BONDI IN HOT SEAT: Attorney General Pam Bondi faced tough questions Wednesday about the DOJ’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, engaging in often tense exchanges with lawmakers.
One of the most combative moments came when Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called on Bondi to turn around and apologize to survivors of Epstein’s actions who were in the audience of the House Judiciary Committee hearing.
The Democratic lawmaker asked the 11 survivors present to stand and raise their hand if they hadn’t been able to meet with Trump’s DOJ. All 11 stood and raised their hands.
Jayapal and Bondi engaged in a shouting match in which the progressive lawmaker denounced the “harm” she said the DOJ has done and the attorney general accused her of "theatrics" and being "unprofessional."
Bondi also sparred with other Democrats on the committee, including ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.). She slammed Raskin as a “washed-up loser lawyer.”
“You all should be apologizing. You sit here and you attack the president,” she said.
“This administration released over 3 million pages of documents. Over 3 million. And Donald Trump signed that law to release all of those documents. He is the most transparent president in the nation’s history,” Bondi said.
But those arguments haven’t satisfied Democrats who have pushed for greater transparency, especially after the DOJ allowed lawmakers to review the unredacted files. Some accused the DOJ of improperly shielding names mentioned in the files in violation of the law.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reposted a picture on X showing the survivors standing and raising their hands while Bondi looks forward.
“A picture is worth a thousand words," he wrote.
▪ The Hill: Four takeaways from the fiery hearing.
▪ The Hill: 2028 Olympics leaders back Casey Wasserman after Epstein files fallout.
TRACKED SEARCHES: Multiple lawmakers said the DOJ tracked which Epstein files they reviewed when looking through the unredacted documents at the department this week.
Jayapal said in a post on X after the hearing with Bondi that the attorney general had with her a book with a "printed search history of exactly what emails I searched." She slammed it as "totally inappropriate" and a violation of the separation of powers.
"That is outrageous and I intend to pursue this and stop this spying on members," she said.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) joined Democrats in saying the DOJ is tracking which unredacted Epstein documents members of Congress open. She said there are timestamps associated with the tracking.
MS NOW reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the DOJ looking through Jayapal's search history would be "inappropriate" if it happened but didn't want to comment further on an allegation.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) backed up Jayapal in a post on X, saying he saw it himself.
"I was at the DOJ. That’s exactly what happened," he said.
ONTO THE SENATE: The pressure is on Senate Republicans after the House narrowly passed legislation to enact new voting requirements, but it faces an uncertain path forward in the upper chamber.
The House voted 218 to 213 on Wednesday to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in elections and voters to present an ID to cast a ballot. Conservatives in the House and Senate have zeroed in on the bill to advance their election integrity push.
Some Republicans have called for changing the Senate’s filibuster rule to allow the bill to advance, as it would otherwise need Democratic votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has dismissed that idea, saying he personally opposes changing it and that the GOP doesn’t have “anywhere close” to the votes necessary to do so.
And at least one member of the Republican conference has already come out against the legislation, as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) expressed concerns about adding sweeping new federal regulations on local election officials with just months before the midterms.
She also cited the Constitution’s empowerment of states to run elections.
Still, conservatives are likely to keep up pressure on Thune to take action, The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports.
▪ PBS: How the SAVE America Act could change voting.
▪ Fox News: Hard-line conservatives double down on SAVE America Act.
TARIFF REBUKE: Six House Republicans broke party lines to vote with nearly all Democrats for a resolution to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
The 219-211 vote is a blow to both the president and House Republican leadership, who were unable to gather enough votes to defeat the measure. GOP Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Kevin Kiley (Calif.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Jeff Hurd (Colo.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Dan Newhouse (Wash.) voted in favor, while Rep. Jared Golden (Maine) was the only Democrat to vote against it.
The resolution would declare an end to Trump’s use of a national emergency to impose tariffs on Canada. It now goes to the Senate, where it seems likely to pass with a few Republicans on record against the tariffs.
The president will likely veto the measure, but the votes are a symbolic rebuke of Trump’s policy. It’ll also open a door for Democrats to further press the administration on its tariff policy with a divided GOP.
Trump lashed out against the six Republicans in a post on Truth Social, threatening to support primary challenges against them. Bacon and Newhouse aren’t running for reelection, while Trump has already backed a challenger to Massie.
▪ The Hill: Dems seek to weaponize Trump tariffs against Republicans.
END OF AN ERA: Political observers are lamenting Gallup’s decision to no longer track presidential approval ratings after nearly nine decades of doing so.
The company said Wednesday that it would cease publishing approval and favorability ratings of individual political figures this year, reflecting an “evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.” It cited the sharp rise in the number of pollsters recording the president’s approval rating, resulting in Gallup no longer charting its own path in doing so.
Pollster Frank Luntz noted in a post on X that Gallup had been tracking approval ratings for every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Since then, the company has established a reputation as the premier firm for evaluating the public’s view of the president.
Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, called the decision a “huge loss” for journalists and those who follow politics.
“@Gallup has been the top source for presidential approval since FDR and particularly valuable because of that historical context with apples-to-apples numbers that allow us to make comparisons and see patterns,” he said in a post on X.
Gallup first surveyed the public on their view of the president in 1938 and has consistently asked respondents whether they approve or disapprove of the president’s job performance since Harry Truman’s presidency. It has regularly been one of the most cited trackers of presidential approval ratings among media outlets.
Trump’s approval rating reached its lowest point of his second term during Gallup’s most recent approval poll in November, falling to 36 percent.
▪ The Associated Press: What a Gallup poll shows about U.S. pessimism.
MIXED REPORT: The latest jobs report released Wednesday paints a mixed picture of the economy, which exceeded expectations last month but gained far fewer jobs than originally reported last year.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed the economy added 130,000 jobs in January, considerably higher than the 70,000 economists expected. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 percent.
But BLS also lowered the number of jobs gained in 2025 by 400,000, showing the economy only gained 181,000 during the year. The preliminary revision of jobs data is part of a standard annual process in which the agency recalculates employment data based on new information on the U.S. population.
▪ The Hill: Trump gets hint of good news from jobs report.
▪ Reuters: Dollar rallies after jobs report.
