Rubio meets with Russia’s Lavrov after Trump’s shift on Russia and Ukraine
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(NEW YORK) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Wednesday, one day after President Donald Trump called Moscow a “paper tiger” and said Ukraine could win back its seized land.
Rubio and Lavrov sat with their delegations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was also present for the meeting.
For months, Trump had said Kyiv would likely need to cede territory to Russia to end the war. But Trump abruptly reversed after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday.
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump wrote. “With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not?”
Russia, he suggested, was a “paper tiger” as he criticized its military.
It wasn’t clear what made Trump change his tune. Zelenskyy said he believed Trump was aware of “more details” and that U.S. intelligence is now more aligned with that of Ukraine’s view. It also remains to be seen whether Trump’s shift in rhetoric will come with any change in policy.
Russia pushed back quickly that it was a “bear” not a “paper tiger,” and that Trump was mistaken.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump “heard Zelenskyy’s version of events. Apparently, this version was the reason for the assessment we heard. We cannot agree with everything here.”
“We will have the opportunity to convey our assessment of recent events to the American side. In particular, [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov will have a meeting,” Peskov added.
Rubio, at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Tuesday, warned there would “come a moment in which we will have to conclude that perhaps there is no interest in a peaceful resolution” from Rusia and that Trump’s “patience is not infinite.”
Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, in which he warned members that Putin wants to expand his war and spoke about what he said was a breakdown of international order.
“International law doesn’t work fully unless you have powerful friends who are truly willing to stand up for it,” Zelenskyy said. “And even that doesn’t work without weapons. It’s terrible but without it, things will be even worse. There are no security guarantees except friends and weapons.”
“If it takes pressure on Russia, it must be done and it must be done now otherwise Putin will keep driving the war forward, wider and deeper,” Zelenskyy added. “We told you before, Ukraine is only the first and now Russian drones are already flying across Europe, and Russian operations are already spreading across countries … No one can feel safe right now.”
Trump on Tuesday said NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace.
Jason C. Andrew/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene escalated their feud over the weekend after the Georgia Republican slammed the president and the administration over a number of topics, including the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Trump went so far as to withdraw his support for Greene and said he would support a primary challenger.
“Lightweight Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Brown (Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!), betrayed the entire Republican Party when she turned Left,” Trump said in a social media post Saturday morning as part of an online back and forth with Greene.
Greene said Saturday in an X post that she had received death threats.
“As a Republican, who overwhelmingly votes for President Trump‘s bills and agenda, his aggression against me which also fuels the venomous nature of his radical internet trolls (many of whom are paid), this is completely shocking to everyone,” she said.
The conflict began this week after Greene questioned in an NBC News interview if Trump was focused on domestic affairs.
“No one cares about the foreign countries. No one cares about the never-ending amount of foreign leaders coming to the White House every single week,” she said in the interview.
On Friday, Trump responded to her words, telling reporters aboard Air Force One, “she is a very different figure,” and that he was no longer “a fan.”
“Something happened to her over the last period of a month or two where she changed. I think politically, I think that her constituents aren’t going to be happy,” he said. “But when she says, ‘Don’t go overseas.’ If I didn’t go overseas, we might be in a war right now with China.”
Trump added he would consider backing a primary challenger and in a social media post later in the night withdrew his endorsement of the congresswoman.
He wrote, “all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN.”
“I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support,” the president added.
Greene pushed back against Trump Friday night in an X post, contending that the president was upset with her after she texted him about the ongoing Epstein investigation.
“And of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files,” she said. “It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”
“I never thought that fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are,” Greene said in an X post Saturday morning “And it truly speaks for itself.”
The president, who spent Saturday morning golfing in Florida, slammed Greene in a social media post arguing she, “became the RINO that we all know she always was. Just another Fake politician.”
(WASHINGTON) — FBI Director Kash Patel faced questions about his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files when he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for a roughly five-hour hearing Wednesday — sparring with lawmakers calling for answers about unreleased documents in the investigation.
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin and Patel argued over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Trump administration has been dealing with blowback it received from the president’s supporters for its decision to not release more materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
Raskin asked why Patel hadn’t “released the names of Epstein’s co-conspirators in the rape and sex trafficking of young women and girls.” The FBI and prosecutors investigated Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators — even after his death. That investigation resulted in the 2020 indictment and subsequent conviction of Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Prosecutors otherwise have not made public statements about any particular individual they suspect of conspiring with Epstein.
Patel fired back at Raskin that “we have released more material than anyone else before,” adding that the FBI has released “everything the court has allowed us.”
Earlier this month the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released tens of thousands of records related to Epstein, provided by the Department of Justice. A review of the documents released by the committee indicates they consist of public court filings and transcripts from Maxwell’s trial, previously released flight logs from Epstein’s plane, already public Bureau of Prisons communications the night of Epstein’s death and various other public court papers from Epstein’s criminal case in Florida.
On Tuesday, the committee’s Chairman James Comer said it received additional documents from the Epstein estate, which he said it plans to release to the public at some point.
Raskin responded to Patel, saying that the FBI’s release of documents has “nothing to do with what those courts have,” accusing Patel of going against comments he made before becoming FBI director where he suggested that the federal government was shielding information regarding the Epstein case and that the FBI director has direct control of the Epstein files.
“Do you know how the law works?” Patel asked, later adding “I’m not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity.”
Raskin said Patel’s answers were “all misdirection.”
Later, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who filed a discharge petition for the release of the Epstein files, challenged Patel on the FBI director’s claim — which he made before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday — that there is no credible information that Epstein trafficked women to anyone other than himself. In doing so, Massie noted that alleged victims of Epstein have provided interviews to the FBI which detail allegations, according to Massie, against at least 20 men.
Patel claimed in response to Massie — who asked if he had decided that these allegations that were not credible — that it wasn’t his assertion, but it was the assessment of three separate U.S. Attorneys from separate administrations.
In another testy exchange, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said he “called b——-” on Patel’s claims about courts preventing the release of documents. Swalwell also repeatedly tried to get Patel to answer “yes or no” to a question about whether he told Attorney General Pam Bondi that the president’s name appeared in the Epstein files. Patel never answered directly and the whole exchange ended up in a shouting match between the two.
“I’m going to borrow your terminology and call b——- on your entire career in Congress, which is a disgrace to the American public,” Patel said to Swalwell.
When Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman went after Patel for not releasing the “full Epstein files,” Patel said the FBI is “releasing as much as legally allowed.”
“You are hiding the Epstein files! You are part of the cover up,” Goldman claimed.
Patel’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday was also marked by explosive interactions with Democrats. During his appearance, he feuded with Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Cory Booker — at one point calling the California senator a “political buffoon” and an “utter coward.”
Schiff hit back as the two yelled over each other: “You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but [he] will always be nothing more than an internet troll.”
In a shouting match with Booker, the New Jersey senator said that Patel was making the country “weaker and less safe.”
Patel fired back that Booker’s comments do “not bring this country together.”
Charlie Kirk shooting investigation
Patel defended his work leading the agency and touting the quick arrest of the suspect in the shooting of conservative activist and influencer Charlie Kirk last week.
Patel used his opening statement to highlight the work he has done in his first few months leading the FBI — including putting out pictures of the suspect in the Kirk case, which he said “led to his apprehension.”
“Because of the video that the FBI released under my direction, because of the photographs that they released, they identified their son,” Patel said of the details of the apprehension of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the alleged shooter in Kirk’s killing last week.
On Tuesday, he said the FBI is investigating if others are involved after the online messaging platform, Discord confirmed reports that before the shooting the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, posted messages to a small group of friends on the platform that allegedly said, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all … It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
“There are a number of individuals that are currently being investigated and interrogated, and a number yet to be investigated and interrogated, specific to that chat room. So we are very much in our ongoing posture of investigation,” Patel said, adding that other people could be involved.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — After months of anticipation, the House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill ordering the release of the Justice Department’s files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It passed 427-1 — with GOP Rep. Clay Higgins as the only vote against the measure.
The bill will now head to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain.
About a dozen Epstein victims, including Virginia Giuffre’s brother, were seated in the front row of the gallery as the vote got underway. Some left the chamber after the tally grew above a supermajority and passage was not in peril.
Earlier on Tuesday, a group of women victimized by Epstein spoke outside the Capitol and urged lawmakers to vote yes on the bill. Several took aim at President Donald Trump directly and criticized his handling of the matter.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to avoid holding a vote in the lower chamber on the Epstein matter. In late July, Johnson sent the House home a day early for August recess because the House was paralyzed in a stalemate over the Epstein issue.
The speaker also sent the House home for more than 50 days during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — delaying the swearing in of Democrat Adelita Grijalva. After the shutdown ended last week, the Arizona Democrat became the 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition, compelling the speaker to bring a bill co-sponsored by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to the floor for a vote this week.
Johnson continued to criticize the bill on Tuesday morning but confirmed he would be voting to move it forward.
Just before votes were cast, Johnson said on the House floor that it was a “political exercise” and that the bill has “serious deficiencies.” Johnson said he hoped the Senate makes changes to it.
“[Trump] has nothing to hide,” Johnson said.
The president had also mounted opposition to the measure, including what sources said was an attempt to dissuade GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert in the White House Situation Room from supporting the discharge petition to force a floor vote.
But faced with growing support for the measure in the GOP-controlled House, Trump suddenly reversed course over the weekend and said Republicans should vote yes on releasing the files “because we have nothing to hide.”
Pressed if he will sign the bill should it reach his desk, Trump on Monday said he would.
“I’m all for it,” Trump said.
The measure — called “The Epstein Files Transparency Act” — would compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to make available all “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” in the Department of Justice’s possession related to Epstein.
The legislation seeks federal records on Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s “criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity, plea agreements or investigatory proceedings.” Victims’ names and other identifying information would be excluded from disclosure, as would any items that may depict or contain child sex abuse material, according to the text of the proposed bill.
For months, Johnson has pointed at the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry — claiming that the panel’s probe is more far-reaching than the Khanna-Massie bill. Proponents of the bill argue that “the record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Trump does not need to wait for Congress to act — he could order the release immediately.
Even if the measure passes through the House and Senate and is ultimately signed into law by Trump, it’s unlikely the Justice Department would release the entire Epstein file, according to sources. Any materials related to ongoing investigations or White House claims of executive privilege will likely remain out of public view.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking young girls and women.
