Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
And if you’re looking for a little more from COURIER, “Panic World” Host Ryan Broderick visits the darkest corners of the internet to break down what really killed Charlie Kirk: a meme.
NYC City Council overrides Adams’ anti-immigrant vetoes
The New York City Council last week voted to expand legal protections for immigrants by overriding three of Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes, tarnishing his apparent attempt to audition for a role within the Trump administration.
Adams, who has consistently polled as New Yorkers' absolute last choice in the mayoral race, claimed his vetoes to raise the minimum wage for grocery workers and protect street vendors from criminal charges were in the best interest of residents, but members of the Council believe his intentions would have done the opposite.
“The legislation we passed in the New York City Council to protect immigrants, to protect street vendors in New York City —especially in this moment — was historic,” said Councilmember Shekar Krishnan. “We are in a moment right now where Donald Trump has added 10,000 ICE agents to the federal government. He has explicitly put New York City in the crosshairs for immigration enforcement. So my bill that we passed overwhelmingly protects our immigrant street vendors by removing the ability for them to be charged criminally and face jail time for vending, because no one should face jail time or immigration consequences.”
The protections offered in Krishnan’s bill will now protect an estimated 23,000 street vendors — 96% of whom are immigrants — from criminal charges, which now come with the threat of abduction by masked federal officers, unsentenced incarceration at the “horrific” 26 Federal Plaza, and deportation to a country the abducted individual may not be from.
Krishnan believes Adams’ attempt to keep the threat of harassment and deportation was a collaborative effort with the Trump administration, which has repeatedly said it wants to deploy military forces against civilians in the city of 3 million immigrants, as it's done in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
The collaboration comes as Adams is rumored to be in negotiations with White House officials for a spot within the administration in exchange for ending his reelection bid. While Adams has repeatedly denied any plans to drop out of the race, his reliance on bold-faced lies has become synonymous with his tenure in public service.
“Any rumor or tweet suggesting Mayor Adams is stepping down this week is complete bullshit,” Adams campaign spokesman Todd Shapiro said in a statement. “These lies are being spread by desperate opponents who can’t match the mayor’s record, his campaign energy, or his support across this city.”
But actions often speak louder than words: Adams met with Trump officials in Florida before the vote, and Politico reporter Nick Reisman has confirmed that Adams was in the running for two roles: as ambassador to Saudi Arabia or a domestic appointment at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Both offers came with the contingency that Adams drop out of the mayoral race, and his anti-immigrant push amidst negotiations appears to have been a failed attempt to strengthen his hand at the expense of his constituency.
The audition came to its climax the morning of the vote, when Adams’ administration attempted one final Hail Mary attempt to strongarm the Council from overriding his vetoes. As councilmembers arrived at City Hall, they were met with a show of force by local police against a row of nearby street vendors.
“The mayor picked a fight he couldn't win. He and his administration threw everything at us,” said Krishnan. “They collaborated with Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant agenda. And on top of that, an hour before our vote, there were NYPD officers arresting street vendors right outside City Hall. But still, we sent a message loud and clear that we reject Mayor Adams' politics, and we will always stand with our immigrants and workers in this city.”
The brutish tactics not only failed — they may have thwarted Adams’ efforts altogether. Overriding a veto takes a two-thirds vote from the Council, a high bar that's only been achieved five other times since Adams took office in 2022. Republican Minority Leader Joann Ariola originally voted against the bills up for an override and was expected to keep course. But the mayor’s actions convinced her to vote with Krishnan, which she described in her vote as a rebuke of Adams’ “political stunt.”
“While I strongly believe that the veto needs to remain in place, I also believe that this administration has used it more to score political points in an election year than to actually help the people who live and work in this city,” Ariola said. “This is little more than a campaign stunt, and I have deep reservations about the administration using the power of the veto simply to further their own ambitions.”
Krishnan’s bill passed 35-9, with three abstaining. First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro told local outlet QNS that if conservatives who had abstained had known Ariola would decide last-minute to vote to override the veto, they would have voted against it, which would have put the vote under the two-thirds threshold.
But it succeeded, along with the other overrides, putting a significant blemish on Adams’ apparent attempt to align the city with the Trump administration and position himself as a capable ally of the president.
It’s easy for individual members of Congress to get overlooked by national outlets as they quietly skate to reelection again, and again, and again. The following is an overview of different congressional representatives you may not have heard of, with fun facts about their origin stories they’ve tried to keep out of the public narrative.
Utah US Sen. Mike Lee
Since taking office in 2011, Sen. Lee has:
Seen his net worth increase from $199,000 to $391,000
Sponsored 2,025 bills
Authored six bills that have been signed into law — half of which were to rename federal buildings
Described a 2023 bill that would expand voter access, end gerrymandering federally, and abolish dark money in politics as “rotten to the core” and “written in Hell by the devil himself”
Cosponsored antitrust legislation with Sen. Klobuchar to break up monopolies in tech, healthcare, travel, and media sectors
Successfully pushed Trump to leave the Paris Climate Agreement after receiving over $250,000 in campaign contributions from the oil, gas, and coal industries
Worked closely with Trump’s team in their attempt to overturn the 2020 election results
Compared Trump to the Book of Mormon figure Captain Moroni, known for committing political violence in the name of Christian nationalism
Fun Facts
Sen. Lee has most recently been in the news for his attempt to sell off millions of acres of public land and calling the suspected shooter in the assassination of Melissa and Mark Hortman—who appears to be a far-right, Trump-supporting Christian nationalist—a liberal, mentally ill “Marxist.” He backed down and deleted his posts after being confronted by Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith. His response to the shooting prompted condemnation from his hometown newspaper and demands that he resign from office.
It’s unlikely that a political nepo baby like Lee will leave office before he chooses to do so. His father was Ronald Reagan’s Solicitor General and a founding dean of the law school at BYU where Sen. Lee would later receive his law degree. The Senator was also fortunate enough to be elected student body president while his father was university president.
Unlike his brother, a former Utah Supreme Court justice, Sen. Lee went the federal route, nabbing a spot clerking for Samuel Alito when he was an appeals court judge. Alito then brought Lee along as a clerk during his first year as a US Supreme Court justice. The pair aligns almost identically, ideologically speaking. Like Lee, Alito publicly approved Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and even flew an upside-down US flag outside his home in support of the insurrectionists after Jan. 6.
Senate investigating Peter Thiel’s money ties to Epstein
A bill introduced Wednesday by US Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) would widen a congressional investigation into the finances behind Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation to include American oligarch Peter Thiel, as well as known Epstein co-conspirators Nadia Marcinko and Jean-Luc Brunel.
The Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (PETRA) would require the US Treasury to comply with the US Senate Finance Committee’s investigation into the money trail left by Epstein that connects the disgraced, deceased sex criminal to his clients and financial backers. Similar inquiries by the city of New York, the US Virgin Islands, and Epstein’s victims have led to expensive, hasty lawsuit settlement payouts from billionaires and financial institutions in order to prevent potentially incriminating evidence against them from going public.
The legislation will be introduced as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual budget authorization currently working its way through Congress. Tying the legislation to a bill guaranteed a vote will force every senator to go on the record in their support of — or opposition to — accountability for Epstein’s co-conspirators and justice for his victims.
The Senate Finance Committee’s investigation, which began in 2022, now includes Thiel and his venture capital company Valar Ventures, which took a $40 million investment from Epstein. In total, the investigation now encompasses over 70 co-conspirators and entities “that transacted with Jeffrey Epstein.” The committee’s investigators obtained access to a small number of suspicious transaction reports from the US Treasury under the Biden administration in 2024, but Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revoked access soon after Trump was inaugurated.
“The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes, and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they won’t,” Wyden said in a statement. “From the beginning, my view has been that following the money is the key to identifying Epstein’s clients as well as the henchmen and banks that enabled his sex trafficking network. It’s past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files he’s sitting on.”
Read the full article here.
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