It’s been a busy week. The latest Democrat accused by Trump aides of “mortgage fraud” is Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat. On a hyper-partisanship scale of 1-10, Swalwell is a 12, so it’s possible that while filling out his loan papers he got distracted tweeting nasty things and erred on a loan document. But so far all these cases all seem quite thin – and the fact that they are lodged only against people who’ve attacked Trump make these prosecutions seem sketchy, or worse.
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Sen. John Fetterman was hospitalized Thursday after a nasty fall. Pennsylvania’s maverick Democrat was feeling light-headed, apparently owing to a flareup of his previously disclosed irregular heartbeat. “Out of an abundance of caution, he was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh,” his office said in a written statement that described the injuries to his face as “minor.”
“If you thought my face looked bad before,” Fetterman wisecracked, “wait until you see it now!” Such self-deprecating humor reminded me of another gangly American politician – our greatest statesman, actually.
Accused during one of his famous debates with Sen. Stephen Douglas of being “two-faced,” Abraham Lincoln replied, “If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?”
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Bobby, We Hardly Knew Ye
Chris Matthews has written a new book about his favorite political dynasty. It’s titled “Lessons from Bobby: Ten Reasons Robert F. Kennedy Still Matters.” It’s the second one the former MSNBC mainstay has written on President Kennedy’s brother, and the first since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emerged as a political force in his own right – and joined Trump’s cabinet.
If you want to know why Chris felt called to resurrect the martyred hero of the 1968 presidential campaign, buy the book. If you want to know what the author told Bobby Kennedy’s son and namesake in a recent phone call, listen to RCP’s hour-long radio show, carried live on SiriusXM channel 111 each day at 11 a.m. (and reprised on our pages later in the day as a podcast). Tom Bevan, Andrew Walworth, and I had Chris on our show yesterday.
By the way, Tom was also a guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Thursday morning, hosted by John McArdle. With a nod toward Trump subalterns who routinely praise their boss to the skies, I’d say that Tom was incredible on this show, tremendous, the best guest ever. I’m told it was the highest-rated C-SPAN show in history.
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Trump’s Follies
The president who famously dismisses unfavorable public opinion polls as “fake news,” while exaggerating the findings of other surveys, is finding creative ways to stay positive. On Veterans Day, Trump proffered a statistic – I don’t where it came from – that over 90% of military veterans voted for him.
“They’ve been fantastic,” Trump added. “They’re incredible people. They also voted for me about 92% or something. So we have to remember that it’s always nice when you have that – they’re spectacular people.”
I concur with the commander in chief’s assessment of America’s military families. For that reason, I almost hesitate to point out that his own job approval rating has fallen significantly. Almost hesitate, I said. The numbers in the RealClearPolitics Poll Average are dismal for the president. He’s under water by 12.3% in our average – the worst showing of his presidency.
The government shutdown certainly didn’t help, but the data shows that Trump is hemorrhaging support over his handling of the economy. James Carville’s 1992 wisdom endures (even if the buzzword du jour is “affordability,” instead of “the economy.”)
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Democrats’ Follies
The New York Times reported Thursday that Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin faces a revolt from the DNC’s unionized workforce over his announcement that the party’s headquarters staff will have to come to the office in person.
Working from home can be a nice break – I do it sometimes – but it’s hardly an unalienable right. Moreover, since Democrats supposedly believe that combatting Trumpism and recapturing the House of Representatives in 2026 is tantamount to preserving democracy, you wouldn’t think they’d need to be coaxed into coming into the office. You’d be wrong. This, from the Times:
The complaints began almost immediately — both in the room and on Zoom, where his comments were streamed to those working remotely. People who participated in the call described a flurry of thumbs-down emojis and other online expressions of discontent.
“It was shocking to see the D.N.C. chair disregard staff’s valid concerns on today’s team call,” the union’s leadership wrote. “D.N.C. staff worked extremely hard to support historic wins for Democrats up and down the ballot last Tuesday, and this change feels especially callous considering the current economic conditions created by the Trump administration.”
I’m not sure what “current economic conditions” the union is talking about. The main expense for commuters is travel – and gas prices have dropped since Trump took office. One suspects that young Democratic Party aides don’t have their eye on the prize. In January, the Congressional Progressive Staff Association proposed (in writing) a 32-hour work week. It reminds me of the time I quipped that any RCP reporter who mentioned “quality of life” as part of their working conditions would be fired. I was kidding. But, in the old expression, I was kidding on the square.
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Epstein Files
Speaking of the New York Times and the DNC, which are oftentimes indistinguishable from one another, here is how the Times teased out the latest Jeffrey Epstein development:
Epstein References Trump in Emails: In a message obtained by Congress, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald J. Trump spent hours at his house with one of Mr. Epstein’s victims.
Almost every Democratic Party official or officeholder you’ve ever heard of went further. “Trump is a pedophile! We have the proof! He should resign now! They’ve finally got him now!” they said. So did most of the media. Here’s the problem: The emails the Democrats released Wednesday don’t prove any of that. What they show is that Democrats will stoop to anything in their efforts to slime their nemesis.
I have no insight into how much Trump knew about the sick crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. And I have no idea why Trump is fighting the release of the trove of investigative files the Justice Department compiled on the duo. But I do know that what the Democrats did Wednesday was nothing less than a political dirty trick.
Here is the story Democrats put out: In a 2011 email, Epstein told Maxwell, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.” The version of the email the Democrats put out added, “(A victim) spent hours at my house with him…he has never once been mentioned.”
That sounds bad, but it took Republicans on the House Oversight Committee about 10 minutes to realize that the Democrats had redacted the name of the victim on their own. Why? Here’s why. The woman in question was certainly “a victim” (of Epstein, Maxwell, and God-knows-who-else), but she was not a victim of Trump’s. How do we know? Because she said so. Under oath.
Her name is Virginia Giuffre, and before she died earlier this year by her own hand, Giuffre testified that she was never in Epstein’s house with Trump – and, in fact, did not even know if Trump was ever in Epstein’s house at all. So in the emails Epstein was apparently lying to his former girlfriend and co-defendant Ghislaine Maxwell. This fact shouldn’t surprise Democrats. Epstein was a pervert and a con man and a liar and a criminal.
But the Democrats decided to ignore all that – and basically take the account of a serial child molester over his most courageous victim. So much for their commitment to the women in this case. Virginia Giuffre, by the way, did remember Trump, whom she portrayed as friendly and gentlemanly. After she died, her ghost-writer finished the autobiography they were working on. That woman, Amy Wallace, described Giuffre “as a big Trump fan.”
One reason for her admiration was that Giuffre believed that in his second term as president, Trump would order the Justice Department to release its investigative files on Epstein. Instead, the president has resisted doing so. Yet that seems where things are headed – sooner or later.