New Tape: Trump Was Epstein's "Closest Friend" - The Monday AM Quickie 11/4/24
The Russian military is apparently using massive numbers of SpaceX's Starlink terminals. What's up with that, Elon? –Jacob
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THE BIG NEWS
New Tape: Donald Trump Was Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's "Closest Friend"
Best-selling author and part-time controversialist Michael Wolff has produced a little November surprise, releasing recordings of interviews he conducted with now-deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The interviews, conducted in 2016 and 2017, supposedly extend for 100 hours and go deep into the years-long friendship between Epstein and Donald Trump. "I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years," said Epstein in one released clip.
Clearly timed to make an election-eve splash, the interviews offer some color to what has long been known but poorly investigated: these two monsters were close friends and participants in each other's lives. Some of the details are petty, others potentially revealing. Epstein can be heard mocking Trump for his scalp reduction surgery while also praising him as a brilliant salesman and real-estate developer. "Anything else but that, he knows nothing," said Epstein. "He can't read a balance sheet."
Wolff, a tabloid-y reporter who has been accusing of stretching and distorting his reporting in the service of heightened drama, is an awkward messenger. But he's also precisely the type of oily society journalist able to get time with Epstein and Trump (whose presidency he chronicled in his book Fire and Fury). Wolff's recordings present Epstein – the century's most notorious pedophile who ran a sex trafficking ring that implicated numerous members of the power elite – talking candidly about the Republican presidential nominee. Epstein, for instance, got a kick out of Trump's habit of cuckolding his friend's wives. He also appeared to be afraid of Trump, Wolff thought.
Wolff is promising more excerpts, and they should prove to be macabre, compelling listening.
"During the podcast I noted the glaring and confounding circumstance that one of these predators ended up in the country’s darkest prison and the other in the White House," Wolff wrote in The Daily Beast. "We still need to understand how that came to pass."
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Early Voting and Late Polls Point to Harris
At least 75 million Americans have already voted in the 2024 presidential election. "Nine states have seen more than 50 percent of eligible voters already vote," according to the New York Times. Turnout is projected to be above 60 percent – pretty good for an American election, but hardly a rousing statement on the health of our democracy. Despite deep public anxiety and scattered reports of unmailed ballots or balky computer systems, voting has proceeded relatively smoothly. In some states, half of eligible voters have already cast a ballot.
Both campaigns have claimed that the surge of early voters is to their advantage. But several polls show a potentially massive Harris lead among early voters. And on Saturday, a well-regarded pollster reported that Harris was ahead by 3 percent in Iowa, leading to shock and denial all around.
Musk PAC Hired Canvassers and Then Abandoned Them, Unpaid, In Michigan
A series of stories in Wired has called attention to the terrible conditions faced by Trump campaign canvassers hired by Elon Musk's America PAC. The door knockers were flown to Michigan by an America PAC subcontractor and "driven around in the back of a seatless U-Haul van." They were told that if they didn't fulfill their high quotas, they would have to pay for their own hotel rooms and their return flights homes. Some of the workers said they thought they were just going to be surveying potential voters, but after they signed an NDA, they were told they were working on behalf of the Trump campaign.
It turned out that the comically evil bosses at the canvassing operation weren't lying. After some workers spoke to Wired, they were cut loose, unpaid, and told to pay their own way home. Meanwhile, Musk's America PAC is already facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly violating California labor law – this time involving another group of canvassers. And Musk's absurd million-dollar giveaway is being challenged in court by Philly DA Lawrence Krasner.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- Spaniards Protest Government After Flood Disaster Calling them "murderers," hundreds of people in Valencia, Spain, protested a visit by Spain's King, Queen, and Prime Minister. Recent floods in the region killed at least 217 people, and the government has been criticized for not warning people and then not providing enough aid in the aftermath. via Reuters.
- Election Sites Are Being Secured With Snipers Years of threats against election workers, along with widespread Republican lies about the integrity of the voting system, have led many state election commissions to fortify voting sites like they're expecting armed attacks. Arizona's secretary of state wears a bulletproof vest, and two states have made preparations to call in the National Guard if necessary. Democracy is messy! via WaPo.
- Israeli Security Services Arrest Top Netanyahu Aide One of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu's aides was arrested, along with three other people, for leaking top secret information to the German tabloid Bild and the British outlet The Jewish Chronicle, apparently with the goal of scuttling hostage negotiations. The Jewish Chronicle later retracted the article they published based on the leaked docs. via Axios and The Guardian.
- The IDF Is Using Gazans As Human Shields And Repeatedly Attacking Hospitals New journalistic investigations confirm previous reports from other media organizations, aid workers, and victimized Palestinians: the IDF is using Gazans as human shields, including to clear out suspected booby traps and to inspect tunnels. In other war crimes news, Israel continues to attack hospitals in northern Gaza, regularly killing and disappearing healthcare workers. via WaPo and AP.
SOME NUMBER
25 percent
That's the percentage of all buildings in southern Lebanon that have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces. As it did in Gaza, Israel has been pursuing a policy of deliberate demolition and destruction since invading southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.
ON THE SHOW TODAY
11/4: Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Dave Weigel, politics writer at Semafor, author of the "Americana" newsletter just one day out from the 2024 election.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
CNN Panel ERUPTS After Grossly Racist Attack On Mehdi Hasan
It doesn't get much more disgusting than this.
This Isn't 2016
Jeet Heer joins the show to talk about why Donald Trump's third presidential candidacy is nothing like his first.
PARTING WORDS
"On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President @realDonaldTrump and First Lady @MELANIATRUMP want to Make America Healthy Again."
-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who would be some kind of health czar under a future Trump administration, promising to reverse one of the great public health achievements of the last century. His plan to ban certain vaccines would also bring back a host of deadly and disabling diseases.
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