Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) indicated on July 23 that Republicans could soon move to impeach U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland following testimony from two IRS whistleblowers.

In an appearance on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Mr. Jordan was asked by host Maria Bartiromo about recent public disclosures made by IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler and whether Republicans will move toward impeaching Mr. Garland.

“It sure looks like now, based on the evidence that keeps piling up, based on what Sen. [Chuck] Grassley released this week, the 1023 form, what we heard from the whistleblowers this past week, and the conflicting statements from the Justice Department, it sure looks like we’re moving in that direction at a pretty quick pace,” Mr. Jordan said on July 23.

“I will tell you this, the speaker has been very clear. Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy has said if we have to go to an impeachment inquiry, we will, in fact, do that.”

In February, Mr. Jordan wrote to Mr. Garland about a possible special counsel investigation of Hunter Biden. The committee chairman said that Mr. Garland didn’t respond to him and has been “pretty quiet.”

“I write him again, the attorney general; again, he doesn’t respond, but guess who does.” Mr. Jordan said. “David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, who’s supposedly handling the case. That, in and of itself, is unusual.”

Later in the interview, Mr. Jordan made reference to the investigation into Mr. Biden and said it “could be more about the president himself” and suggested that President Joe Biden could also face impeachment. An impeachment would have to come after House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is finished with his investigation, he said.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, looks on during a state dinner at the White House on June 22, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Watch the full interview below:

Mr. Garland is scheduled to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in September. Mr. Jordan said that any impeachment effort against Mr. Garland would have to be decided by the entire Republican conference.

Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler appeared before a House committee last week and told lawmakers that federal agencies interfered in an IRS investigation into felony tax fraud related to foreign income connected to Hunter Biden. They said that Mr. Weiss’s authority was being limited by higher-ups in the Department of Justice, which Mr. Garland has previously denied.

“It appeared to me based on what I experienced that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other U.S. attorneys,” Mr. Ziegler told the panel.

And Mr. Shapley insisted that his allegations about limits on the authority placed on Mr. Weiss were “the absolute truth.”

Mr. Garland “led Congress to believe the case was insulated from improper political influence because all decisions were being made exclusively by Delaware United States Attorney David Weiss,” Mr. Shapley said.

“But that was not true. The Justice Department allowed the president’s political appointees to weigh in on whether to charge the president’s son.”

Last week, some House GOP members floated the idea of impeaching Mr. Garland after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested an impeachment inquiry against him.

“When a prosecutor shields his boss’s son from investigators, it smells like a cover-up. Garland’s DOJ did not aggressively follow the money. Why? Are they afraid where that trail ends?” McCarthy wrote for Fox News. “Clearly, someone is not telling the truth, and Congress has a duty to get answers.”

The Epoch Times contacted the Department of Justice on July 23 for comment but received no response by press time.

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The number of illegal crossings at the U.S. Southern border is down more than 60 percent owing to the Biden administration’s sweeping new immigration regulations, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Mr. Mayorkas made the comments in an interview at Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on July 20.

The Homeland Security Secretary said officials have seen an approximately 65 percent drop in the number of people encountered at the border since Title 42—the Trump-era policy that allowed Border Patrol agents to turn illegal aliens back to Mexico immediately if they were deemed to pose a health threat amid the COVID-19 pandemic—came to an end.

Title 42 expired in May, prompting widespread concerns that illegal border crossings into the United States would surge.

“We have built lawful pathways for individuals so that they do not need to take that dangerous journey to our Southern border in pursuit of humanitarian relief, ” Mr. Mayorkas said. “We have accelerated our refugee processing, we have instituted family reunification programs, we use our discretionary authority under humanitarian parole and we are meeting people where they are,” he continued.

“At the same time, we have sought to disincentivize people from taking that dangerous journey and we raised the evidentiary threshold that one must meet to make an asylum claim at the border,” Mr. Mayorkas said.

The Biden administration has rolled out a string of initiatives aimed at deterring illegal border crossings since Title 42 came to an end, including a regulation under which most immigrants are presumed ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without seeking protection elsewhere first, or if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry.

Border Patrol Data Shows Encounters Down

The administration had also expanded access to CBP One, an app that allows migrants to schedule an appointment to approach a border port of entry, and in some cases, has fitted members of immigrant families who cross the U.S.–Mexico border illegally and seek asylum with a GPS ankle monitor so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can continuously track them.

However, Mr. Biden has also been criticized for allowing up to 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador into the United States under a family reunification parole process, and granting various other pathways for immigrants to obtain legal entry and work authorization.

Despite concerns that illegal border crossings would surge after the expiration of Title, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) recently reported a decline in total encounters with illegal immigrants along the Southwest border in June.

According to CBP data, encounters at the border, including individuals who presented at ports of entry with or without a CBP appointment, fell to their lowest level in more than two years, dropping around 30 percent from the previous month to 144,607 and marking the lowest monthly number since February 2021.

The U.S. Border Patrol recorded 99,545 encounters between ports of entry, representing a 42 percent decrease from May, according to the data.

In a press release announcing the figures, Troy Miller, CBP senior official performing the duties of the commissioner, said the decline in encounters was due, in part, to the agency’s efforts to enforce consequences under Title 8 authorities, which allows expulsions if illegal immigrants don’t qualify for asylum, and the expansion of lawful pathways.

Changes to Data Reporting

Yet while the Biden administration is claiming illegal border crossings are down, House Republican lawmakers have raised concerns over how the administration has allegedly changed the way in which illegal entries into the United States are reported.

Mark Morgan, visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Just The News this week that the Biden administration’s alleged encounter numbers for June are only focused on the Southwest border and not nationwide encounters, which he said paints an inaccurate view of the real number of encounters.

Total nationwide encounters, he said, show that since Mr. Biden took office, encounters have risen 350 percent.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.

GOP lawmakers have also been calling for Mr. Mayorkas’s salary to be eliminated in response to what they say is his failure to enforce the southern border amid an increase in illegal immigrants crossing into the United States under his watch.

Republicans are contemplating using the Holman Rule, which allows lawmakers to file amendments to appropriations legislation that would reduce the salary of or fire specific federal employees, or cut a specific program, to reduce Mr. Mayorkas’s salary to zero.

“People are sick of inaction against elected officials who betray their oath and refuse to do their jobs. Congress is given the power of the purse by the Constitution, and if the president’s Cabinet secretaries won’t do their jobs, we should consider using any tool, including the Holman Rule, to defund them and their ability to do further damage,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said in a statement earlier this month.

“Do your [expletive] job or Congress will act,” she said.

Articles of impeachment have also been filed against Mr. Mayorkas over his handling of the border.

After a long time in process, Russia has implemented a law banning gender reassignment surgeries, which also includes legislation barring transgenders from adopting children. 

President Vladimir Putin signed the new law into effect Monday, making attempts to “change sex” via surgical procedures or other medical interventions like hormones illegal. 

The law prevents “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” and makes “the state registration of a change of gender without an operation” illegal. This means a person’s gender cannot be changed on legal documents such as birth records, as is happening in some instances in the West.

This would also apply to all identifying documents such as passports, which would only reflect the true biological sex of a person.

It passed both houses of Russian parliament rather quickly earlier in July, and has now become law of the land with Putin’s signature. 

There is a key exception to the law – it doesn’t apply in cases of medical intervention to treat congenital anomalies, such as the rare condition of Hermaphroditism.

When first proposed the law had been framed as being necessary to protect traditional family values, per TASS:

The bill was initiated by speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin and the leaders of the five factions.

During a meeting of the Council of Legislators in April, Volodin asked lawmakers to submit their proposals to address issues linked with gender-affirmation matters. Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko told TASS earlier that a ban on changing gender in passports and other documents would be one of the first steps to enshrine family values into national law.

As for treating potential birth abnormalities in children, the bill’s language says this intervention is allowable “upon a decision from a medical commission of a federal state-run public health institution.” 

Already, Russian has strong laws against what’s dubbed “LGBTQ propaganda” – which is intended particularly protect children. 

Last December, President Putin signed into law a bill that expanded on prior legislation. After this, it became illegal to publicly promote same-sex relationships, or to present non-heterosexual orientations as “normal”, according to CNN reporting at the time.

Putin signs a law banning gender change in Russia pic.twitter.com/soIQ4yRms8

— Russian Market (@runews) July 24, 2023

Putin has in recent years grown bolder in his rhetoric condemning the encroaching “values” of the West, and previously spread in Russia via NGOs operating under deceptive means. Top Kremlin officials have also repeatedly echoed that NATO’s expansion east reflects a broader trend of the West seeking to destroy traditional Russian Orthodox Christian values.

But to be expected, Western media reports are seeing in this new law yet another ‘Putler’ moment and example of a “tyrant’ cracking down on Russians’ “freedom”. 

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

The Purple Hour

“I have a dream that the people we elect to run the government will be the ones who actually run the government.” 

– Vivek Ramaswamy

The hour is late for “Joe Biden.” His sojourn in America’s highest office was one long twilight of pretending to be effectual, or merely present, and now even that abject pantomime slips into a place of nullity, where all is still and dark. What does he do these languorous weekends at the fabled Delaware beach house? Stare out at the empty Atlantic horizon over an uneaten egg salad sandwich with the crusts cut off? Does he even suspect that the world is already turning without him?

The pressure is mounting for some group of somebodies to arrange his exit from the scene. Of course, there is no public discussion of that among the somebodies because everything they have been doing for years happens sub rosa, in addition to being of dubious legality. Despite the most formidable praetorian protections — a depraved justice department, a Gestapo-caliber FBI, a debauched news media — the arrows of culpability are flying clean through the beach house windows at that immobilized figure sitting in the crepuscular gloom.

Forgive me for bringing this up, but remember the first impeachment of Mr. Trump on the grounds of a phone call to freshly-minted President Z in Ukraine pertaining to some fishy matters around the Burisma gas company? Yes, Mr. T was impeached over a mere inquiry into possible misconduct by a former high US official (being one “Joe Biden,” ex-veep) and his bag-man son. The setup was patently obvious even to us bloggers who enjoy no intimate correspondence with organelles of the DC Blob. A CIA spook “whistleblower” named Eric Ciaramella (sssshhhh) was injected into the scene with help from the devious Col. Vindman at NSA and an assist from Intel Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson… and voila! Recall the solemn pageantry of Nancy Pelosi’s march across the Capitol rotunda with the hallowed bill of impeachment on a satin pillow….

And now, more than three years later, the nation is informed of all the particulars around those Burisma Company’s doings with the Biden family in granular detail ($5-million plus $5-million), laying out just one instance of treasonous moneygrubbing by this family among many grifts in other nations. And in case of any lingering questions — if the news media were not a pseudopod of the Blob — a long roster of bank transfer records has been assembled by Rep. Comer of the House Oversight Committee to validate the deal memos, emails and audio recordings already available for inspection in the alt.news.

You realize, don’t you, that the DOJ and the FBI had all of this info (a.k.a evidence) in its possession even before Trump impeachment number one? AG William Barr and FBI Director Wray could have stepped up at any time after October, 2019, and said, “Oh, here’s what that phone call to Z was about.” That they didn’t is arguably the most blatant crime among scores of crimes committed by the Blob in the Trump and post-Trump years.

Federal Justice Manual 9-5.000, Section B: Constitutional obligation to ensure a fair trial and disclose material exculpatory and impeachment evidence. Government disclosure of material exculpatory and impeachment evidence is part of the constitutional guarantee to a fair trial. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963). The law requires the disclosure of exculpatory and impeachment evidence when such evidence is material to guilt or punishment.”

So now the Blob is desperate to jettison this embodiment of its corruption and lawlessness, “Joe Biden,” before the Trump-deranged masses start paying attention to the distant yelling from the asteroid belt of actual news beyond noisy Planet MSNBC. The Blob will be fighting for its very life anyway. The Ukraine operation is not proceeding according to plan. Do you know why? Answer: because it was a stupid plan concocted by purblind Neocon idiots. Russia has been insulted to the degree that it deems America unworthy of negotiation — meaning Russia will bring the Ukraine mess to a conclusion on its terms. They will take care to do it gingerly, so as not to further inflame the psychosis afflicting America and tempt us into even grosser stupidities. Namely, they will insist on a neutral Ukraine with no foreign operators in it and some rearrangement of Ukraine’s borders. America will have to lump it. The Blob Neocon faction will blame the whole lamentable affair on “Joe Biden,” who, by then, will be gone from the White House.

How does that happen?

The 25th Amendment, since we are now at the point where his infirmity is as hard to ignore as the evidence of his crimes. How the Blob deals with his successor, the distressing Ms. Harris, is another bridge to cross.

The switcheroo itself may be enough to tank the financial markets, which will give the restive nation something else to think about: the personal ruin of every household in the land. Then, things get really interesting.

*  *  *

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Ahead of a week full of potential headline-bombs (FOMC, Q2 GDP, PCE…), the day started off – from a macro perspective – to the downside with EU PMIs an utter disaster (growth plunging but inflation sticky). Then came the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index which printed significantly more negative than expected (with 54 of the 85 indicators worsening).

Rubbing salt in that wound, US PMIs were ugly with the service sector finally taking a spill – but prices a lot more sticky than expected – matching the European picture and spelling the big s-word nemesis for central bankers – STAGFLATION.

Growth expectations slipping…

Prices not slipping…

This is the biggest 3-day decline in US macro surprise index since May 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Interestingly, it appears the stickiness of inflation signaled by these reports trumped the slowing growth and short-term rates markets shifted significantly more hawkish with expectations now for no cut from this week’s 25bps hike through at least Jan ’24…

Source: Bloomberg

On the day, stock traded in a relatively narrow range with Nasdaq underperforming and The Dow leading (up for the 11th day in a row)…

With the Nasdaq rebalance now having taken place, we saw a small reversion in the up-weighted names vs down-weighted names – but the former still outperformed the latter by over 400bps since the rebalance was announced…

Source: Bloomberg

Banks continued their recent outperformance of big-tech…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasuries were sold across the board with the short-end underperforming. Bonds were bid during the early European session but as soon as the US opened, selling began…

Source: Bloomberg

Which flattened the yield curve (2s30s) back towards post-SVB lows…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar was very quiet today (even with Euro moving around on PMIs)…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin tumbled today, back below $30k…

Source: Bloomberg

Seemingly mirroring the flow into Sam Altman’s WorldCoin as it debuted…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold extended its recent trend lower with two selling-legs today…

But oil continued to soar, with WTI topping $79, the highest since April…

And finally, there’s this…

Stocks that beat earnings are being sold… very unusual.

The political left will consistently deny that they desire open borders in the US, but in every policy initiative and in every action they take to impede conservative states they reveal the opposite intent.  

Reports are coming in from Governor Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” and the results are impressive so far.  Launched in the spring of 2021 after it became clear that Joe Biden intended to eventually remove Title 42 protections put in place during the Trump Administration, the project joins Texas law enforcement and the Texas Department of Public Safety with the Texas Nation Guard to secure the failing border.  More effective border fencing has been constructed, efforts to apprehend migrants have been expanded and actions to prevent transportation of migrants through the state have been implemented.

Operation Lone Star has caught over 400,000 illegal immigrants and seized over 422 million doses of fentanyl.  However, some people are not pleased with the successful outcome, namely Democrats and the Biden White House.

As video footage circulated across social media of immigrants swarming border towns like El Paso, Biden claimed he intended to “crack down” on illegal crossings.  But in reality, the Department of Justice has been trying to thwart Governor Abbot’s efforts for the past two years.  They tried to stop his organization of national guard at the border, they tried to stop his efforts to punish “coyotes” and immigrant smugglers, and most recently they are attempting to prevent him from using floating border barriers on the Rio Grande.    

The floating barriers and border razor wire are proving to be, perhaps, too effective in stopping illegals from sneaking across the river in difficult to secure areas.  Democrats have responded with outrage, circulating photos of migrants trying to weave through the barriers, some of them carrying children with them, while calling Abbott a “fascist.” 

Of course, it was these same exact measures which the state and federal governments used to secure El Paso right before Joe Biden’s much publicized visit in January of this year.  

Biden ignored the pleas of border states for months while the region was overrun with millions of migrants coming from South and Central America.  The Democrat Mayor of El Paso even declared a state of emergency as the city streets were stacked with arriving illegals.  Yet, on the week of Biden’s arrival El Paso was a ghost town, mostly because of the expedited razor wire fencing and soldiers put in place, along with police rounding up migrants.  Biden was fine with these security measures when it benefited his moment with the press in El Paso, why is he against them now? 

The underlying problem with Democrat claims is their assertion that the barriers and added border security threaten migrants with bodily harm.  The fact is, the migrants are putting themselves in danger.  The migrants are to blame, along with Biden asylum and refugee policies that incentivize migrants to sneak into the US.    

Greg Abbott has no control over the actions of illegals.  If they want to run into a fence full of razor wire then there’s nothing he can do to stop them.  And, as long as they continue to break the law by trying to cross into the US without going through proper citizenship channels then Abbot and other governors will have to continue to defend their borders as is their mandate under the US Constitution as well as their own state constitutions.

Over 72% of Americans in recent polling say they believe the southern border is in a crisis, but Democrats persist in trying to sabotage any strategy to secure it.  Keep in mind that in many countries the punishment for illegal immigration is not just deportation, there’s also incarceration.  In Mexico, the penalty is up to two years in prison.  Why is the US the only country in this part of the world that’s expected to keep its border wide open? 

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The more you think you really need a loan, the less likely you are to get one, especially auto loans…

Data from New York Fed Survey of Consumers, chart by Mish

New York Fed Credit Access Survey report comes out every for months. The June report shows significant tightening of credit standards by lenders and less demand for loans by consumers.

June SCE Credit Access Survey Key Findings

• The application rate for any kind of credit over the past twelve months declined to 40.3 percent from 40.9 percent in February, its lowest reading since October 2020. Application rates declined to 11.9 percent for auto loans and 12.5 percent for credit card limit requests, but increased to 24.8 percent for credit cards, 6.5 percent for mortgages, and 5.3 percent for mortgage refinances.

• The overall rejection rate for credit applicants increased to 21.8 percent, the highest level since June 2018. The increase was broad-based across age groups and highest among those with credit scores below 680.

• The rejection rate for auto loans increased to 14.2 percent from 9.1 percent in February, a new series high. It increased for credit cards, credit card limit increase requests, mortgages, and mortgage refinance applications to 21.5 percent, 30.7 percent, 13.2 percent, and 20.8 percent, respectively.

• The proportion of respondents reporting that they are likely to apply for one or more types of credit over the next twelve months rose to 26.4 percent from 26.1 percent in February.

• The average reported probability that a loan application will be rejected increased sharply for all loan types. It rose to 30.7 percent for auto loans, 32.8 percent for credit cards, 42.4 percent for credit limit increase requests, 46.1 percent for mortgages, and 29.6 percent for mortgage refinance applications. The readings for auto loans, mortgages, and credit card limit increase requests are all new series highs.

Credit Applications and Rejections

Count data from New York Fed Survey of Consumers, rejection percent calculation and chart by Mish

Some of the decline in applications is due to declining observations. But the percentages tell the story.

Among survey respondents, the auto loan rejection rates was 2 percent in February of 2022. It’s jumped to over 14 percent as of June 2023. And that is with an application rate decline of 12 percent.

In short, fewer people want auto loans, but of those who do, rejection rates are soaring.

Credit Scores Abruptly Plunge As Americans Stop Paying Down Debt; Synchrony Financial Warns

ZeroHedge noted Credit Scores Abruptly Plunge As Americans Stop Paying Down Debt; Synchrony Financial Warns

“What we are seeing is people who are doing significant score migration — a 680 or a 690 going to a 620,” Synchrony Financial CFO Brian Wenzel said in an interview.

That’s a dive from good to fair.

Existing Home Sales Resume Slide, Down 15 of the Last 17 Months

Note that Existing Home Sales Resume Slide, Down 15 of the Last 17 Months

Inflation-Adjusted Retail Sales Are Weak

Real vs nominal retail sales percent change from year ago, data from Commerce Department, chart by Mish.

On July 18, I noted Inflation-Adjusted Retail Sales Weak Four of the Last Five Months

It’s not just consumers.

The Fed Reports Abysmal Industrial Production Numbers and Negative Revisions Too

Industrial production data from the Fed, chart by Mish

Also note The Fed Reports Abysmal Industrial Production Numbers and Negative Revisions Too

The Bloomberg Econoday consensus estimate was unchanged in May from June. Instead, Industrial production fell 0.5 percent and the Fed revised May from -0.2 percent to -0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the consensus opinion has changed from recession to soft landing. Does anyone hear a bell?

*  *  *

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Demand for Adidas’s Yeezy sneakers exceeded expectations in their first online sale since the company ended its collaboration with Kanye West, now referred to as “Ye,” according to Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter. This reduces the German sportswear company’s risk of a large writedown on its remaining stock.

Adidas received orders worth over 508 million euros for 4 million pairs of unsold Yeezy shoes at the end of May and early June. People familiar with the sale said the results “exceeded the company’s most optimistic forecast.” The goal of the sale was to avoid realizing a loss and to give some proceeds from the sale to charities that combat antisemitism and racism. The company also plans to use the inventory sale proceeds to pay royalties to Ye. 

Adidas ceased the sale of Yeezy shoes from its now-ended partnership with Ye in October after the rapper made a series of antisemitic remarks. Ending the highly profitable sneaker line hit first-quarter sales by around $440 million. The company warned earlier this year that it may record the first operating loss in three decades. 

“Adidas will probably have to update their revenue and profit guidance to reflect the initial sale of Yeezy inventory,” said Thomas Chauvet, head of luxury and sporting goods research at Citibank. He said the strong demand for unsold Yeezy shoes is a good sign ahead of quarterly results on August 3. 

Meanwhile, Adidas shares trading in Germany remain halved from August 2021 highs. 

The people familiar with the sale said there’s still internal debate on how much will be donated to charities, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise and Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change. 

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he has been a greater victim of mainstream media bias than former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Kennedy, speaking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” was asked if he was concerned about not being able to communicate his message, particularly how he is unable to take on President Joe Biden in a primary debate.

“It’s interesting to me, because I have been really slammed in a way that I think is unprecedented, even more than President Trump was slammed by the mainstream, by the corporate media,” Mr. Kennedy responded.

He went on to comment on a Harvard-Harris poll on July 21, saying that he has the highest favorability rating than any other presidential hopeful in 2024.

“So, somehow, the American people are hearing what I’m saying. I don’t know whether it’s through the podcasts or through social media,” Mr. Kennedy said.

He said he “would definitely not vote” for himself if he believed the news provided by the mainstream media.

“If I believe the stuff that’s written about me in the papers and reported about me on the mainstream sites … I would definitely not vote for me … I would think I was a very despicable person,” he added.

Kennedy also noted that while he has thus far avoided criticising Biden, “the issues that are now coming up are worrying enough that we really need a real investigation of what happened.”

“I mean, these revelations… where you have Burisma — which is a notoriously corrupt company that paid out apparently $10 million to Hunter and his dad — if that’s true, then it is really troubling,” Kennedy added.

RFK Jr. also warned that “every American needs to worry about… our federal agencies, which used to be above politics, and now [have] become weaponized as political instruments,” adding and “that, again, is another really damaging trend for our democracy.”

Watch the full interview below:

Poll

The poll (pdf), conducted on July 19 and July 20 and which surveyed 2,068 registered voters, found that 47 percent of respondents had a favorable view of Mr. Kennedy, and 26 percent had an unfavorable opinion. In second place was Mr. Trump, who picked up a 45 percent favorable rating and a 49 percent unfavorable rating.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in fifth place, with 40 percent favorable and 37 unfavorable, followed by Mr. Biden with a favorable to unfavorable rating of 39 percent to 53 percent.

The poll also found that Mr. Biden would win with 62 percent of voters, if the 2024 Democratic presidential primary were held today. Mr. Kennedy picked up 16 percent support, with 11 percent of voters undecided.

Mr. Kennedy also took to Twitter on Sunday to comment on his low unfavorable rating.

“That shows that the relentless media attacks just aren’t working. People don’t believe the media anymore—with good reason,” he wrote.

“What will they do? Intensify the attacks? There is an alternative. How about launching a new era of civil, respectful, and substantive political discourse.”

Mr. Kennedy, who announced his 2024 White House bid in April, has been criticized over his comments on COVID-19 in a secretly recorded video. In the recording, he described how research showed the virus causing COVID-19 disproportionately affected Caucasian and black people, while being comparably mild for Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

He has denied allegations of racism and anti-Semitism, saying that he “never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews.”

Durham Report

Mr. Kennedy’s remarks on Sunday are not the first time he has criticized the mainstream media.

In May, following the release of the Durham report, he took to Twitter to criticize the FBI, while calling out legacy media outlets.

“This is no partisan skirmish. It is about the political weaponization of the FBI to destroy a candidate and then a sitting President,” he wrote on May 22.

“It’s about a matrix of lies so elaborate as to make a mockery of the democratic ideal of an informed citizenry.”

Special Counsel John Durham leafs through his report while testifying to the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 21, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Special Counsel John Durham, appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2020 to review the 2016–2017 FBI investigation of alleged ties between Mr. Trump and Russia, concluded in a report that authorities had no basis to launch the probe.

“[N]either U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Mr. Durham wrote in the report. Crossfire Hurricane is the FBI codename for the agency’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia.

Mr. Durham also wrote that the FBI relied on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” for its investigation. “The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” he added.

“Maybe most alarming of all, the Durham investigation reveals the abject complicity of the mainstream press, which has yet to admit they were taken in by the big lie, propagated it, and now continues to permit those lies to stand as truth,” Mr. Kennedy added.

Moments ago the Treasury concluded the week’s first sale of coupon paper when it sold $42BN in 2Y paper in what was a solid, if not stellar auction.

The auction stopped at a high yield of 4.823%, which was above last month’s 4.670% and the highest yield since June 2007. The auction tailed the When Issued 4.820% by 0.3bps, ending the brief streak of two stopping through 2Y auction.

The bid to cover of 2.782% dipped below last month’s 2.860% but was above the recent average of 2.74%.

The internals were also above average, if hardly spectacular, with Indirects taking down 65.5%, below last month’s 68.5% but above the 63.0% recent average; and with Directs taking down 20.8%, or the most since March, and just above the six-auction average of 19.9%, Dealers were left with an award of 13.8%, the most since May.

Overall, a solid if hardly spectacular auction, one which benefited from the modest concession today as 10Y yields rose to 3.86%.