The Epstein Light Grenade has taken its first scalp since Democrats went full-tilt offensive on the topic. Only, as it turns out, that scalp doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It doesn’t belong to a Republican, in fact.
However, you’d be hard pressed to know it belongs to a Democrat – if you read Politico. At least in the first version of their report on Larry Summers’ announcement of retirement from “public life,” the word Democrat never appeared, not even a single time:
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in a statement Monday said he would be stepping back from public life and expressed deep regret for past messages with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the wake of new revelations about the extent of their relationship.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” he told POLITICO. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein. While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”
Emails revealed that Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and a top adviser to President Barack Obama, repeatedly sought advice from Epstein on romantically pursuing a woman he referred to as his mentee. Epstein in one message referred to himself as the prominent economist’s “wing man.” Summers in another exchange suggested women in aggregate have a lower IQ than men.
Given that Summers worked in two Democrat administrations, one could argue that specifying the Democrat affiliation would be redundant. Consider this, though: if Summers worked in Republican administrations, how many people really think that Politico would have left that word entirely out of this report? We would expect to see at least one of the words “Republican,” “GOP,” or “conservative” in every single paragraph.
How did Summers get connected to Epstein? The Harvard Crimson discovered emails in which Summers tried to get Epstein’s help in propositioning a woman the former Harvard president had mentored. Epstein had joked in communications to others that he’d become the former Treasury Secretary’s “wingman”:
When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he sought guidance from a longtime associate: convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.
In a sequence of texts and emails between November 2018 and July 5, 2019, Summers turned to Epstein for advice on his pursuit of the woman. Epstein was quick to chime in with assurance and suggestions, describing himself in one November 2018 message as Summers’ “wing man.”
The timing on this is important. By July 2019, not only had Epstein already pled guilty to charges relating to sex trafficking, it had been clear for months that the Department of Justice had reopened its investigation and had targeted Epstein for prosecution again. In February 2019, the Miami Herald reported the probe; the next month, federal judges had started unsealing records related to the allegations. By April, Alex Acosta’s scummy plea deal with Epstein in the 2007 case became a national scandal.
According to these e-mails, it appears that Summers kept consulting with the convicted sex offender for dating tips until the day before Epstein’s arrest.
The. Day. Before.
Even with the DoJ publicly breathing down Epstein’s neck and Acosta well on his way out the door as Secretary of Labor, Summers still sought advice from Epstein on cherchez les femmes:
The final tranche of messages, beginning in mid-June, shows the relationship still unresolved and Summers again turning to Epstein for guidance on how to pursue it. Summers asked Epstein whether it was “meaningful” to discuss the probability of “my getting horizontal w peril,” drawing parallels to forecasting Trump’s reelection.
“U r better at understanding Chinese women than at probability theory,” Summers told Epstein. The two men bantered about probability and mathematics, but repeatedly steered the conversation back to Summers’ relationship. ...
The final messages, dated July 5, 2019, show Summers still in regular contact with Epstein. That morning, Summers wrote he was in Cape Cod with his family — “Bit of an Ibsen play,” he joked — and the two men exchanged a brief flurry of literary one-liners.
The thread ends at 1:27 p.m.
Epstein was arrested the next day.
For the record, the Harvard Crimson also played “name that party” in its report on Summers.
As I wrote yesterday, Democrats are already learning a hard lesson in the wisdom of the axiom Be careful what you wish for. They can certainly hope that the Protection Racket Media will keep party affiliations out of their reports, but people will connect the dots on their own. And while Epstein cast a wide net and there will be figures from across the political spectrum in these files, Epstein’s politics makes it likely that Democrats will be vastly over-represented in the damage that will be done with their Orange Man Bad obsession.
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