Losing My Perspicacity, November 2, 2025

60 Minutes lets Trump lie nonstop on national television

Author

Julie DiCaro
November 03, 2025

Good morning and Happy Monday! Thanks for starting your day — and your week — with me.

More and more, I’ve found myself suffering from the Sunday Scaries, the creeping anxiety that many people suffer from as they inch closer to returning to work following the weekend. But I work for myself, so I shouldn’t be feeling anything like that, right? After all, I don’t have a boss to yell at me or management to keep happy or even obnoxious coworkers to deal with (though my dogs do get pretty demanding, usually when I’m busiest). So why do I feel anxious on Sunday nights?

After thinking about it for a bit, I’ve landed on the conclusion that what amps up my anxiety is the anticipation of the news cycle starting all over on Monday mornings. On Saturday and Sunday, I can hide behind going out, watching football, and hanging out with family and friends. But come Monday, it’s me, my laptop, and whatever fresh hell the Trump administration has planned for us that day. Not exactly something to look forward to.

Speaking of Donald Trump, he sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes last night, and I assume this entire thing is part of his settlement deal with CBS News. Remember, he accused CBS of interfering with the election by editing an interview with Kamala Harris, which Trump claims amounted to false advertising. The whole thing was deranged and a complete misapplication of the law, but Paramount head Shari Redstone caved to ensure the FCC approved her deal with Skydance, which is how we wound up both here and with Bari Weiss.

Here’s part of the transcript CBS News released (spoiler — the conversation is a hot mess and Norah O’Donnell let him get away with way too many lies).

At one point, Trump claimed grocery prices were down since he took office, a falsehood that would have been very easy to push back on. He also repeated the lie that applying for political asylum has something to do with a mental health asylum, probably because he’s too ignorant to know the difference.

I used to really like Norah O’Donnell, but she was not cut out for this moment.

Anyway, the whole thing went exactly as you’d expect it to go.

O'DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao? TRUMP: Are you ready? I don't know who he is O'DONNELL: His crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2b purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And they you pardoned him. TRUMP: Here's the thing -- I know nothing about it

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2025-11-03T00:56:08.488Z

And then there was this gem, in which Trump claimed what America needs is more violence from ICE:

Trump on 60 Minutes: ICE raids "haven't gone far enough"

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com)2025-11-03T00:00:52.767Z

(By the way, ICE kidnapped 11 people from my community on Saturday.)

I would give a lot to see the unedited interview.

This is probably a good time to mention that ICE shot a US citizen in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Leaving his home in Ontario to work at a food bank Thursday morning, Carlos Jimenez pulled over to warn a group of federal agents that they should wrap up their stop of a car quickly because school-age children would soon gather there to take the bus, his lawyers said Sunday.

In the following moments, the attorneys said an ICE officer shot Jimenez, a U.S. citizen and father of three, from behind.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said at the time that Jimenez had “attempted to run officers over by reversing directly at them without stopping” and that the shots were “defensive.”

How much do you want to bet that the video of that interaction will not back up ICE’s version of the story? I would take that bet in a heartbeat.

Today: Federal judges tell Trump to restart SNAP benefits ASAP; Kash Patel throws a temper tantrum over his private jet use; The Legal Rodeo Roundup; and The High Note.

Let’s do it.

Federal judges tell Trump he can’t stop SNAP benefits

Between Friday’s newsletter and today, two federal judges have told the Trump administration that they must use the “Contingency Funds” to keep SNAP going during the shutdown.

On Friday, Judge Indira Talwani, who is presiding over a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) brought by 26 states, told the Trump administration that they must use the money appropriated by Congress to keep SNAP benefits flowing in 2024.

Here’s part of Judge Talwani’s ruling:

As both parties acknowledge, Congress has not yet appropriated any new funds for SNAP benefits for Fiscal Year 2026, which began on October 1, 2025. But Congress took steps to protect against the deprivation of SNAP assistance. In the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress separately appropriated $6 billion to the SNAP program “to remain available through September 30, 2026” and “be placed in reserve for use only in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations.” As Plaintiffs point out, given the mandatory nature of SNAP benefits under 7 U.S.C. § 2014(a) and the appropriation of these funds to be available … through this current fiscal year, the government is obligated to use this contingent reserve account to fund SNAP “as may become necessary to carry out program operations.”

(citations removed, emphasis added)

While Judge Talwani hasn’t ruled on the TRO just yet, she did give the feds until Monday to advise her if they will “authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November.” I’ll be on the lookout for further developments in that case today.

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, federal district judge John J. McConnell Jr. granted a TRO brought by a group of non-profits, and took a shot at Trump while doing so.

Judge McConnell (it’s so weird to type that name and not be filled with rage) told the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits in full by November 3, and he also wants the parties back in court today to make sure things are moving as he planned.

I’ll keep an eye on both cases today.

We have yet another Kash Patel tantrum

Oh dear, Kash Patel is upset again and firing people as a result. What happened to send Patel into fits this time? Well, someone kept track of his use of the FBI’s private jet, and he didn’t want them to do that.

A top FBI official with 27 years standing has reportedly been fired by the bureau after its director, Kash Patel, became enraged by press stories revealing he had used a government jet to travel to see his girlfriend sing the national anthem at a wrestling match.

Steven Palmer, who had worked at the bureau since 1998, was fired as head of the FBI’s critical incident response group which is responsible for handling major security threats as well as overseeing the agency’s fleet of jets. He was the third head of the unit to be dismissed since Patel became the second Trump administration’s FBI director in February.

***

According to Bloomberg, Patel had become furious over stories published after the event about his use of the FBI jet to go on the date with Wilkins. Soon after, Palmer had been told he could resign instantly or be fired.

The dismissal was made official on Friday.

Personally, I find the fact that someone is dating Kash Patel the most alarming part of the entire story. It’s also notable that Patel’s flight information was fully available and trackable online, and so is his girlfriend’s X account.

Dumbass.

There are numerous critical legal cases currently underway across the nation. In addition to the two SNAP cases I mentioned above, we also have cases involving Trump’s attempt to deploy the National Guard in Portland and Chicago, as well as the journalists’ case against ICE and CBP in Chicago, and the criminal cases against Jim Comey and Letitia James. So I figured I could break down where some of those cases stand at the moment, in the hopes that everything hasn’t changed by the time you read this newsletter on Monday morning.

  • Judge Karin Immergut’s ruling in State of Oregon v. Trump literally came down while I was writing this, so let’s start there. Immergut has entered a preliminary injunction prohibiting Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth from deploying the National Guard in Portland. Immergut found credible evidence that “the President likely did not have a ‘colorable basis’ to invoke either Section 12406(3) or Section 12406(2) to federalize and deploy the National Guard to the Portland ICE facility in Oregon on September 27, 2025." In this case, you can read “colorable” to mean valid, honest, or non-fraudulent." Immergut will make her final ruling on this case by Friday, November 7. I broke the ruling down in a Bluesky thread here. 

  • Meanwhile, in Chicago Headline Club v. Noem, the Seventh Circuit ordered Judge Sara Ellis to withdraw her order to meet with CPB Head Greg Bovino every day at 5:45 pm until November 5 to review ICE and CBP’s adherence to her TRO, which blocked ICE from using tear gas on peaceful bystanders, among other things. We also got yet another Notice of Violation of Judge Ellis’ order by ICE on Saturday. This one includes the events that happened in my town last weekend. I imagine Judge Ellis will haul everyone back into court today or tomorrow to address the ongoing violations. For now, our next court date is the preliminary injunction hearing on Wednesday, November 5.

  • New York AG Letitia James won her motion to make the DOJ and US Attorney Lindsey Halligan stop talking shit about her to the media (not the actual caption of the motion). District Judge Jamar Walker ordered “all counsel to comply with Local Rule 57.1, which prohibits any ‘lawyer, law firm, or law enforcement personnel associated with the prosecution or defense’ from making or authorizing certain extrajudicial statements, including offering ‘[a]ny opinion as to the accused’s guilt or innocence or as to the merits of the case or the evidence in the case, subject to their professional obligations.” All of this began, as you likely suspect, with Halligan’s texts to journalist Anna Bower.

  • James Comey and Letitia James have both filed motions for dismissal based on both 1) the improper appointment of Halligan and 2) vindictive prosecution. Both motions to dismiss based on Halligan’s improper appointmet have all been assigned to Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, and hearing is set on motions for both Comey and James’s cases on November 13 at 10 am.

  • Finally, we’re waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s Emergency Motion for a stay of Judge April Perry’s TRO, which is keeping him from deploying the National Guard in Chicago, in Illinois v. Trump. SCOTUS asked the parties for additional information, and those briefs are due November 17. So nothing much is happening with this case for right now, though a status report on discovery from both parties is due on Tuesday.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

I came across this video after a really awful day of following ICE abductions in my town. It brought me to tears and made me believe that we can get to a better place than where we are now.

Survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards (or ICE) get you down.

Reply

or to participate.