It really is the height of solipsism and narcissism to think that our coverage of fallen warriors has anything to do with our how we cover a president. I'm just utterly shocked that Hegseth and now Karoline Leavitt are saying it.
Lord Docherty, who was introduced to the House of Lords on January 19, resigned as chief executive of NCG in October 2018 after being confronted with allegations he had conducted sexual liaisons while at work. According to an investigation by the Sunday Times and FE Week, Lord Docherty exchanged multiple sexual messages during an Ofsted inspection and used hotels paid for by NCG to meet partners during work hours.
Once we take power, whoever the president is, we're going to break up your companies. So all the investment you did to create these mergers are going to be for naught. Your investors are going to be pissed at you, and you're likely going to end up getting fired as the CEO because you wasted so much money and corrupted yourself in the process.
Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump's actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers. This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors, as well as the public who also want to get to the bottom of this matter.
Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions. Trump has evaded punishment for crimes both low (campaign-finance violations, for which he was convicted, though he will serve no time thanks to his 2024 victory) and high (his attempted overthrow of the federal government in the aftermath of his 2020 election loss, for which he was spared by the Supreme Court's decision to grant him a kingly immunity).
Documents released as part of an effort to bring greater transparency to Epstein's relationships with powerbrokers in politics, business and culture shed light on Summers's extensive correspondence with Epstein, whom he once emailed asking for advice on wooing women.
Public moral outrage travels swiftly when scandal threatens reputations and diplomatic optics. Yet that sensitivity to association sits uneasily beside a domestic reality in which sexual violence against women unfolds with brutal regularity, drawing neither comparable embarrassment nor consequence. The contrast is grotesque.
During questioning by Congress, Attorney General Pam Bondi used shouting as a technique to deflect difficult questions about President Donald Trump and the Epstein Files, citing the current strong stock market as an example of Trump's success. But Trump cannot be let off the hook for possible crimes just because he is perceived as doing some things right. Even a criminal as notorious as mob boss Al Capone appears to have been a family man who supported projects in his community. Such benevolence, though admirable, didn't erase the need for accountability when he committed tax evasion and murder.
John from New Mexico, a self-professed lifelong Republican, called into C-Span's Washington Journal earlier this month with penitence on his mind. I voted for the president and supported him, he began. But I really want to apologize. The caller said he had been staring at an image Americans have seen far too often in recent days: Barack and Michelle Obama, the former president and first lady, with their mouths stretched into grotesque grins and their faces affixed to the bodies of apes.
In the days since the latest tranche of Epstein files was published, two issues have come to dominate the debate in the UK: whether Mandelson could face criminal investigation for misconduct in public office, and whether Keir Starmer can weather the political fallout from appointing him as Britain's ambassador to the United States, despite his known association with the convicted paedophile.
Mizelle said the group plans to investigate reports about lying to Congress, some of the things that happened with John Bolton, a couple other administration officials, things related to Arctic Frost and things related to other oversight documents where it appears that prior administrations weren't particularly truthful with the American people or members of Congress. I do wonder how much of this is tied directly to the president's publicly calling out Attorney General [Pam] Bondi admonishing her,
How do you stop someone from killing someone else? In most societies, we do so with warnings, promises, and contracts. We make laws to make ourselves feel safe. It's important to feel safe, because reality is terrifying. In Minneapolis this weekend, we saw reality: a group of men with guns, in a semicircle, firing a barrage of shots into a man's body lying on the ground.
The truth is that as a country we have often found one reason or another to let the powerful escape the consequences of their actions. Consider Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, commander in chief of a rebellion that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Davis spent two years in federal custody after the end of the war. The indictment against him was dismissed following his release, and he spent the rest of his life a free man.
The state of California has squandered billions of tax dollars and most of two decades of planning and construction in a failed attempt to build high-speed rail in California. We initially voted for it, so when do we, as taxpayers, say enough is enough and tell the governor and the Legislature to stop this wasteful embarrassment? We have endured years of misleading statements and broken promises.
But Jewish tradition is clear: a genuine transformation does not happen overnight or for convenience. It requires contrition, confession, and change. Without all three, there is no teshuvah or repentance, only posturing. As the Jewish community enters the Days of Awe with Rosh Hashanah on Monday evening, followed by Yom Kippur, we are reminded that transformation begins with accountability. We reflect, we acknowledge, we confess, and then we commit.
