Good evening. I’m British Chris, and you’re watching Raw America.
Trump is possibly encouraging his staff to commit crimes. The Pope is publicly rebuking the president over his war. Lawmakers are calling out concentration camp conditions inside an ICE facility. And one top Democrat wants Trump to take a cognitive test. Let’s get into it.
But first, if you haven’t yet, consider taking a moment to update your free Raw America subscription to a paying one. Raw America is Raw Story and Really American’s people-powered response to right-wing billionaires buying up legacy media outlets, firing reporters, and censoring journalism. They want to use their money to make sure that reporting holding them accountable doesn’t exist. This is why we created Raw America: Independent journalism doesn’t answer to a billionaire, but to readers like you. If that matters, subscribe right now. The link is right below.
Trump Promises Mass Pardons Before He Leaves Office
Trump has been privately telling White House aides and top administration officials that he’ll pardon them before he leaves office. And he’s apparently saying it constantly.
According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, he joked in a recent meeting that he’d “pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval.” The context matters here. Aides have been flagging to Trump that they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions they’ve made. And Trump’s response, repeatedly, has been: don’t worry about it, you’re covered.
This term, Trump has already issued around 1,600 pardons. That’s compared to fewer than 250 in his entire first term. Many have gone to allies, donors, and January 6 defendants. They include a crypto billionaire whose company helped prop up Trump’s own digital currency venture, and a former Honduran president convicted of conspiring with cartels to move cocaine into the U.S.
Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer, who Trump fired, said the president is telling his team that if they carry out his agenda, he’ll protect them from any legal consequences. This means the threat of prosecution stops working as a check on behavior when the president is dangling immunity as a reward for loyalty.
Pope Leo Shreds Trump Over Iran War
Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, is not staying quiet about the U.S. war with Iran.
The conflict began on February 28, and Trump escalated this week by telling Iran “a whole civilization will die tonight” if the country didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He also said God is on America’s side in the war.
Pope Leo’s response was direct, saying God “does not bless any conflict and that anyone who considers themselves a disciple of Christ “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” He called Trump’s rhetoric “truly unacceptable” and said military action won’t create peace, only dialogue can.
Reports also emerged this week that a Trump Pentagon official summoned the Vatican’s top diplomat to the U.S. and told him to get the Pope in line. The Vatican denied this flatly, saying that account “does not correspond to the truth in any way.”
Whether it happened or not, the fact that it was reported reflects the level of tension between the Trump administration and one of the most visible moral voices on the planet right now.
ICE Detention Center Packing Immigrants ‘Like Sardines’
Three Democratic members of Congress showed up unannounced Thursday night to an ICE holding facility in Mesa, Arizona, and what they found was deeply disturbing.
The Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center at Mesa-Gateway Airport has a stated capacity of 157 people. The Arizona Mirror had already reported Thursday morning that the facility has been running far over that capacity for most of this year.
When Reps. Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari, and Adelita Grijalva arrived., they found roughly 250 people packed into six holding rooms, each with a posted capacity of around 21 to 24 people. Each room had more than 40 people in it.
There were no beds. No blankets. People were laying on concrete floors.
When the lawmakers walked in, people pressed against the doors of the cells asking for help.
Grijalva, fighting back tears, described the scene as people packed in “like sardines.” Ansari called it “shameful.” Stanton said conditions were “significantly overcrowded.”
This facility is supposed to be a 12-hour holding center, a transit stop before deportation or transfer. ICE’s own statement to the Mirror said detainees are typically held “under 12 hours.” But a supervisor told the visiting lawmakers it was actually a 72-hour facility, with no beds or showers to speak of.
There’s also this: when Stanton and Ansari notified ICE in advance of a scheduled oversight visit in February, the population of the facility dropped to some of its lowest numbers of the year. Almost immediately after the inspection, the numbers climbed back up.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s a facility being dressed up for inspection and then going back to business as usual the moment no one’s watching.
Raskin Demands White House Perform Cognitive Test on Trump
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin is calling on the White House physician to administer a comprehensive cognitive test on the president.
Raskin sent a letter to physician Sean Barbabella requesting a full neuropsychological assessment and asking that the results be made public. He also asked for a complete list of Trump’s current medications and their potential cognitive side effects, and requested that Barbabella brief members of the committee under oath.
Raskin pointed specifically to Trump’s demand this week to “Open the F***ing Strait” and his threat to destroy “a whole civilization” as evidence of behavior that’s “plainly out of the realm of normal politics.” He’s also working on building up pressure on the presidential Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, citing concerns over the president’s mental state and how it could harm national security.
The White House is almost certainly not going to comply with the request. And Raskin doesn’t have subpoena power as a ranking member rather than a committee chair, so his ability to compel anything is limited.
But the political pressure being built here is real, and it’s not going away.
Help Raw America Fight Back Against the Billionaires
Raw America recently brought exclusive interviews with former January 6 police officer Michael Fanone, SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah and New Republic columnist Virginia Heffernan. Those conversations came directly to paying subscribers first. Our Capitol reporter is also on the verge of joining the DC press pool, which means even more on-the-ground coverage of Congress, the kind that doesn’t get filtered through corporate media.
None of this happens without paying subscribers. Because Raw America has no billionaire owner or corporate sponsors, we can only keep bringing you honest, high-quality independent journalism with reader support. If our work is valuable to you, become a paying subscriber today. We genuinely can’t do this without you. The link is right below.
Thanks for watching. I’m British Chris. We’ll see you next week.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Democrats Increasingly Likely to Impeach Trump After Midterms. More Democrats are warming up to the idea of formally impeaching President Donald Trump should they win back a majority in the House of Representatives after the November midterm elections. While Democrats were mostly hesitant to support impeaching Trump due to the two past failed efforts, the president’s more recent remarks threatening to obliterate Iran have resulted in more Democratic lawmakers — including those from swing districts — to support articles of impeachment. In addition to Trump, other key administration figures like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may also be subjected to impeachment proceedings.
Epstein Survivor Accuses Melania Trump of Victim-Blaming. After First Lady Melania Trump held a Thursday press conference calling on victims of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to testify before Congress, one prominent survivor accused the first lady of putting the onus on victims. Danielle Bensky told MS NOW host Ana Cabrera that the first lady placed the “burden” on survivors who have already provided extensive testimony to congressional committees, and said Melania’s press conference was “a master class on the art of deflection.”
Former Eric Swalwell Staffer Accuses Him of Sexual Assault. A woman who worked for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) for over two years is now accusing him of sexually assaulting her multiple times while he was her boss. She recalled one instance where she was too intoxicated to consent, and said she awoke during one encounter and asked him to stop. Swalwell — a leading candidate in California’s Democratic gubernatorial primary — denied the allegations, and had his attorney send the accuser a cease-and-desist letter. Multiple staffers on Swalwell’s campaign have since resigned since the allegations became public.
Trump’s DHS Deports U.S. Citizen to Mexico. 25 year-old U.S. citizen Brian Morales, who was born in Denver, Colorado, has been deported to Mexico despite telling U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers during a traffic stop in Texas that he had proof of his citizenship at his home. Morales, who does not speak English, was born in the U.S. but taken to Mexico as a toddler. He later came to the U.S. legally, and was in the process of obtaining his Real ID. CBP agents stopped Morales while he was riding with his construction crew, and while Morales offered to show them his Social Security card and birth certificate at his home, agents didn’t believe him, arrested him, and threatened to imprison him for five years for fraud.
San Francisco Man Arrested for Throwing Molotov Cocktail at Home of Tech CEO. Police in San Francisco have arrested an unnamed 20 year-old suspect accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose company is best known for the ChatGPT generative AI tool. After throwing the incendiary device at approximately 3:45 AM local time, the man ran roughly three miles to the OpenAI headquarters, where he was eventually arrested after threatening to set fire to the building.
