Jul.29

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

The Epstein Files: Apparently, Ghislaine Maxwell Is the Real Victim Here

Yesterday was not an Epstein-free news day, but the focus on that particular story was reduced enough that it's only our third item, instead of the lead item. Progress?

Here are the main storylines:

• The Overton Window: Donald Trump continues to find excuses to casually mention that he could pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, and he just might do it. Meanwhile, Maxwell's lawyers filed a brief with the Supreme Court yesterday, in which they assert that Maxwell should not even be in prison, and that she should have been covered by the plea deal worked out by Jeffrey Epstein.
  
  This could not be more transparent; it's a two-pronged plan meant to create the narrative that pardoning Maxwell would not be shocking, would not be wrong, and would, in fact, undo a miscarriage of justice. We shall see if the public, and in particular the MAGA crowd, buy that.
  
  
• Media Wars: Speaking of the MAGA crowd and, in particular, the MAGA media, a clear and very interesting dynamic has developed. The more traditional right wing media—particularly the cable channels, and even more particularly Fox, have been trying to tote the administration's water as much as they can, both by ignoring the Epstein story, and also by latching on to the distractors the White House has been putting out. For example, since DNI Tulsi Gabbard released her "report" on the 2016 election, Fox has mentioned Barack Obama more than three times as frequently as it has mentioned Epstein.
  
  Meanwhile, the right wing media—particularly the podcasters, and even more particularly Joe Rogan, have been hammering on the Epstein story almost without interruption, and have bought into none of the distractors. We could be watching a very interesting test of which segment of the right-wing media is truly the king these days, and whether the old king (which has mostly old viewers) is dead.
  
  
• Distractions: Trump tried out a Hail Mary pass this weekend, and tried to get the base furious, and got on his whiter-than-Jimmy-Buffett's-fanbase social media platform to try to cook up some "corrupt Democrats" talk:

  I'm looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election, and the fact that they admit to paying, probably illegally, Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!), Three Million Dollars for "expenses," to Oprah, Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to very low rated TV "anchor," Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!), and others to be named for doing, absolutely NOTHING! These ridiculous fees were incorrectly stated in the books and records. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO. Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out! Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

  Undoubtedly it's just a coincidence that of all the expenses the Harris campaign had in support of its Black candidate, the three problematic ones just so happened to involve Black celebrities.
  
  In any case, there is a rather large chasm between "illegally" and "probably illegally," especially when the person doing the evaluating is noted legal scholar Donald John Trump. These figures are all fantasies, and to the extent that payments were made to any of these people (for example, Beyoncé's management got a little over $100,000), those payments were for expenses related to convention appearances. Despite what you might have heard from noted legal scholar Donald John Trump, the Democrats have to pay for those expenses; allowing Beyoncé or any other artist to pay their own expenses would be an illegal contribution in kind.
  
  Anyhow, this particular trial balloon turned out to be made of lead, and so it landed with a thud. And Trump is now really running out of Black people to use as distractors.
  
  
• He Will Get It Right, Eventually!: Most people who have lied as frequently, and as long, as Donald Trump has are pretty good at getting their lies right the first time. It's that old problem that if you're lying, and you change your story, it's a pretty good clue that you are lying.
  
  Trump, however, usually needs a few revisions before he gets his stories down pat. And he spent much of the last 48 hours or so revising his Epstein narrative. Last week the President said he never does drawings; now he says he only draws buildings, and never nude women. Last week he said that he and Epstein had a falling out over a business deal, now he says the falling out was because Epstein kept poaching employees from Mar-a-Lago.
  
  Trump did stick with his claim that he never visited Epstein's island, where some significant portion of the sex trafficking apparently took place. However, he chose his words poorly, decreeing: "I never had the privilege of going to his island." Quite a few folks pounced on that, interested to learn that it is "a privilege" to visit an island where teenagers are being trafficked.
  
  
• Drip, Drip, Drip: No outlet seems to have uncovered any new, incriminating photos or documents. And so, yesterday's "drip, drip, drip" was a list of quotes from Trump, circulated via e-mail and social media, in which he said creepy things about his daughters over the years. For example, when Tiffany Trump was still an infant, he wondered how large her breasts would ultimately be. In 2003, when Ivanka was 22, Trump said: "My daughter, Ivanka. She's six feet tall, she's got the best body."
  
  There are a bunch of other quotes like those, and nearly all of them are verifiable. In fact, most of them were said on camera, so there's both video and audio footage. That said, the one that really gets people upset is also the one that may be spurious (Snopes looked, and concluded only that it was "unverified"): "Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?" That remark was reportedly made just after Ivanka had turned 13, to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Cohen eventually dropped the quote from his column, and the Post refuses to confirm or deny any part of the story.
  
  Also, The Wall Street Journal has reported that Bill Clinton also had a page inside the book of messages compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday. We'll see if either the White House, or supportive right-wing media, tries to find a way to release the Clinton portions of the book, without the Trump portions.

Who knows what today will bring? (Z)