Vice President JD Vance told Joe Rogan he believes the White House “mishandled” the Epstein files in an interview that aired Wednesday, and claimed Epstein had connections at the “highest levels” of both American and Israeli intelligence. “We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files,” Vance told Rogan as the two discussed the dramatic 2025 release of the files. “We just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.” Vance pointed to former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s claim that the “client list” was sitting on her desk — a falsehood that drew massive backlash toward the administration once it was confirmed no such list existed. Bondi’s team then offered binders of “Epstein files” to right-wing influencers that held no new information and prompted even more scrutiny. “The effect of it was to make people distrust the entire effort,” Vance explained. “Look, I know Pam, I like Pam.  I don’t think there was anything malicious going on. I think Pam was trying to respond to the political moment. I think she overstated what we have and what we didn’t have, and I think she got roasted for it publicly, by a lot of people, including me.” The vice president maintained that he is one of the “OG Epstein conspiracy theorists,” and has gone down every possible rabbit hole on the subject. He’s convinced that the evidence showing Epstein blackmailed influential people was destroyed back in 2006 or 2007 — or that no one ever properly gathered that evidence. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images) “You go back to the original warrant back in 2008,” Vance said, pointing to Alex Acosta, who originally investigated Epstein. “What was he looking for? What was he allowed to look for? What were they collecting? It was not looking at a broader conspiracy.” “So that happens, Epstein gets pinched. I think he goes to prison or maybe this is when he was on house arrest,” Vance explained. “Anything that existed from the 80s, 90s, up to 2006, 2007, anything that existed that we didn’t get back then, was disappeared.” He added: “So when people say, has what you seen on the inside make you think that Epstein never blackmailed people or that Epstein never engaged in broader sex trafficking? No, absolutely not. What I have seen, and I’ve looked at most of the files, is that there just wasn’t dispositive evidence. And if that dispositive evidence ever existed, it was probably destroyed after 2006, 2007.” Vance agreed with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ assessment that on this topic, he is a conspiracy theorist. When Rogan pointed out that many people think Epstein was a Mossad agent, Vance lent credence to the idea. “Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state, whether in America or Israel or another country,” he reflected. “Or both! Look he clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.” Vance then admitted there was no actual evidence in the files for those claims. “I’ve asked, were there like, were there documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else’s, and the answer is no. But if that sh*t existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026,” Vance claimed. “One of the reasons I’m always careful and I say there are some elements within the Israeli government who don’t like our peace process, because there are a lot of elements within the Israeli government that actually do like our peace process, they recognize that this indefinite campaign is not good for them either.” “The Epstein thing is interesting,” he continued, “because as much as I know Prime Minister Netanyahu is not a particularly popular person in the United States of America right now, Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center. I’ve always found that fascinating. It wasn’t like he was super connected to the right of center of Israeli politics.” In the United States, Vance pointed out, Epstein was connected “across the board.” “He had Republican friends, he had Democratic friends,” the vice president said. “He had much deeper connections to the Israeli left of center than right of center, I don’t know what that means, but I find that interesting.” (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) “I also just think there’s an element of, he was a scumbag, he was a very sick person, he built relationships with a lot of other rich and powerful people who just didn’t have any real moral judgement about the fact that the guy was obviously a scumbag,” Vance noted, before telling Rogan that Democrats continue to accuse the president of wrongdoing related to Epstein without any evidence. “Who was the guy who narc’d on Epstein to the Palm Beach police?” Vance asked. “That’s in the Epstein files. It was Donald Trump!” Asked by Rogan how the administration should have handled the matter, Vance responded that “we should have just dropped everything at the very beginning.” He acknowledged that it does take time to redact the documents when victims are involved, but they should have done it as quickly as possible. Vance also said that he believes Epstein was absolutely trying to influence people and compromise people. “There is a story there — I will go to my deathbed believing there is a story there, but I can’t prove it,” he said. “And I promise there’s not some document, that at least I’m hiding, that allows us to prove exactly what was going on and how.” Vance also used the interview to allege that opponents of his negotiations with Iran were being paid by Israel, referencing a TIME Magazine investigation into former Trump campaign operative Brad Parscale’s paid lobbying efforts. “I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation,” Vance told Rogan. “Those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective the president set for the country.” “They’re leaking to reporters, they’re attacking me obsessively saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran, we should just keep the military campaign going indefinitely … people have come after me and said that I’m influenced by Qatar, that I’m influenced by foreign governments, that I take my marching orders from Tucker Carlson, there’s so much bullsh*t out there.” “What I’m actually trying to do is accomplish what the president of the United States told me to accomplish,” Vance said.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) announced Wednesday that she is returning home to Michigan after the death of her 12-day-old great-granddaughter. Dingell shared the news on Facebook and X, saying she would leave Washington to be with her family.   “Today I am returning home to be with my family during an incredibly painful and deeply personal time,” Dingell posted on X. “Our family’s 12-day-old daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter has returned home to God this afternoon. We have been in God’s hands throughout all of this,” she continued. “While I had planned to be present for votes today and tomorrow, my family needs me now,” she said. “In moments like this, there is no greater responsibility than being by the side of those we love, offering comfort, support, and remembrance.”  Dingell, 72, has no biological children but became stepmother to her late husband John Dingell’s four children, making the infant part of her extended family. She succeeded her husband in Congress in 2015. Colleagues shared messages of support on social media. “Sending our deepest condolences to Debbie,” said New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler on X. “Keeping her granddaughter and the entire Dingell family in our prayers.” “Our deepest sympathies, thoughts, and prayers are with the Dingell family during this difficult time,” The Michigan Democratic Party responded.

Federal authorities found three bags of what they believe to be meth inside the van driven by the Mexican man who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston last week. An FBI search warrant said investigators found bags containing a “white crystal-like substance” that “is consistent with methamphetamine” inside the vehicle driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. ICE officers were “conducting an immigration enforcement operation” last Tuesday when they tried to stop a vehicle with four people inside, including one they believed was their target, according to the search warrant. The driver, who was later identified as Araujo, “refused to stop and instead drove over a median in an attempt to flee.” The officers did not chase the vehicle and later “relocated” it in a different area before “attempting to stop” it, the warrant stated. Araujo then “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense,” ICE said, adding that the driver was in the United States illegally. The Department of Homeland Security later said that none of the vehicle’s occupants was their intended target. ICE took the three passengers into custody, who later said they were heading to work at a construction site when the shooting occurred, according to The Washington Post. Araujo’s death was followed by another ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford, Maine, where an officer fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 25-year-old from Colombia, on Monday. ICE said the Colombian migrant had “attempted to flee” and that the officer who fired the fatal shot was “fearing for public safety.” ICE responded to the two shootings by pausing the agency’s use of traffic stops, The Daily Wire first reported Tuesday. In a Truth Social post Wednesday, President Donald Trump signaled that the suspension would be reversed. “The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted,” the president said. “Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.” “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job,” he said. “Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.”

He’s blowing stuff up. He’s shooting guns. And he’s doing it all with friendly southern folks he just met an hour ago. His name is Freddy, and he’s back. After two agonizing weeks of radio silence, the internet’s favorite German is back on X, chronicling his trek across America, wandering through regions we rarely put on postcards, marveling at the small stuff most of us have stopped noticing entirely. The reason for his absence: a mob of angry, almost certainly liberal, Reddit dwellers came for him with all the subtlety of a group chat spiraling at 2 a.m. He’s not really German, they insisted. Just a tourist milking the World Cup. An American plant. A CIA asset. A prop manufactured to make red, white, and blue look good. What these people apparently cannot fathom is that a visitor might just love it here that much. Perhaps Freddy sees something the rest of us have gone blind to, grown numb to, or gotten too spoiled to appreciate. Now that Freddy’s posting again, one thing has become undeniable: America needs a Freddy Protection Program. A formal mechanism to trade our America-hating, mask-hoarding DSA denizens for America-loving patriots from abroad. And the case for it writes itself. First, Freddy values our First and Second Amendments properly. He’s lived out the First by refusing to kneel to the dementors, the joy-sucking ghouls of the online Left, and refusing to let them silence him. Instead, he keeps speaking his mind, because, in his words, “a small group of very loud people shouldn’t be able to ruin something that brought so many others joy.” Preach it, F-man. Wear that First Amendment out. And he’s getting a taste of the Second, too. Somewhere in the middle-of-nowhere beauty of rural Tennessee, he made fast friends with strangers who invited him along to shoot guns at random objects. The epitome of American greatness. Freddy’s caption on his post documenting this moment perfectly captured the mood of our nation this month: “HOLY FCKING SHT FREEEEEDOMMMM!!!!

More satellite images have been captured showing China’s scheme to bomb American ships, planes, and potential bases by testing weaponry on exact replicas of them. In June 2026, images taken the month prior were released to the United States, showing a replica of a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in the Taklamakan Desert that was surrounded by debris from previous missile testing. The Telegraph revealed additional photos of the same site in a Wednesday report.  Chinese President Xi Jinping has stated that he wants to “reunify” Taiwan and China — a plan which has broadly been interpreted as more of an annexation than a reunification — causing extreme tensions between the two.  In preparation for the United States potentially sending naval support, China has been building and destroying replicas of American warships for years. Hidden behind mountains in a remote stretch of the desert, the site holds debris from tests dating back to 2021, along with replicas ready to serve as targets A 23-mile railway was made to recreate how ships move across the ocean. The copies of the U.S. warships are placed onto railcars and moved across the tracks for training purposes to simulate a moving target for guns and missiles. Currently, the destroyed target on the tracks is the same one that has been publicly known for five years. Surrounding the tracks are multiple other mock-ups of American warships, including at least two replicas of the USS Gerald R. Ford and the U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that was revealed to the public last month. In the same region of the desert, U.S. aircraft and runways were built for simulated attacks on other types of American weaponry. Craters surrounded the testing grounds. The runway has 20 planes split into two separate groups.  The first group features two rows of F-22 model jets, four of which have already been destroyed. The second group is made up of four F-16 planes and six F-35s — the most advanced stealth aircraft in the world and currently in use by the U.S. Air Force. While the U.S. has yet to sell any of those specific models to Taiwan, it seems Xi still wants testing done on the plane. Satellite images also uncovered a recreation of Yokosuka Naval Base, the largest American naval base, that would likely be involved in a potential conflict between Taiwan and China. The naval base, located on the eastern coast of Japan, is home to ten of the Arleigh Burke ships. In addition to the Chinese replicating numerous targets that resemble an array of American maritime assets, they have also created Taiwanese bases and political buildings to practice tactics ahead of a potential invasion.