Friday's Final Word

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Everybody's closing tabbies for the weekend ... 

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Ed: What fresh hell is this ... and why is it coming this week? As Jack Nicholson said in As Good As It Gets: "Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."

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MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who is facing intense scrutiny after controversial comments she made about a young cancer survivor featured in President Trump’s recent address to Congress, has seen a significant drop in viewership since the Nov. 5 election, according to Nielsen figures.

Wallace, the former communications official for George W. Bush who gained attention for her critical coverage of Trump throughout his presidency, saw her ratings suffer after Democrats lost power.

From the start of 2024 until Election Day, her show averaged 1.6 million viewers, but in the aftermath of Trump’s victory, that number plummeted by 35% — falling to just over one million viewers for the remainder of the year, Nielsen figures show.

Ed: MSNBC has the same 80/20 problem that Democrats in general do -- but it matters less to MSNBC. They don't need to win elections. They only need a consistent audience that will remain loyal ... and it appears that MSNBC can't even manage that. 

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Ed: If they won't listen to Scott Jennings, will they listen to ... 

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Ed: Democrats did a lot of damage to themselves this week. It takes a lot to get Jimmy Kimmel to ridicule Democrats, so this is very much an indicator of just how lost their party is at the moment. 

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The U.S. continued to generate jobs at a steady pace in February, offering reassurances that the labor market has remained relatively stable since President Trump took office. But there were warning signs that it could weaken. 

The economy added a seasonally adjusted 151,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday, slightly below the gain of 170,000 jobs economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected to see. Still, that was better than the 125,000 jobs added in January.

Ed: This is maintenance-level growth, sort of jogging in place in relation to population growth. The monthly revisions for December and January cancelled themselves out, too. Government jobs grew too, but at a lower rate (+10K) according to the BLS report

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Ed: It's an excellent response. It also demonstrates the difference between doers and poseurs -- literally, in this case.

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“Is that the only thing that will be redacted?” asked Hannity. “National security?” the host tried a little later.

“National security, some grand jury information—which is always going to be confidential. But we’ll see. Let’s look through them as fast as we can, get it out to the American people—because the American people have a right to know. Not only on that, but on Kennedy, on Martin Luther King.”

Given Bondi’s discussion of JFK and MLK in the same conversation, it’s unclear if her “national security” concerns applied to those cases rather than to Epstein’s, although—given the fact that those figures died half a century ago, it’s unclear why any of America’s national security interests would be impacted by information pertaining to those cases. Gizmodo reached out to the Justice Department for clarification.

The internet certainly took Bondi’s rhetoric to mean that the Epstein case might have “national security” implications. As one commenter put it, “here’s an idea, how about you tell us WTF a known human trafficker and pedophile has to do with our national security??”

Ed: This has been a minor fiasco so far for Bondi -- hardly fatal, but an unforced error and stumble out of the gate. Never promise something you can't deliver, and don't promise something you don't even know if you have. And if these files need nat-sec redactions, then what exactly is the value of releasing them at all?

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Ed: This is worth watching just for Kennedy's line: "Trust in God but tie up your camel." The problem so far with tariffs isn't a lack of adjustment but way too much of it. Economic policies need to be consistently applied so that people can confidently invest for the future.

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Ed: I'm willing to explore that if it's a principled and consistent stand, and then correct later if necessary. Right now it looks like tariffs are being used as momentary retaliatory tactics rather than economic strategy. And that introduces too much unreliability into the economy for its long-term health. 

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The Trump administration is cutting off $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, claiming it has failed to take steps to confront antisemitism on campus after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, The Free Press has learned.

The cuts represent the federal government’s first round of grant cancellations for Columbia, according to the administration’s newly formed antisemitism task force, which is leading the effort. Columbia has over $5 billion in active federal grants that are being reviewed by the government.

Leo Terrell, the head of the DOJ’s antisemitism task force, said the funding cuts are “only the beginning.”

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Ed: Good. Columbia said they take student safety seriously and promise to correct any deficiencies, but I'll believe it when I see it. 

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Ed: A great report on the security situation from my friend Julio. 

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