The Daily Wrap Up

26 Feb. 2026

[Transcript edited for clarity, length and flow]

Watch on Youtube HERE

I was in DC, which those of you who saw my tweet would know, because I had the great misfortune of going to the DOJ to visit Donald’s big brother banner, which was pretty revolting. As I said, it was the visual equivalent of his rhetorical fascism at the State of the Union.

Of course, the news never, ever, ever stops anymore.

Today, The New York Times is reporting that about 10 FBI employees, including some longtime agents, people who are actually good at their jobs and understand how to investigate things like, I don’t know, the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mother or the murder of American citizens on American soil by American agencies, were fired this week because of their work on the investigation into Donald’s handling, or I should say mishandling, or I should say stealing, of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

The firings happened just hours after FBI Director Kash Patel, and that is always a very difficult thing for me to say, told Reuters that during the documents investigation the Bureau had subpoenaed phone metadata belonging to Patel and to Susie Wiles, who is now White House Chief of Staff. Seeking phone metadata is a routine step in complicated criminal investigations.

Some agents and their attorneys argue that certain firings may have bypassed procedural protections meant to shield FBI personnel from politically driven removals. According to those familiar with the situation, more dismissals could be coming.

But here’s the thing. These are agents doing their jobs, which is to say doing what they were ordered to do by higher-ups. So in what universe could you hold them responsible for fulfilling the duties of being an FBI agent during a case that, quite frankly, if you were paying attention and have eyes in your head, you could see was a legitimate cause for concern?

Again, we witnessed Donald steal highly sensitive classified documents that belonged to the American people when he was no longer in office and had no right to them, and then spend another year and a half refusing requests to hand them over. This is simply going to weaken the FBI and make it harder and harder for them to do the job of keeping the American people safe, especially since the aforementioned Director Patel seems only to be interested in using taxpayer money to fly around the world on a private jet and party.

The theme tonight is retribution, because there is more planned for the state of Minnesota.

On Wednesday, there was an announcement of plans to halt $259 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota over concerns about fraud in the state’s social services program. This is the latest in the federal government’s attempt to crack down on that state. This came one day after Donald’s despicable State of the Union address, in which he zoomed in on fraud in Minnesota and announced that Vice President Baby J.D. Vance would be leading efforts to combat the issue of corruption in Minnesota.

This also follows the alleged wind down of Operation Metro Surge, an immigration crackdown that began over the fraud allegations in the first place but escalated into an all-out assault on the residents of that city, especially those exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful protest. They were caught up in aggressive enforcement actions and violence that left people dead in the streets of an American city at the hands of unidentified masked ICE agents who, to date, have not been held accountable. Beyond that, there is not even an investigation into their crimes, which include murder.

This funding freeze of Medicaid is the latest in a series of attacks from the Trump regime on blue states and the excessive scrutiny into programs in states like Minnesota in recent months. Baby J.D. Vance argued that the administration’s actions were meant for Minnesota to take its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.

Well, JD, if you are absolutely serious about people being good stewards of the American taxpayer’s money, then maybe you should talk to your colleagues, Kash Patel, Kristi Noem, and your boss, who continues to grift off of the American people to the tune of over a billion dollars.

As reported by the local NBC affiliate in Minneapolis, KARE 11, Vice President Vance defended the move this way:

All we need the governor and the administration in Minnesota to do is something quite simple, which is to show that before you give Medicaid funds to somebody, you’re taking seriously whether they provided the services that they say that they’re providing. This is not a problem with the people of Minnesota. It’s a problem with the leadership of Minnesota.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, now administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, added that the government had completed an audit and sent a letter to Governor Walz, giving the state 60 days to respond with a comprehensive corrective action plan before funds would be released.

Governor Walz responded bluntly:

This has nothing to do with fraud. Trump is weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota. These cuts will be devastating for veterans, families with young kids, folks with disabilities, and working people across our state.

So as Mehmet Oz effectively admitted, this has nothing to do with the people of Minnesota. It has to do with the leadership of Minnesota. Therefore, they are going to punish the people of Minnesota, especially those most in need. Well done.

There is one more item involving J.D. Vance. He was in Wisconsin delivering remarks as part of the administration’s post–State of the Union push to sell its economic message. In other words, to lie a lot. Vance tends to stick closely to Donald’s script because he doesn’t have an original idea in his head, and he has no interest in offering anything beyond it. He knows that if he is to succeed Donald, which he so desperately wants to do, he has to pretend to be as much like him as possible.

When asked about rural hospital closures, this is what Baby JD had to say:

It’s a very, very serious problem. And unfortunately, this, like so much of what’s going on in our country right now, is a problem that we inherited from the last administration. If you look at the number of rural hospital closures that were happening in 2022 and 2023 and 2024, it was really accelerating. And it’s one of the reasons why, if you look in the big beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, however you’re calling it, in that legislation there is a multibillion-dollar rural hospital fund to try to help these rural hospitals persevere in tough times, stay open, provide essential services, and get them to a place where they’re on firm financial footing.

Sure. And by the way, some of the changes the Trump regime is planning to make to the Affordable Care Act would increase deductibles up to $31,000. That is how much they care about the American people.

What Vance failed to say is that even though the bill did create a new fund allocating $10 billion per year to support rural hospitals and clinics, that funding is meant to cushion the blow from far larger reductions in federal spending included in the legislation, which cuts roughly $1.2 trillion over the next decade, largely from Medicaid. An Associated Press report estimated that 10 million people are expected to lose health coverage under the law, most of them through Medicaid.

That means more patients showing up at hospitals without the ability to pay, especially for emergency care, which will redound to the rest of the American taxpayers. The impact is expected to fall hardest on rural communities, where as many as one in four residents rely on Medicaid for health insurance.

And now there is retribution, the Epstein edition.

Earlier today, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the woman who actually won the 2016 election for president, appeared before the House Oversight Committee despite barely being mentioned in the Epstein files. The closed-door hearing began in chaos when it was learned that Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, took an unauthorized photo of Mrs. Clinton while she was answering questions and sent it to right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, who posted it on social media.

Clinton’s attorney immediately objected, pointing out that she had been denied her request for a public hearing, yet a member of Congress was circulating images from inside a closed session, which is against the rules.

When questioning resumed, Clinton delivered a sharp rebuke in a prepared statement:

You have compelled me to testify fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation in order to distract attention from Donald’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.

She also pointed out that no Republican lawmakers showed up at a closed-door deposition last week in Ohio of Les Wexner, the retail billionaire who played a key role in Jeffrey Epstein’s rise.

When asked whether Republicans with ties to Epstein might also be called in, Chairman James Comer insisted the investigation was not just about Democrats and referenced prior depositions of Alex Acosta and Bill Barr from the first Trump administration.

Last week, speaking to the BBC, Clinton said:

A law was passed in Congress to require that all the files that have anything to do with him be released. And what we’re seeing, I think it’s fair to say, is a continuing coverup by the Trump administration. They want us to testify, not everyone else who’s mentioned many, many times in these files. So we’ve said, fine, let us do it in public and we will appear in public and we’ll answer all your questions.

How simple is that?

But let’s not forget the grotesque misogyny at work here. Hillary Clinton, mentioned infrequently and innocuously in the Epstein files, is once again being compelled to answer for her husband’s associations. Bill Clinton appears frequently in those files. That does not mean he is guilty of anything, but what is Hillary Clinton doing there in the first place?

The Republicans in charge are not interested in the truth. They are interested in distraction and protection.

What happens next depends on whether enough Republicans finally find a soul and step aside before the midterms so that Democrats can take the majority, or whether something so damning is revealed that even those continuing to cover up for Donald and others can no longer look away.

Watch on Youtube HERE