Good evening, I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
Tonight, we’ve got five stories that show exactly how morally bankrupt those in power really are. Former President Bill Clinton answers questions about Epstein, and tells Democrats something surprising about Trump. Speaker Johnson is treating a potentially dying congressman as a chess piece. RFK Jr. wants you to eat liver to cope with Trump’s inflation. Bill O’Reilly demands Robert De Niro be jailed for criticising the president. And CBS’ new Trump-oriented boss can’t stop platforming Epstein’s friends.
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Now let’s get into it.
Clinton Hints Trump Lied About Cutting off Epstein Ties
Bill Clinton sat for hours of closed-door questioning on Friday before the House Oversight Committee, making him the first president in American history to be forced to testify before Congress against his will. That’s a remarkable sentence to have to write.
Clinton’s position was straightforward: “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.” He acknowledged he had a relationship with Epstein, but insisted he never knew about the crimes. He said he cut off the association well before Epstein’s first guilty plea.
Here’s what’s interesting: There are a lot of photos of the current president with Epstein. And Trump himself was less than enthusiastic about seeing Clinton deposed.
Bill Clinton dropped one hint that may give a clue about Trump’s position: During his testimony, Clinton revealed that he’d had a conversation with Trump at a golf event in which Trump told him the reason he fell out with Epstein. According to Democratic representatives who described the testimony afterward, Trump told Clinton the rift was over a land dispute. Not because Epstein was preying on girls working at Mar-a-Lago, which is the story Trump has continued to tell.
Chairman James Comer tried to spin this as Clinton clearing Trump of wrongdoing. Democrats pushed back hard. According to one Democrat, what Clinton actually said was that nothing he personally heard from Trump gave him reason to believe Trump was involved in wrongdoing. That’s different from exoneration. It’s important to note that Trump’s name appears roughly 38,000 times across the DOJ’s three million Epstein documents.
Based on Clinton’s testimony, Congressman Ro Khanna proposed a new “Clinton Rule,” meaning that presidents and their families have to testify when Congress issues a subpoena. Several Democrats made clear they’d be invoking that precedent should they regain control of the House in November.
The investigation that was supposed to be about a bipartisan reckoning with Epstein’s network has turned into a partisan sideshow, while the current president, who has plenty of Epstein questions to answer, watches from the sidelines.
The GOP’s Most Cynical Power Play Yet
Now to a story that lays bare just how precarious — and ruthless — the Republican House majority has become. Speaker Mike Johnson told GOP donors at a retreat in Florida on Friday that Representative Neal Dunn of Florida may have a terminal illness. Punchbowl News first reported the remarks.
Dunn is 73. He’s already said he won’t run for reelection. He’s also ruled out resigning before his term ends in early 2027. Staffers say he’s been “working as usual” and will remain in Congress to represent his constituents through the end of his term.
But Johnson’s decision to share a potentially terminal diagnosis with a room full of donors in the context of holding the majority together tells you exactly what the calculation is here. It’s not about Dunn’s constituents. It’s about the math.
The current House split is 218-214. Losing just two seats could hand Democrats the ability to deadlock Republican priorities on party-line votes for the remainder of the year. So the play is clear: keep Dunn in his seat, regardless of his health, for as long as possible.
A potentially dying man is being asked to hold onto his congressional seat so his party can keep passing its agenda. That’s the Republican majority in 2025.
Let Them Eat Liver
Now to a story that would be funny if it weren’t so revealing. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the stage at an “Eat Real Food” rally with some financial advice for Americans struggling with grocery bills under Trump’s inflation: Eat liver, or “cheaper cuts.” The backlash was immediate and well-deserved.
Representative Ted Lieu responded with barely contained delight, publicly urging the White House to send Kennedy to every swing House district in America to personally tell constituents to eat liver to cope with surging inflation. DNC Chair Ken Martin pointed out that Trump is likely not serving liver to a room full of wealthy donors at Mar-a-Lago tonight.
The Lincoln Project put it plainly: if grocery prices are cheaper like Trump keeps claiming, why does his administration keep telling Americans to cut corners or go without?
The historical resonance here isn’t subtle. There’s a Marie Antoinette quality to a Cabinet secretary at a wellness rally cheerfully suggesting the peasants make do with cheaper cuts while the president dines with billionaire donors by candlelight.
O’Reilly Wants De Niro Jailed for Criticizing Trump
Finally, a story that tells you everything about where the right’s relationship with free speech actually stands. Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly went on his show this week and called on the Justice Department to “make an example” of actor Robert De Niro — potentially including jailing him — for comments the actor made about Donald Trump.
The offending remarks came from an interview De Niro gave to a podcast, in which he said Trump “will never leave” office and that Americans need to “get rid of him.” O’Reilly decided that “we got to get rid of him” constituted a threat against the president’s life, saying, “I’d make an example of this guy, De Niro.”
Let’s be clear about what’s happening: A prominent conservative media figure is calling on the federal government to investigate a private citizen for publicly saying a president should be booted from office. This is constitutionally protected speech.
Authoritarian drift doesn’t always arrive with jackboots. Sometimes it arrives with a pundit on a podcast, insisting that criticism of the president is a criminal matter that the DOJ should prioritize.
CBS’ New Boss Can’t Stop Promoting Epstein’s Circle
Finally, here’s a recurring pattern worth examining: CBS News’ Bari Weiss hosted a debate Thursday between Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.
Mehdi Hasan, who founded the media company Zeteo, was blunt on social media, saying Weiss “can’t seem to stop promoting Epstein’s pals.” He included a photo of Pinker posing with Epstein and physicist Lawrence Krauss, posted to Epstein’s own foundation Facebook page back in 2014.
This is the second time in recent months Weiss has faced this kind of scrutiny. In January, she hired anti-aging guru Peter Attia as a CBS News contributor. Then, the DOJ released Epstein files containing emails between Attia and Epstein that included crude jokes about women, and a disturbing exchange in which Attia ignored his wife’s pleas to fly home to help their hospitalized baby in order to meet with Epstein instead. Attia resigned from his CBS role this week.
This is important because Paramount, CBS’ parent, is poised to gain control of CNN. Industry talk suggests CBS might be merged with CNN, with Weiss as its head.
Journalist Julie K. Brown has noted that Pinker helped Epstein’s legal defense in 2007. Pinker says he was doing a favour for a colleague and didn’t know who the client was. He later said he regretted it. True or not, Weiss’ poor decision-making is becoming hard to ignore.
These stories aren’t unrelated. An investigation into Epstein that’s avoiding the most powerful man involved. A media gatekeeper who keeps elevating Epstein’s circle. And a commentator demanding the government jail an actor for criticizing the president. According to the regime, accountability applies only to some, and not to others.
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I’m British Chris for Raw America. Thanks for watching.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Democrats Say They Have Enough Votes to Subpoena Lutnick Over Epstein. Democratic members of the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee say they now have the votes to issue a subpoena to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Democrats aim to question Lutnick over his ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, particularly after a photo emerged this week of Lutnick with Epstein on his Little Saint James Island. Lutnick previously testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he admitted to visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 despite telling the New York Post last year that he cut ties with the convicted child predator in 2005.
CNN Staffers Panic Over Looming Sale to Billionaire Trump Donors. Multiple employees of CNN are expressing fears of what will happen to the network after the sale of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Skydance, which is led by centibillionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison’s son, David. One unnamed source told Status News that “everybody is reeling” from the news, with another saying: “The panic at CNN right now is off the charts.” The Ellisons also own CBS, and installed right-wing columnist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief despite her having no prior television news experience.
Trump Reportedly Angry with FBI Chief Over Olympics Trip. FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly got an earful from President Trump after he was seen in a video chugging a beer in the locker room after the Team USA men’s hockey team won the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics. NBC News is reporting that Trump also criticized Patel’s use of a taxpayer-funded aircraft to make a personal trip to Italy. Patel has insisted the trip was necessary to coordinate security with Italian officials.
Democratic Senator Raises $102,000 from Trump’s Attack. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) — who appeared in a video alongside five other Democrats urging active-duty troops to remember their duty to disobey illegal orders — has already raised $102,000 for her legal defense fund since President Trump accused her of sedition. Slotkin raised the money between December 4 and December 31 of last year, after Trump threatened to prosecute her over her remarks. The Justice Department has since abandoned its effort to prosecute Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) for his appearance in the video.
Trump DOJ Indicts 30 More People Over Minnesota Church Protest. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that 30 more people had been charged in connection with a nonviolent January protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where one of the pastors reportedly also works as an ICE official. 39 people have now been charged in relation to the protest, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who made it clear to police he was there to document the protest as a journalist.
