Epstein is our national horror story
Why, of all things, is this the story that connects with people? According to writer Dan Brooks, it touches on a kind of fundamental metaphor in our culture — one that speaks to how we understand power, predation and corruption today.
'As a vehicle for our worst fears about the 21st-century United States,' he writes, 'Epstein is our Dracula.'
Read the story.
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'Did anyone really think the sexual predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?'
Can you guess who said this about Trump? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
An Epstein Scandal Timeline ... As scrutiny on the administration and its allies in Congress mounts over the Epstein saga, the rhetoric of senior officials has begun to shift. So legal columnist Ankush Khardori put together a timeline of the statements and stories we've heard from figures like FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump himself. 'Taken together,' he writes, 'Trump's comments suggest the possibility that he suspected that there may be politically damaging information about him in the files and wanted to preemptively discredit revelations about him.'
South Park Slaps Trump ... South Park returned to the airwaves with a comedic blitzkrieg on Trump, whom it depicts as Satan's lover — a role in which he has replaced Saddam Hussein. Perhaps most notably, the show leans hard into Trump's past connections with Epstein. 'It's the latest sign that Trump has lost control of the Epstein narrative, and that the saga has broken Washington containment and permeated deep into popular culture,' writes Calder McHugh. 'That makes it the worst kind of White House mess.'
History's Warning for ICE ... ICE raids are already leading to dramatic sights in communities across the United States, with un-uniformed, masked agents arresting not the kids of hardened criminals you find in Trump's rhetoric, but everyday people who are beloved members of their towns, workplaces and churches. As ICE grows into the largest law enforcement agency in history, those sights will only increase the spectacle — and according to historian Joshua Zeitz, we've seen something similar play out before. 'In the 1850s, the federal government enforced a brutal dragnet aimed at hunting down and returning 'fugitive slaves' — formerly enslaved persons who had escaped captivity and fled north,' he writes. 'The political response proved explosive. Seemingly overnight, white people who previously cared little for the plight of Black Americans, free or enslaved, became committed antislavery voters.'
From the drafting table of editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker.
**Who Dissed? answer: That would be Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection in Georgia.
politicoweekend@politico.com
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