Trump's AG Tells Epstein Victims He Can't Give Them Justice

Trump is approving disaster aid by party, the ICE officer who killed a man in Maine was rejected by the military for violence, and North Carolina just made it easier to throw out your vote

Good morning. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

Trump has approved 80% of disaster requests from Republican governors but only about 60% from Democrats. Epstein survivors walked out of a meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche calling him abrasive, condescending, and unwilling to commit to anything. The ICE officer who shot and killed a Colombian man in Maine was rejected by military recruiters over his mental health diagnoses. And North Carolina Republicans just made it easier to throw out the ballots of voters who don’t have photo ID.

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Trump Approves Disaster Aid Faster if Your State Voted for Him

Turns out the most important thing you can do before a hurricane isn’t board up your windows. It’s register Republican.

Since taking office, Trump has approved about 65 major disaster declarations and denied more than two dozen. The denials are not falling evenly. He has approved 80% of requests from Republican governors but only about 60% from Democratic governors.

Break it down by how a state voted, and it gets worse. Trump has approved more than three-fourths of requests from states that backed him in 2024, and less than half from states that did not.

Earlier this month, he denied four Democratic states — Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island — all seeking aid for a February snowstorm.

He is also slower. It now takes him an average of a month and a half to approve a declaration, the longest of any president since 1989. During his first term, it took about three weeks. Obama, Bush, Clinton, and George H.W. Bush all averaged under two weeks.

The White House says there is “no politicization” in the decisions. Obama’s approval rate was identical for states that voted for and against him.

Epstein Survivors Slam Trump’s AG After Disastrous Meeting

The acting Attorney General told sex trafficking survivors he couldn’t give them justice, which does raise the question of what he thinks the job is.

Todd Blanche met Thursday with about ten survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. He came out calling it productive. The survivors said he interrupted them, dodged their questions, and refused to commit to anything.

Survivor Annie Farmer said she found him “abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors.” Survivor Dani Bensky said he “danced around his wording” and urged senators to vote no.

The meeting only happened because Republican Sen. Thom Tillis demanded it before he would vote to advance the nomination. Amanda Roberts, Virginia Giuffre’s sister-in-law, said it felt like Blanche only did it because “his hand was forced.”

Blanche’s main offer was that survivors could report their crimes all over again to the FBI and provide corroboration. Survivors said their personal information had already been dumped publicly when the DOJ botched the redactions on the Epstein files. Bensky pointed out that the fixes came far too late for the people whose names were already out there.

The nation’s top law enforcement officer sat across from sex trafficking survivors, told them he couldn’t give them justice, and offered to let them re-report their crimes to the agency that already botched their personal information. The networks will move on by Monday. We’ll still be here. Become a paid subscriber today.

ICE Officer Who Killed a Man Has Violent History

Military recruiters once rejected David Brouillette because of his mental health diagnoses. Their solution, according to a relative, was to tell him to go off his medications for a year and reapply. He did.

Then ICE gave him a badge and a gun.

On Monday, Brouillette shot and killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in his car near his home in Biddeford. He is one of at least 10 people who have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump relaunched his crackdown.

Several of Brouillette’s own relatives told the AP he never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets. They accuse him of attacking women in his life for years. One shared a voicemail from last winter in which he said someone should slit her throat.

The record is long. His first ex-wife says he threw boiling water at her while she held their child. Hundreds of family court records from Augusta detail years of alleged abuse: tackling his teenage daughter, smashing spaghetti into her hair, and dragging her around the house as she cried. A judge granted a protective order in 2021.

A relative said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and ADD as a child, attempted suicide twice at age 12, and was hospitalized multiple times. His daughter Madison said she once came home to find him telling her he’d been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.

DHS has not released the shooter’s name. ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis accused those asking of attempting to “dox our law enforcement officers,” but did say he has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience and use-of-force training.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.

North Carolina Makes It Easier to Throw Out Your Ballot

In North Carolina, it’s now easier for a county board to throw out your ballot than to pass a local ordinance.

On Thursday, the Republican-led State Board of Elections approved a rule making it significantly easier for county officials to throw out votes. It passed 3-2, along party lines.

Here’s the change. When a voter doesn’t have a photo ID, they submit a form instead. Rejecting that form used to require a unanimous vote of the local board. Now it takes a simple majority, which means Republicans in most counties.

It’s the latest fallout from the GOP takeover of the board last year. Republicans stripped Gov. Josh Stein of election oversight and handed it to State Auditor Dave Boliek, who installed GOP operatives at the state board and in his own office.

Then there’s Dallas Woodhouse, the auditor’s liaison to local boards, caught pressuring Republican members to cut voting hours and close polling places in areas favorable to Democrats. He resigned this week. When Democrats proposed subpoenaing him, Republican member Stacy Eggers called it an attack on “First Amendment-protected political speech.”

Apparently the First Amendment now covers everything except voting.

If today’s newsletter told you anything, it is that this administration can’t stay out of its own way, and somebody has to keep track of all of it. AlterNet America does this work without a billionaire owner calling the shots. If you’ve been reading on a free subscription, today is the day to upgrade to a paying membership. Every subscription goes directly toward keeping this kind of reporting alive. Subscribe or upgrade right now.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.

POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

NBC, ABC and CNN Didn’t Air Trump’s Primetime Election Speech. Three major networks declined to hand Trump their live primetime airwaves for a Thursday night address he suggested would be about “election integrity.” ABC and NBC opted to stream it rather than broadcast it, while CNN covered it as a news event with analysts on standby, and CBS planned a special report without guaranteeing the full speech. Trump responded from the podium by claiming “fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses” and complaining the networks use “our public multibillion dollar in value airways.” The Hollywood Reporter notes networks routinely decline to carry speeches: they did the same for Biden, Obama, and Bush.

Trump Approval Stuck in the 30s Amid Pessimism on Iran and Economy. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll has Trump at 37 percent approval and 61 percent disapproval, numbers that have not moved since February. That means the war, the tariffs, the rallies, and whatever he’s doing on Truth Social at 3 a.m. aren’t moving the needle. Even more telling: only 15 percent of Americans now strongly approve of him, a new low. For the first time, a majority of his own supporters are backing him with the enthusiasm of someone picking “fine” when asked where to eat. He is now polling at roughly the same level he was when he left office in 2021, which at least suggests consistency.

‘Create Healthier Communities’: PA Budget Doubles Rape Crisis Center Funding. Pennsylvania lawmakers approved an additional $12 million in the state budget to fund rape crisis centers, the largest such increase in state history. The money doubles funding for the 47 centers serving Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, which fielded more than 12,000 calls to rape crisis lines last year. Advocates with PCAR and the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg said the funds will support round-the-clock counselors and restore services that had been waitlisted, after last year’s budget impasse forced delays in help for survivors. For once, the people who answer calls at 3 a.m. will have the staffing to keep answering.

Oakland Firefighters Saved a Pigeon, and the Internet Is Losing It. After responding to a vehicle fire beneath a highway overpass on 75th Avenue in East Oakland early Sunday, firefighters from Engine 29 were approached by a pigeon in distress, apparently suffering from smoke inhalation. Crews cupped a mask over the bird’s face, administered oxygen, and watched it fly away, then disposed of the mask to prevent spreading germs from bird to bird. The firefighters’ union posted a 15-second clip Tuesday night, and it surpassed 5 million views. One commenter’s line — “This is what my tax dollars are for” — racked up more than 90,000 likes. The Oaklandside reports it was unable to reach the pigeon for comment.