Hillary Clinton Knows Nothing

Plus: AI layoffs, Paramount wins Warner Bros., and the Trump-Mamdani bromance.

Hillary Clinton has nothing to say. The former secretary of state and former Democratic presidential candidate faced congressional Republicans in a closed-door deposition yesterday. The subject? What, if anything, she knew about Jeffrey Epstein's criminal activity, or misdeeds by his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Her answer: nada, nothing, zilch. 

"I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that," she said in prepared remarks. Move along. Nothing to see here. 

And nothing you could see, even if you, for some reason, wanted to. Although Clinton had pushed for press access, the session was closed to outsiders. At one point, the session was halted after Rep. Lauren Boebert (R–Colo.) shared a photo that was then posted on social media by right-wing personality Benny Johnson. Chaos! 

Apparently, Republicans also asked her about UFOs and Pizzagate. 

I am, unfortunately, well-enough versed in the various characters and subplots involved that I basically understand what's going on. But this sort of thing increasingly defines politics in the Trump era. I have to imagine that to many Americans, this sort of story comes across like some sort of impenetrable too-online soap opera, or a pro-wrestling match.

Former President Bill Clinton is set to testify today.

Jobs, Blocked. Block, the tech-finance company run by Twitter (now X) founder Jack Dorsey, is laying off approximately 4,000 of its 10,000 employees. 

In a message to employees, Dorsey says the reason for the layoffs isn't that the company is doing poorly. Rather, it's that agentic tools—task-executing AI agents like those offered by Anthropic—are changing the way the company understands work. 

"Something has changed," Dorsey wrote in a post on X. "We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly."

It's possible that AI is just an excuse for normal layoffs after overhiring. And I don't think that AI will herald the end of work as we know it, at least not in the foreseeable future. 

But I do think we will see significant disruptions to the labor market over the next few years, especially in fields that employ a large number of coders and white-collar clerical workers. AI can't yet fully replace human judgment or creativity, though it may be more capable on those fronts than many people currently believe. But it's becoming quite adept at executing multistep assigned tasks that can be performed on a computer. 

This will be quite difficult for some people. Job loss is painful. But it will also be an opportunity for innovation and entrepreneurship, as the cost of building and executing a good idea, especially a good idea that primarily involves software and information organization, drops dramatically. 

Batman, bought. Last year, storied movie studio Warner Bros., which also owns media properties CNN and D.C. Comics, went up for sale. After rumors and reports that Paramount—recently purchased by David Ellison, son of Oracle cofounder David Ellison—was the most likely suitor, a twist emerged: Streaming behemoth Netflix had made the deal, with an offer valued at about $83 billion. 

Since then, Paramount has aggressively sought to counter Netflix, raising its initial offer while hinting that its purchase was much more likely to pass regulatory review, since Larry Ellison is a major Donald Trump donor. Trump was reportedly quite interested in the fate of CNN, which is owned by Warner Bros. 

Yesterday, after Warner Bros. board announced that it preferred Paramount's most recent offer of $31 per share—or about $111 billion—Netflix backed out. Paramount won the bidding war. Once the deal is formally approved, D.C. Comics stalwart Batman (and Superman) will have a new owner. 

Looked at one way, this appears to be a clean deal. Paramount simply offered more. And Warner Bros. has been sold multiple times over the years; everyone wants to own Batman. 

But reports have consistently said that part of Paramount's pitch to Warner Bros. has been that it believes it has a better chance of regulatory approval, owing to its friendliness with Trump. Notably, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos was reportedly in Washington, D.C., yesterday, meeting with federal officials about the deal. And earlier this week, Trump encouraged Netflix to fire a board member, Susan Rice, who'd criticized corporations for taking "a knee to Trump?" 

It's worth asking: Was this ultimately a political deal? Did Netflix back out because federal approval looked dicey? Did Trump essentially decide who would own CNN? 

Political interference in big mergers existed before Trump. Under Joe Biden, Lina Khan's Federal Trade Commission maintained an almost reflexive stance against large mergers of any kind. But it remains immensely frustrating that big deals have to run through the whims of whoever happens to occupy the Oval Office. 

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Scenes from Washington, D.C.: "If you are a trained intelligence officer, you're going to the restaurant with the express purpose of developing and cultivating a source that has access to the White House." The Washingtonian covers the relationship between spies and restaurants in D.C.

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QUICK HITS

• The U.S. State Department told Americans in Israel: "Persons may wish to consider leaving Israel while commercial flights are available." Ominous.
• For the first time in three years, mortgage rates fell below 6 percent. This could help ease the "lock-in" effect, in which buyers with low mortgage interest rates refuse to sell because their next home purchase will come with a much higher rate, that has plagued the housing market for the last several years. 
• Bloomberg looks at the boom in Manhattan megamansions. 
• If you're a cinephile, you've probably watched at least one of those Criterion Library shorts, in which movie stars and directors talk through their picks from the boutique disc-producer's famous, closet-sized library. Well, now you can apply to be that library's coordinator. 
• The Trump-Mamdani bromance continues. 

I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon.

I'm looking forward to building more housing in New York City. pic.twitter.com/XnPbt0KXYU

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 26, 2026