LEAVITT, KAROLINE!

The White House is scrambling to counter the hair-raising new Epstein emails. One new line of attack doesn’t match the data.

• The White House spin machine kicked into overdrive this week to tamp down disturbing new emails from deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, which suggested “Trump knew” about Epstein’s conduct. But — surprise, surprise! — not everything the Trump team has said stands up to scrutiny, including its latest claim that the media is ignoring the government shutdown to focus on the Epstein drama. A media analysis provided exclusively to What A Day shows this claim doesn’t stack up.

• To recap: Trump “knew about the girls,” Epstein wrote in an email to journalist Michael Wolff in 2019. The White House then launched a pressure campaign against House Republicans who want to release more Epstein files. (Weird thing to do if you’ve got nothing to hide!) Trump has dismissed the whole story as a “hoax,” and to be clear, Trump hasn’t been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

• The Trump team has fought back, in part, by trying to change the subject — back to the shutdown, which just ended after a record-breaking 43 days when a handful of Democratic Senators folded and agreed to vote with Republicans. “The Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures, in particular, their most recent one — THE SHUTDOWN!” Trump howled on Truth Social last night.

• The White House expanded on that claim today, accusing its favorite boogeyman — mainstream media — of unfair coverage. “If not for the Jeffrey Epstein story, CNN would be forced to talk about how Chuck Schumer and the Democrats got shellacked by President Trump and Republicans in the government shutdown fight,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted today.

• She continued: “It’s clear this is another Democrat + Mainstream Media hoax, fueled by fake outrage, to distract from the President’s wins.”

But the data tells a different story.

• Stories about the shutdown in mainstream media greatly outnumbered those about the Epstein emails, according to data collected by PeakMetrics, a nonpartisan data analytics firm, and exclusively provided to What A Day.

• “Epstein” was mentioned in 381 stories in the last 24 hours, compared to 2,266 “shutdown” mentions, the data shows. Even on X, there were 157 mentions of Epstein versus 260 mentions of the shutdown on mainstream outlets’ pages. You’d think Leavitt would know this, considering she spends so much time bashing journalists there!

• The data looked at a wide-range of outlets, including CNN, the New York Times, Politico, BBC, Fox News, Breitbart, Daily Caller, the Washington Examiner, and 78 others.

• “I was struck by how much less coverage major news organizations are giving the Epstein story compared to the federal shutdown, but it makes sense when you think about it,” Molly Dwyer, director of insights at PeakMetrics, told What A Day. The Epstein emails represent one major development, she explained, while the shutdown involves countless moving parts, from federal workers to agencies to political negotiations, that generate more stories.

• The White House pushed back on the analysis. “This data — which features many outlets that are not considered mainstream media — totally debunks the argument the Obama Pod Bros are trying to make,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told What A Day. “While non-mainstream outlets may focus on important issues that matter to the American people, the White House is correct to highlight the biased coverage by the mainstream media and their focus on the Epstein hoax rather than accurate coverage of the Democrat shutdown.”

Wouldn’t including Breitbart in the data analysis likely boost the number of “shutdown” stories??? I’m not sure how that helps Trump’s case!

DEPT. OF JUST US

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is furious about redistricting… but only when Democrats do it.

And now, Trump’s DOJ is mounting a furious legal assault aimed at blocking much-hyped voting district changes in California.

Last week, Golden State voters overwhelmingly supported a measure that would move the lines of its congressional maps. The effort could bag Democrats five extra seats in the House of Representatives during next year’s midterms. But Attorney General Pam Bondi isn’t having it.

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Bondi said in a statement. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

That’s a dishonest reading of the situation, to say the least. The only reason Newsom introduced the measure is because Republicans nationwide — at the request of Trump himself — began redrawing their own state maps. Why? Because it’s likely the GOP would lose control of the House next year, and Trump can’t stand the thought.

“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” Newsom’s press office tweeted.

WHAT ELSE?

More than 1,300 flights were canceled across the United States today, even after the government shutdown ended. The number, while lower than previous days, shows that the effects of the shutdown on air travel will linger for some time… but hopefully things will be back to normal by Thanksgiving.

Trump’s directive to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War could cost up to $2 billion NBC News reports. A whopping $1 billion would reportedly be spent on new letterhead and signage alone. Look, for just $500 million, I would change my name to whatever War Secretary Pete Hegseth wants… which I assume would be something like Thor Warrior-Ethos Axe-Handle Berg.

The U.S. can deny visas for people with obesity, cancer or diabetes, according to a private directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Certain medical conditions …can require hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of care,” he wrote in a cable to told consulates and embassies around the world. I mean, if we could deny citizenship for being too dim-witted and obnoxious, some U.S. officials might have to start packing…

The New York Times has new details about the underage girl who former Rep. Matt Gaetz allegedly paid for sex, upending his political career. “She was 17 and a high school junior in Florida. She was working at McDonald’s. And she was living in and out of a homeless shelter,” the story begins. Gaetz denied having sex with her, saying that her story is false.

Donald Trump’s war against his perceived enemies could unravel by the time Americans carve up their turduckens on Thanksgiving. That’s the deadline Judge Cameron McGowan Currie gave for deciding whether Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s pick to oversee the Eastern District of Virginia, will be allowed to serve in her position. The ruling would upend the DOJ’s former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. If Currie rules against Trump, I imagine his annual “Mar-a-Lago Chilled Seafood Display” won’t taste nearly as good.

FIFA will use the Kennedy Center for free during its 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., even though the event will disrupt performance schedules. So this the price Trump is paying for that so-called FIFA Peace Prize? Checks out.

A U.S. World War II cemetery in the Netherlands removed displays honoring Black troops this week. “Not only reading about, but actually experiencing, how history and those who shaped it can be so easily and casually erased,” said the widow of a Jefferson Wiggins, who was quoted in a display that was removed. This news broke on the week of Veterans Day, nonetheless.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…

The Los Angeles city council sharply lowered annual rent hikes, in an effort to make one of the country’s most expensive cities more affordable. “Because when people can afford to stay in Los Angeles this entire city thrives,” City Councilmember Nithya Raman said.

More than 1,000 Starbucks workers across 65 stores went on strike today to protest stalled labor negotiations with the company. The protest comes on Red Cup Day, a busy annual event during which Starbucks gives free reusable cups to customers who buy holiday drinks.

A 19-year-old French engineering student broke the world record for the longest bicycle wheelie, peddling 93 miles for six and a half hours straight. This guy should also get a world record for the most creative way to procrastinate studying.

Two concertgoers took a video of a man scrolling through his résumé at a Jonas Brothers concert, which quickly went viral and even caught the attention of Nick Jonas. “My inbox is so flooded with opportunities right now,” said Scott Kelly, 36, who is already employed. “It’s hard to know where I’m going to start, but right now I’m working on growing my opportunities where I am.”

Regularly listening to music can help lower your chance of developing dementia, according to a new study. This is great news for my buddy who listens to more than 100,000 minutes of music every year.

A global nonprofit in Africa is teaching women to be solar technicians, known locally as “solar mamas,” who help bring electricity to villages without power. Most of the women are middle-aged with little or no formal education, but after six months of training, they’re given household solar panels and the skills to keep them running.

Researchers claim that Adolf Hitler may have had a micropenis, citing new DNA analysis. The analysis may explain Hitler’s “almost total devotion to politics with an almost complete absence of private life,” according to one historian of Nazi Germany. I mean… it sure would explain a lot.