The Daily Wrap Up
22 Dec. 2025
[Transcript edited for clarity length and flow | Watch on Youtube HERE]
I want to start by saying this plainly: I hate talking about guns. Especially because we know that real gun control legislation works.
It is hard to believe it was only a week ago, there was a horrific mass shooting at a temple in Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia. The response from the Australian government was immediate. Leaders moved to strengthen their already strong gun laws and began discussions about expanding hate crime and hate speech protections.
What matters here is that a mass shooting in Australia is an anomaly. It is the first in years. In the United States, mass shootings happen so frequently that many of them barely make the news anymore. In 1994, after a devastating mass shooting that killed scores of people, Australia implemented a nationwide gun buyback program and enacted some of the strongest gun laws in the world. Mass shootings essentially disappeared.
So when anyone tells you that gun legislation does not work, they are lying.
I do not know how to calculate how much blood is on the hands of the NRA and every Republican in Congress who continues to allow this to happen. That is why I hate talking about mass shootings.
Before turning to the news about 60 Minutes, I want to offer a moment of comic relief. It is easy to be angry all the time. It is easy to feel hatred toward people who are doing incalculable harm to this country. But then there is Donald.
We need to remember just how pathetic he is. He did not rename the Kennedy Center. He slapped his name on the side of the building. He did not rename the Institute of Peace. He slapped his name on that building too. None of it was legal. None of it will stand. But for a fleeting moment, it probably made him feel important.
Now he has announced a new class of battleships named after himself. At this point, we should not just be embarrassed by him, we should be embarrassed for him. Not because he deserves our pity, but because he would despise being pitied.
Soon he will discover that even that is not enough. Next year, apparently, we are getting the “Arc de Trump” in honor of the 250th anniversary of American independence, although it is clearly in honor of him. And do not forget the commemorative coin with his face on both sides.
To which I say: Donald, I win. That is just sad.
Unfortunately, the next story is not funny.
CBS News, which is owned by Paramount, pulled a 60 Minutes segment that was critical of the Trump regime’s deportation practices. The piece focused on deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison and included firsthand accounts of abuse.
In an email to colleagues, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi argued that the decision to shelve the already approved segment was political. CBS News’s recently installed editor in chief, Bari Weiss, argued that the story should be held until it included comment from Trump regime officials. Those officials were asked repeatedly and repeatedly declined.
Alfonsi warned that blocking a story because the White House refuses to comment would give the administration a “kill switch” over inconvenient journalism. She was exactly right.
This is how journalism works. Subjects are informed and given a chance to comment. If they refuse, the story runs without them. That refusal does not give them veto power.
But Bari Weiss is not a journalist. Whether she does not understand this or understands it perfectly, she knows why she was hired. To the tune of roughly $150 million, she is there to protect corporate interests and serve the Trump regime.
This is not Donald’s first clash with CBS News and Paramount. After 60 Minutes aired an interview with Kamala Harris, Donald sued them for an absurd sum, claiming without evidence that the interview had been edited to make Harris look better and give her an electoral advantage.
Was the interview edited? Of course it was. Every interview is edited. Editing is done for clarity, flow, and length. It is not done to manipulate reality.
The lawsuit was frivolous and unwinnable, but it was filed just before the FCC needed to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance, a deal worth tens of billions of dollars.
CNN’s Brian Stelter provided important context about the situation and about CBS’s relationship with Donald and the Trump regime. He explained it this way:
When Paramount changed hands earlier this year, Trump praised the new owners, David Ellison and his father, Larry. He described them as friends and supporters and expressed excitement about CBS being in new hands. Two weeks ago, Trump changed his tune and began attacking both the Ellisons and 60 Minutes. He was initially angry about an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene. We know Trump cares deeply about 60 Minutes, and we know the new owners need regulatory approval to pursue their future plans. That is the political context for this story.
I have heard that many people at 60 Minutes are threatening mass resignations. I hope they follow through. CBS does not deserve real journalism or real journalists. The rest of us do.
We also have updates on the Epstein files debacle.
Axios reports that more than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse are urging Congress to hold the Department of Justice accountable for failing to release the Epstein files by the legally mandated deadline last Friday. Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell committed countless acts of rape and sex trafficking against girls and young women.
In a letter sent today, the survivors accused the DOJ of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The letter stated:
The public received a fraction of the files, riddled with extreme redactions and no explanation. Victim identities were left unredacted, causing real harm. No financial documents were released. Grand jury minutes approved by a federal judge were fully blacked out. These are clear violations of an unambiguous law.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald’s former personal defense attorney, went on Fox News to claim the slow rollout was about protecting victims. That claim collapses immediately when you see that some victims were exposed while entire documents were erased.
The Transparency Act was sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna. Both appeared on Face the Nation to call out the Trump regime’s failure. Here is what they said:
They cited preexisting laws as reasons for not following our law, even though our law explicitly requires release regardless of embarrassment. This was a slap in the face to survivors. The key documents were withheld. This is not about timing. It is about selective concealment.
I expect nothing from this Department of Justice. If information is released piecemeal, there is no reason to trust it. My hope is that Congress does its job and initiates impeachment proceedings against those responsible. All the more reason Democrats must retake the House so survivors can see some measure of justice.
Finally, today brought news that was not surprising, but still shocking in its stupidity.
The Trump regime announced it is pausing leases for five offshore wind farms on the East Coast, claiming wind poses a national security threat. These projects were expected to power more than 2.5 million homes, create roughly 10,000 jobs, and unlock nearly $25 billion in clean energy investment.
Developers, state officials, labor leaders, and energy experts warned that the move could cause job losses, grid instability, and higher electricity costs. The companies involved said they coordinated closely with the military and strongly disputed the claim that wind farms pose security risks.
Everything Donald has said about wind energy is delusional. He has claimed wind turbines kill whales. Now his regime claims wind threatens national security. The real threat is not wind. The real threat is empowering fossil fuel companies because Donald likes them.
Ten thousand jobs will not be created. Two and a half million homes will not receive clean energy. Twenty-five billion dollars will sit idle. Once again, it is another day in the Trump regime where only bad things happen.
Watch on Youtube HERE
CBS is dead to me. As dead as FOX “NEWS” is dead.
“Wind is a threat to national security”? We don’t all live in straw houses—I live in a house made of bricks….