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin. Writing on her Substack, Haake warned that Trump’s threats against Greenland and disregard for NATO undermine the “rule-based global order,” giving Russia leverage in its war against Ukraine and emboldening other rogue actors. She said Trump’s actions send a signal that sovereignty and international law are negotiable, weakening decades-long alliances across Europe and NATO and creating real-world consequences far beyond Greenland — with Ukrainians already paying the price for the precedent Trump set.

Watch the video below.

Trump’s Greenland push gives Putin ammo, threatens NATO and global order: analyst Trump’s Greenland push gives Putin ammo, threatens NATO and global order: analyst

A hearing room for the House Oversight Committee erupted into laughter Wednesday after the committee chair, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), blanked on a question asked by a Democratic committee member.

Wednesday’s hearing saw the committee fiercely debate whether to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying a congressional subpoena to testify about their connections to Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Challenging the measure was Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), who pressed Comer on whether the committee had already been informed that the Clintons were willing to testify on the record.

“It's my understanding that you guys have received correspondence by phone, email and a written letter from the attorneys from the Clintons offering to [testify] on the record, with you, with the staff... is that correct?” Stansbury asked.

“I didn't... I wasn't paying attention to your question,” Comer admitted, sparking an eruption of laughter in the room, including from Stansbury, who moved to ask her question again, albeit more slowly.

“Okay – we're pursuant to a motion you brought for contempt, and the claim is that you have made reasonable accommodations and that [the Clintons] have not been responsive,” Stansbury repeated.

“But they have transmitted correspondence to all of the members of the committee – including yourself – including a letter from their attorneys stating that they have offered by phone, by email to meet with you, on the record, to give sworn statements. Is that correct?”

Comer’s first reaction was to speak of how the Clintons had been given “five months” to appear before Congress before being pressed by Stansbury again: “yes or no,” she asked.

“You all are trying to create a false narrative!” Comer fired back. “You've had five months, you should have gotten to the Clintons before the contempt vote!”

Stansbury asked once more for Comer to answer her question, but was met with silence as Comer’s aides could be seen speaking with him quietly.

“Just to be clear for the public, his staff are advising the chairman to not answer that question,” Stansbury alleged.

Comer fired back at Stansbury once more.

“No, the staff said they couldn't understand what the hell you were saying because you blabbered for three minutes!” Comer said.

President Donald Trump lamented that he couldn't "screw" people whom he didn't like during a rant at the World Economic Forum.

While speaking to CEOs in Davos on Wednesday, Trump bragged that companies were building plants in the U.S.

"It's amazing what's going on. Look, it's amazing. We've never had anything like it or close. Nobody else has it," he remarked. "I don't even ask anybody how you're doing now. It's like everybody is making so much money."

"And we have so many people in this room that have done a job," he continued. "I said, you've doubled your net worth since I've been president, right? He said, yeah, even more than that. They would say even more. We're doing even better than that."

But Trump's remarks took a turn as he spotted a few perceived enemies in the room.

"In a way, I'm jealous. In a way, I'm upset. There are a couple of people in the room," he said. "I can't stand them, and they've become very rich. There's nothing I can do about it."

"I would screw them if I could, but I can't do it, right?" he added. "I can't do it. I would have had a chance, or I could just take them and say, you can't do what Apple's doing, but you're not allowed to do that, Newt Gingrich, right? We can't do it."

"But I would love to do it, really, you know? It's one of those things, but everybody's making a lot of money."

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom was captured on video laughing Wednesday while listening to President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

During his speech, which lasted over an hour and saw him confuse Iceland with Greenland, Trump lavished praise on his own administration for the “help” it provided the city of Los Angeles last year, referring to his immigration raids that saw state leaders declare a state of emergency.

“We’re gonna help the people in California, we want to have no crime. I know Gavin was here – I used to get along so great with Gavin when I was president, Gavin’s a good guy,” Trump said, as C-SPAN footage showed Newsom listening near the back of the large auditorium.

“If he needed it, I would do it in a heartbeat, we did help them a lot in Los Angeles. If I were a Democrat governor, I would call up Trump, I’d say ‘come on in, make us look good,’ because we’re cutting crime down to nothing!”

Following Trump’s remarks about “cutting crime down to nothing,” Newsom could be seen cracking a large smile and laughing, shaking his head while standing near the back of the room.

An analyst Wednesday described how the ICE attacks in Minneapolis and deadly shooting of Renee Good were all prompted by a MAGA influencer "chasing clicks" — and showed the potentially grim future of MAGA journalism.

The Bulwark's Andrew Egger revealed how MAGA influencer Nick Shirley's "highly misleading gonzo video" led to the chaos in Minnesota. Shirley was confronting workers at Somali-run daycares and health care centers over claims of fraud in a now-viral video created unfounded allegations that spurred into a new campaign under the Trump administration to target the Somali community.

"Within days, the White House was surging immigration enforcement to Minneapolis; Vice President JD Vance said Shirley had 'done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 [Pulitzer] prizes,'" Egger wrote.

"If this sort of person doing this sort of work can be so richly rewarded on the right right now, it’s safe to say both that Shirley will be a major fixture of the online right for a while, and that many others will try to follow in his footsteps," Egger added. "But if he’s the future of right-wing journalism, the future is very bleak indeed."

In the past, and in traditional media, Shirley would have had oversight or rules to abide by. But that's not the case now.

"Much of the old press model has collapsed entirely, especially on the right," Eggers wrote. "Guys like Nick Shirley aren’t trying to join a publication, they’re picking up a camera and trying to go viral on their own. They have no safety net, no sounding board, no mentorship, no way to grow beyond what they’re doing this minute. All they have is the zero-sum game of the algorithm: Get noticed or die. Of course they’re going to do what the algorithm demands—which, on today’s right, means snappy, confrontational, fact-agnostic propaganda for the regime. That’s what the ecosystem rewards, so we’re going to get more and more of it. If you think that’s grim today, wait till you see the future."