The Tara Palmeri Show

The Trump administration's controversial $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is officially dead—and Tara Palmeri was live as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faced intense questioning on Capitol Hill. After weeks of GOP backlash, Blanche confirmed the Justice Department is abandoning the program, marking a major political retreat for the administration. Tara breaks down the key moments from the hearing, what forced the reversal, and whether Blanche is becoming the fall guy for one of Trump's most controversial initiatives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri sits down with Michael LaRosa, former spokesperson for First Lady Jill Biden and Biden campaign insider, for a no-holds-barred conversation about the Jill Biden memoir disaster, the Democratic Party's credibility crisis, and why no one around the Bidens will tell them the truth. LaRosa — who says he cares about "Doctor B" but paid a price for speaking out about Biden's health — breaks down why the book tour's opening salvo has been met with hostility from Democrats, how Jill's claim that she thought Biden was having a stroke during the debate contradicts everything the campaign said at the time, and why the same advisers who got the Bidens into this mess are still running the show. They dig into Jill Biden's unprecedented influence inside the White House — how her chief of staff controlled the schedule, the residence staff, the Secret Service, and access to the president — the DNC's embarrassing autopsy report that Ken Martin can't even stand behind, why Democrats still can't articulate what they're for, and the uncomfortable truth about affordability: Democrats didn't care about it under Biden but suddenly do under Trump. Plus: why only 16 House seats are actually competitive in 2026, whether Democrats can take back the House and Senate, and LaRosa's sharp distinction that "Republicans use power as a tool — Democrats use power as a reward."

#biden #politics

0:00 – Intro: Jill Biden's memoir is creating more questions than answers
5:21 – "They were allergic to transparency" — the Biden campaign's fatal flaw
10:08 – The same people who got everything wrong are still advising her
15:01 – Why this book is destroying her credibility instead of restoring it
19:23 – Jill Biden's unprecedented influence inside the White House
24:28 – The DNC autopsy report is a joke — and Ken Martin can't even own it
30:02 – Democrats still can't answer basic questions about what they stand for
35:00 – Neither side has clean hands
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri gets the first account of what happened behind closed doors during Pam Bondi's transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee from Congressman James Walkinshaw (D-VA), who was in the room. Walkinshaw reveals that Bondi repeatedly threw acting Attorney General Todd Blanche under the bus — blaming him for the botched redactions that exposed 70-plus Epstein survivors' identities, for removing the Howard Lutnick photo from the files (claiming it was AI-generated), and for decisions she said she wasn't involved in. But the biggest bombshell: when asked point-blank whether President Trump knew about Epstein's crimes before they became public, Bondi didn't say no — she said "I don't know." Walkinshaw and Palmeri dig into why Harmeet Dhillon accompanied Bondi as a DOJ minder to block embarrassing questions, Bondi's shifting explanations for her "I've got the list on my desk" claim, why the administration is using "privilege" to withhold files in apparent violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the FBI whistleblower who said agents were directed to flag mentions of Trump in the files, and whether Bondi was actually fired because Trump got frustrated with the continued media attention. Plus: the Lutnick island photo cover-up, why no one has investigated Les Wexner or Leon Black, and what a future Democratic Congress plans to do about it.

0:00 – Intro: Congressman Walkinshaw was in the room for Pam Bondi's closed-door interview

4:49 – Bondi blames Todd Blanche for exposing survivors' identities and the Lutnick photo cover-up

9:06 – "Everybody knew about Epstein" — did Trump know about the crimes?

14:00 – FBI agents directed to flag mentions of Trump in the Epstein files

19:04 – The "client list" lie, privilege loophole, and what a future Congress will d
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of r**e, beat him in court, and won tens of millions in damages. Now Trump’s DOJ is reportedly investigating Carroll over testimony tied to Reid Hoffman-backed legal funding. I’m going LIVE with Legal AF’s Michael Popok to break down the timing, politics, and legitimacy of the probe.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri investigates how Grindr — the gay hookup app born in West Hollywood — has quietly become an unexpected political force in Trump's Washington. During White House Correspondents' Dinner weekend, the hottest invite in town wasn't hosted by a media company — it was hosted by Grindr. And yet almost no elected Republican politicians were willing to show their face, even as the app experienced a massive usage spike during the Republican National Convention and CPAC. Palmeri traces this story back to her own reporting 16 years ago, when she walked through the Capitol, the White House, and the Pentagon with the app open and watched users light up all around her. She reveals Grindr's growing $1.6 million lobbying operation run by Joe Hack — a longtime Republican operative — their work with the State Department to save PEPFAR funding, their bipartisan fundraising strategy targeting Susan Collins and Tammy Baldwin, and the enormous gap between public political performance and private institutional reality in Washington. Plus: why the app was forced to divest from Chinese ownership over national security concerns, why Melania Trump carries symbolic weight among gay Republicans, and how Grindr's party may have been less a publicity stunt and more a coming-out party for a new kind of influence operation.
0:00 – The hottest party in Washington was hosted by Grindr

4:28 – Grindr's $1.6M lobbying operation and its Republican operative running it

8:30 – The gap between public performance and private reality in Trump's Washington
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices