Trump’s Epstein Spin Collapses as Kash Patel Buckles Under Questioning
As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has worsened, President Trump’s story has been that it’s all Democratic “hoax,” and that his signature on that lewd drawing in Epstein’s birthday book is a “forgery.” But at a congressional hearing Wednesday, FBI director Kash Patel faltered under intense questioning from Democrats. Patel filibustered when asked whether Trump’s name is in the Epstein files. He seemed to accidentally reveal that he does know how many times Trump’s name appears. And he agreed to investigate whether Trump’s birthday note to Epstein is indeed forged, which seems ill-advised. Patel badly undermined Trump’s whole stance. So how much longer can Trumpworld keep the lid on this? We talked to Nicole Hemmer, a historian who has written books about the right and its media apparatus. She explains the schism Epstein has opened inside MAGA, how Patel exposed Trump’s position as untenable, and how it all fits into the last half-century of right wing deceptions and conspiracy theories.
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23:35
Trump Explodes in Rage at Journos as Shock Poll Exposes a Key Weakness
President Trump seems even more angry at the media than usual. His lawyers just filed a lawsuit against The New York Times that First Amendment lawyers are dismissing as a total joke. The suit, however, is also chock full of angry rants that appeared dictated by Trump himself. And he announced it with a Truth Social tirade that boiled with fury. Meanwhile, Trump himself snapped directly at reporters in strange ways, hitting one with a bizarre threat and engaging in a bizarre dominance display over the other. This comes as a new poll from the Economist reveals shockingly low support for Trump among independents, a key metric for gauging political strength—or weakness. We talked to Paul Waldman, who recently argued on his Substack, The Cross Section, that Trump’s powers of persuasion are failing him. We discuss how Trump both despises and relies on the media, the real reasons for his mounting anger, and how it’s all revealing big cracks in his authoritarian project.
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23:39
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23:39
Kash Patel Is Such a Fiasco for Trump that Even Fox Just Admitted It
In a surprise, Fox News is reporting that the knives are out for FBI director Kash Patel due to many recent missteps, including the botching of key facts about the hunt for Charlie Kirk’s assassin. That this is being featured by Fox News may be a sign of how dire Patel’s internal standing has truly become. Yet we’re in the middle of a complicated moment. Even as Patel’s tenure is beset with follies, Stephen Miller just unleashed a vile rant making it clear that Trump is about to turn federal law enforcement loose on the liberal-left in a big way, all fake-justified by Charlie Kirk’s assassination. So we talked to Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent who now writes a good Substack called “The Freedom Academy.” She explains why Patel compares so woefully to his predecessors, what the coming mass repression campaign could look like, how the FBI might figure into that, and how we’ll know things are getting really bad.
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23:53
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23:53
Trump’s Threats Darken on Fox News as MAGA Rage over Kirk Boils Over
In an appalling move, President Trump went on Fox News and openly suggested that far-right political violence is typically justified as a response to left-wing extremism. This functionally tells Trump supporters that it is now open season on the liberal-left after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Trump also signaled he will use the power of the state to exact retribution on Trump-MAGA's designated scapegoats for Kirk’s killing. This comes as eruptions of MAGA fury over Kirk’s death, including calls for mass violence, are rising to alarming levels, making Trump’s encouragement even more depraved. We talked to Will Sommer, who closely tracks the far right as a staff writer for The Bulwark. He discusses how far-right individuals and groups will take Trump’s signals as “sanction,” notes the “all-consuming anger” he’s seeing, and suggests we may see more organized violence coming from those precincts going forward.
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23:26
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23:26
Trump Drug Boat Bombing Takes Darker Turn as Damning New Info Emerges
Questions are mounting about President Trump’s decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. And this saga just got darker. Senator Tim Kaine and two dozen other Democrats just released a powerful letter laying out tough questions for the administration. The letter demonstrates the weakness of Trump’s legal case in a freshly vivid way. And a Senate staffer tells us Kaine reached out to numerous Republicans in hopes of getting them to sign the letter, but damningly, none would. Meanwhile, new reporting indicates that the boat might have been turning around before getting hit, making Trump’s decision look even worse. We talked to Scott Anderson, senior editor at Lawfare and author of a great piece analyzing the strike. He demystifies the legal and substantive complexities, sheds light on how brazenly Trump is stretching the law, and discusses whether we’ll ever learn what really happened.
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Every weekday, The New Republic’s Greg Sargent brings you a fresh way of thinking about the biggest political stories of the moment, offered up in an entertaining, information-packed conversation with a leading lawmaker, journalist, or newsmaker. We go deep into the stories behind the headlines leading TNR and other news outlets—while making it fun and fast.
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