This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Tuesday:
Tuesday, December 23, 2025. Chump's latest war is on the VA, how do you compel a Pam da Bimbo Bondi into following the law, why is it that you have to compell the Attorney General to follow the law, Chump creates the impression of another cover up yet again, and much more.
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanded answers from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to remove the universal recommendation that all infants receive a vaccine against hepatitis B at birth, changing the childhood vaccine schedule without any scientific basis. The letter demands HHS provide any data that was used to inform the vote, documentation on how the ACIP meeting was influenced by conflicts of interest and anti-vaccine activists, and documentation of the expected impacts on the health of American children.
“I am deeply concerned by Secretary Kennedy’s radical takeover of the Department of Health and Human Services, especially the most recent decision to remove the recommendation that all babies receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. It is clear this agency no longer prioritizes the health of the American people, but instead prioritizes uplifting conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxx propaganda. Secretary Kennedy must prove why this decision was made by the ACIP before children across the country face the consequences,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia
In the letter, Ranking Member Robert Garcia wrote, “Removing the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine fuels vaccine skepticism by implying that receiving the vaccine may be dangerous for infants, when the truth is that the universal dose of the hepatitis B vaccine has saved tens of thousands of children’s lives. In light of these deeply concerning changes and Secretary Kennedy’s history of anti-vaccine activism, Committee Democrats have been conducting oversight of HHS and its operating divisions.”
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On MS NOW's MORNING JOE today, they discussed how "tens of thousands" of documents were posted yesterday on the Justice Dept webpage . . . for a moment. It disappeared.
da Bimbo is the Attorney General, she's over the Justice Dept. So this reflects poorly on her. She was never qualified to practice law let alone to be the Attorney General.
Newly released images from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate show women with eerie messages inked on their skin – quotes taken from a controversial novel centered on the sexualization of a young girl – exposing another layer of control and exploitation within Epstein’s network.
As the Department of Justice approaches its deadline to publicly release the full Epstein files, a newly unsealed cache of photographs has revealed disturbing new details about the late financier’s alleged sex trafficking operation.
We can't afford this kind of stupidity. The documents? "Approaches its deadline"? Do the damn job or sit your tired ass down. Last Friday was when everything was supposed to be released. Last Friday. The deadline is not approaching, it has passed.
Not only has it passed
but on Friday politicians were calling Pm out for her inability to
follow the law. Here's the press release fro Senator Adam Schiff's
office
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace to discuss the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) failure to follow the law by not releasing the full Epstein Files. Schiff demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi testify under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain the administration’s willful and illegal delay of the full release of files in DOJ’s possession.
Schiff highlighted that all possible remedies should be explored, including litigation if necessary, and reiterated his request for an independent audit into the DOJ’s handling of these files to ensure accountability for the Trump administration’s continued stonewalling of information.
Earlier this month, Schiff and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin requested an independent review of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s handling of the Epstein files to ensure they were not tampered with ahead of their release.
View the full interview here.
Key excerpts:
On demanding Pam Bondi testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and requesting an independent audit into the handling of the Epstein Files:
[…] I think we ought to bring Pam Bondi before the Senate Judiciary Committee demand answers as to why the Department has violated the law. It’s not just that they had 30 days to go through this, to do the production they’ve had the whole year to do it. They promise to release the files. They haven’t done it. They could have been completely ready for this moment, and they’re not, or they’re just simply, willfully withholding the materials. I think the Judiciary Committee should do its real oversight and bring her in and demand answers. I also think we need an Inspector General’s investigation of what they’ve done, and to ride shotgun on this, to make sure that they’re producing everything they’re required to. We should consider other remedies, including litigation, if necessary, but there needs to be accountability here.
On the administration’s continued stalling on releasing the full Epstein files:
[…] The only one they really serve is Donald Trump, so they must see something in those files that they don’t want to share with the American people. Now it may not be evidence of criminality on Trump’s behalf, but it may be evidence that embarrasses the president, reflects poorly on the president, and of course, written into that legislation is very explicit prohibition on withholding anything for reasons of reputational harm to any elected official. So that is not a legal basis for them to withhold information. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, as a practical matter, they have promised the president they won’t release anything that makes him look bad, even if it comes at the cost of the victims getting the full information. And that’s just not going to cut it. If we’re going to do serious oversight, frankly, unlike what we’ve done so far, you know, Bondi needs to come in and actually answer questions, not just use her time to try to insult or attack members of the committee, but we need this on a bipartisan basis. The legislation passed on a bipartisan basis, both parties ought to insist on answers, and if not, I think the public needs to hold them accountable for this continuing cover up.
On the reasoning behind breaking of the law by the Trump Justice Department:
[…] I’m surprised by the magnitude of it. I’m not surprised that they’re withholding information. Part of this is a consequence, I think, frankly, of Chief Justice Roberts giving the President absolutely, absolute immunity when it comes to his instructions to the Justice Department so he can pretty much order them to do what he wants, and knows that he will never be held, at least criminally liable. So I’m not surprised that they’re withholding, I am surprised at the magnitude of it, the audacity of it, the plain statement by Blanche that they’re withholding hundreds of thousands of documents, and indeed, that might be just the tip of the iceberg. So yes, that does surprise me. It’s a kind of in your face. We will ignore the law as we choose. We will go at our own pace. Whether we provide things at all will be up to us. It’s a kind of arrogance, a kind of drunkenness with power, that believes you can ignore the law without any peril.
###
As we noted yesterday, Pam da Bimbo is not in compliance with the law. And that's why people are considering other actions to compel her to follow the law. Alexandra Marquez (NBC NEWS) notes:
His
comments come after Kaine, D-Va., on Sunday told NBC News' "Meet the
Press" that calls to impeach Justice Department officials for their
handling of the release of the Epstein files are "premature," after
Khanna, on Friday floated the possibility of impeachment.
On Sunday, Kaine pointed to other mechanisms Congress has for prompting the Trump administration to release certain information.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will be fined every day that the Justice Department fails to release all the Jeffrey Epstein files if a bipartisan effort to hold her in contempt of Congress proves successful.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna—who authored the legislation forcing the DOJ to release all Epstein-related files—say they plan to pursue legal action against Bondi for failing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump.
After a 30-day grace period, she would face daily punishment under their plan.
While the DOJ did release a trove of documents on Friday, potentially hundreds of thousands of Epstein-related records remain unreleased. Of the material made public, hundreds of pages were heavily redacted, including documents tied to a grand jury investigation that were entirely blacked out. The DOJ also removed at least 16 files that had initially been available online, including one that featured photographs of Trump.
Pam da Bimbo has failed the American people yet again. Farrah Tomazin (DAILY BEAST) notes:
Jeffrey Epstein’s victims have torched Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Epstein files, accusing the justice department of unlawfully keeping the public in the dark over the sex trafficker and his powerful networks.
Days after the department only partially released the information it holds on Epstein and what the government did to stop his heinous crimes, a group of 19 women abused by him have hit out at the department for botching the issue and violating the law.
In a joint statement released on Monday, the women pointed to the litany of missteps they say Bondi and her department have made, from failing to release all the files by Friday’s deadline, to putting out swathes of documents that were entirely blacked out while leaving some victims’ names un-redacted.
“We are told that there are hundreds and thousands of pages of documents still unreleased. These are clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law,” their statement says.
“There has been no communication with survivors or our representatives as to what was withheld from release or why hundreds of thousands of documents have not been disclosed by the legal deadline, or how the DOJ will ensure that no more victims are wrongly disclosed.
“While clearer communication would not change the fact that a law was broken, its absence suggests an ongoing intent to keep survivors and the public in the dark as much as possible and as long as possible.”
The criticism is not dying down. The criticism is not going away. Donald Chump and company have taken what was for them an embarrassing situation and made it even worse. Now people are really wondering what's being hidden? We've now got yet another cover-up and people are wondering. Taiyler S. Mitchell (HUFFINGTON POST) explains:
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued that the redactions in the Epstein files released on Friday are nonsensical and most likely indicative of a cover-up.
“If you read the statute, the only things that are allowed to be redacting are related to child *** abuse, physical abuse, ongoing investigations, which they say there are none, and national security. So how can you block out an entire document? It makes no sense,” Raskin told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on an episode of “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“And, remember, Trump opposed the legislation up until the very end, when he could read the writing on the wall. Then he said, ‘Oh, I’m for it,’” Raskin said, reasoning that Trump’s switch-up came after Trump’s followers decided that they would work to “obstruct the implementation of the legislation.”
They supposedly want to move on to a different topic but their actions necessitate that America continues to focus on this issue.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Sunday he thinks it’s a “big mistake” for the Trump administration to release heavily redacted files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying the issue could now “plague them for months.”
“I think it’s a big mistake,” Paul said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” when asked about concerns over the Justice Department’s partial release of files on Friday.
“I
mean, look, the administration has struggled for months and months with
something they initially ginned up and then sort of tried to tamp down.
So, any evidence or any kind of indication that there’s not a full
reveal on this, this will just plague them for months and months more,”
he continued.
“So, my suggestion would be: Give up all the information … be transparent and release everything the law requires of you,” Paul added.
This all comes as bad news continues to roll in for Chump. Giulia Carbonaro (NEWSWEEK) reports:
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped among the least educated Americans over the past three months, according to the latest poll released by Quantus Insights on Thursday.
It is yet more bad news for the president, whose popularity has tanked in recent weeks as Americans grow more concerned over the U.S. economy and more frustrated about the ongoing affordability challenges they are facing.
We'll wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Senators: “At a time when veterans are already facing widespread cuts in their access to health care from H.R. 1, skyrocketing health insurance premiums from expiring enhanced premium tax credits, and forced closures of rural hospitals, VA needs to be expanding its capacity and staffing levels, not reducing them.”
ICYMI: VIDEO FROM SENATOR MURRAY: “Exactly zero veterans think the problem with the VA health care system is that there are *too many* staff providing care. But Trump’s VA has now decided it won’t fill thousands of open positions. We need answers about what this will mean for veterans.”
***LETTER HERE***
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, joined Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and 36 of their Senate Democratic colleagues in a letter demanding answers about the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate as many as 35,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This follows recent reporting from The Washington Post detailing the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate tens of thousands of unfilled mission-critical health care positions at VA, including for doctors, nurses, and support staff.
“We write to express our concern following the December 13, 2025, Washington Post article ‘VA plans to abruptly eliminate tens of thousands of health care jobs,’ which spotlights the Department’s plan to cut as many as 35,000 vacant positions from its workforce rolls before the end of the calendar year,” the senators wrote in a letter to VA Secretary Collins. “Compounded by the exodus of more than 40,000 Department employees in fiscal year (FY) 2025, any unjustified cuts to existing vacancies would further disrupt a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) workforce that is already stretched dangerously thin and under assault.”
The senators pushed back on Secretary Collins’ claims that cutting these jobs will have “no impact” on VA health care, pointing to data that even if cuts were focused on non-clinical and administrative vacancies, VA would still have to cut 18,000 vacancies from essential, veteran-facing positions to meet their 35,000 number. They pressed Collins to provide additional information on VA’s plans to eliminate these positions, including asking for the list of positions removed; the names and titles of staff involved in making this decision; what evidence VA used to support this removal of vacancies; and what data was used to inform individual facility staffing baselines.
The senators concluded, emphasizing the gravity of this plan amid Republicans’ health care-cutting agenda across the government: “Unfilled positions are not reflective of unnecessary positions, and the length of time a position is vacant is not a suitable data point for determining need. At a time when veterans are already facing widespread cuts in their access to health care from H.R. 1, skyrocketing health insurance premiums from expiring enhanced premium tax credits, and forced closures of rural hospitals, VA needs to be expanding its capacity and staffing levels, not reducing them. Veterans deserve a VA staffed according to their needs and a Secretary who works to fill needed positions, not abolish them.”
VA already lost more than 40,000 employees between January and September of this year as a result of President Trump and VA Secretary Collins’ hiring freeze, deferred resignations, early retirements, and the significant number of VA staff who have quit since the Trump administration took office due to draconian workforce policies. In addition, VA had at least 42,000 vacancies across the Department as of March 31, 2025, and that number is estimated to have grown significantly since then. The removal of these positions would put VA at pre-PACT Act staffing levels. More than one million veterans newly enrolled in VA health care as a result of expanded eligibility under the PACT Act, and millions more have increased reliance on VA because of toxic exposure-related illnesses and injuries.
These continued cuts of VA health care follow widespread health care cuts initiated by Republicans across the government. Senate Republicans have failed to join Democratic efforts to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits, which 267,000 veterans rely on to afford health care. Coupled with Medicare and Medicaid cuts from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that go into effect next year, Americans, including millions of veterans and veteran family members, are facing skyrocketing premiums and a looming health care crisis.
In addition to Senators Murray and Blumenthal, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elisa Slotkin (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has been outspoken in standing up for veterans, VA employees, and VA researchers against Trump and Elon Musk’s indiscriminate mass layoffs that will undermine critical services our nation’s veterans rely on every day. In January, Murray called on President Trump to exempt all VA employees from the hiring freeze issued as part of his Day One Executive Orders. Senator Murray, was among the first to raise the alarm about the layoffs of VA researchers and called on President Trump to immediately reverse the firings. She pressed VA Deputy Secretary nominee Dr. Paul Lawrence on the firings of VA researchers at the hearing on his nomination, and held multiple press conferences with VA employees and veterans in Washington state who were abruptly laid off for no reason as part of the Trump administration’s mass firings at VA. Earlier this year, Senator Murray forcefully denounced the Trump administration’s initial plan to fire 80,000 employees at VA.
Last week, Senator Murray released a video slamming the Trump administration’s plan not to fill thousands of open positions at VA, and demanding answers.
The lawmakers’ full letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Collins:
We write to express our concern following the December 13, 2025, Washington Post article “VA plans to abruptly eliminate tens of thousands of health care jobs,” which spotlights the Department’s plan to cut as many as 35,000 vacant positions from its workforce rolls before the end of the calendar year. Compounded by the exodus of more than 40,000 Department employees in fiscal year (FY) 2025, any unjustified cuts to existing vacancies would further disrupt a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) workforce that is already stretched dangerously thin and under assault.
Based on data mandated by Section 505 of Public Law 115-182, the VA MISSION Act of 2018, as of quarter two of FY 2025, the Department had a total of 42,518 vacancies. These vacant positions included 7,560 nurses, 4,400 schedulers, 2,800 physicians, 1,900 social workers, 1,650 nursing assistants, 1,630 practical nurses, 1,230 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, 1,080 health technicians, 860 veterans claims examiners, 760 police, and 710 psychologists – totaling more than 24,500 of the 42,500 vacancies. If the Department cut every other vacancy outside of these roles – which would still include cuts to various clinical and veteran-facing roles – VA would still have to cut 18,000 vacancies from essential, veteran-facing positions in order to meet the 35,000 number. These cannot all be “COVID-era roles,” as VA has claimed, nor can these cuts be downplayed because some have been vacant for longer than one year.
We request the following information regarding VA’s elimination of these positions:
- Please provide a list of vacant positions removed, disaggregated by facility and job series.
- Please provide a list of positions removed, disaggregated by job series and then by length of time since they were last encumbered or the position was created based on these categories of time: less than 30 days, greater than 30 days, greater than 90 days, greater than 180 days, greater than 365 days, and greater than 730 days.
- Please provide the titles of VA Central Office staff and the offices or departments involved in making this decision.
- VA already regularly adds and removes positions based on need as part of its normal recruitment and budgeting processes. What evidence was there to support this significantly larger removal of vacancies?
- Memos from the Department planning for this removal of vacancies reference a baseline number of positions used to inform individual facility staffing numbers. What is that baseline, and how was that number decided upon? How were individual facility baselines calculated based on that number?
- Why did the Department choose to use number of positions instead of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to establish these baselines? How were positions that typically do not occupy one FTE for each individual staff member, such as researchers, accounted for in the baseline and the cuts?
- Please detail the approval process for a facility or hiring manager to request new vacancies, roles, or recruitment processes beyond the new baseline.
- Based on what criteria can a facility or hiring manager request a new position or vacancy above the baseline?
- In VA’s FY 2026 budget request, the Department requested funding for 396,000 total FTE. As such, Congress provided $167 billion for the treatment of 7.7 million patients and 162.6 million outpatient visits to VA for FY 2026. Please provide an updated staffing and workload projection for FY 2026 that accounts for these vacancy cuts.
- How did the Department account for minimum staffing ratios when making these cuts, especially those required for nursing, long-term care, spinal cord injury and disorder teams, and mental health care?
Unfilled positions are not reflective of unnecessary positions, and the length of time a position is vacant is not a suitable data point for determining need. At a time when veterans are already facing widespread cuts in their access to health care from H.R. 1, skyrocketing health insurance premiums from expiring enhanced premium tax credits, and forced closures of rural hospitals, VA needs to be expanding its capacity and staffing levels, not reducing them. Veterans deserve a VA staffed according to their needs and a Secretary who works to fill needed positions, not abolish them.
Sincerely,
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