“According to victims these documents in your possession, detail at least 20 men, including Staley, CEO Barclays Bank, who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked victims to. That list includes 19 over individuals, one Hollywood producer worth a few hundred million dollars. One very prominent banker, one high profile government official, one high profile former politician, one owner of a car company in Italy, one rock star, one magician, at least six billionaires including a billionaire from Canada. We know these people exist in the FBI files.”
We don’t know all the people Massie refers to on this list of alleged Epstein buddies to whom girls and women were trafficked but there is going to be a mad scramble to find out.
Patel had a bad day in the Senate yesterday with lots of yelling but not a lot of clarity. In the House it’s all Epstein.
I thought this was a good moment. Patel is a snotty bitch but Swalwell gets the best of him.
Rep Eric Swalwell (D-CA) asks Kash Patel if Patel told Attorney General Pam Bondi that Trump's name was in the Epstein files
LIEU: Are there photos of showing Donald Trump with girls of an uncertain age?
PATEL: No LIEU: How do you know that?
PATEL: Because the information would’ve been brought to light by multiple administrations
LIEU: That’s just not true. Nobody knew about the creepy birthday message that Trump wrote to Epstein
Jamie Raskin shows Kash Patel videos of all the podcasts he's been on for the last several years, where he repeatedly claims Epstein's black book is under the direct control of the FBI Director.
Patel is performing for Trump who wants a nasty wingnut troll running the FBI (or all other agencies for that matter) so I’m skeptical that he’ll be gone. Same with Bondi despite this:
CNN’s Harry Enten presented polling data that showed which of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members was causing him the most problems with the public.
Bondi has the worst approval rating among Trump’s Cabinet officials, at minus-19 percent, which far below the most popular official, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s at minus-7 percent.
“Something that nobody, nobody for the most part, likes how the Trump administration has been handling them, of course, she’s been a key leadership role,” Enten said. “I mean, look at this: Approval of Trump on the Epstein files. It’s just 19 percent, 19 percent of all adults, 67 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, it’s 2 percent, independents, 12 percent, and even among Republicans, you can’t even get to 50 percent approval, and, of course, this just goes all the way back.”
She really screwed up with the Epstein files and now her “hate speech” comments have made people dislike her even more. But will Trump ever turn on her? Sure he could. He has no loyalty to anyone. But for now she seems safe.
Top Trump administration officials are pressuring federal prosecutors in Virginia to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud, despite investigators so far failing to find sufficient evidence supporting such charges, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
After a five-month investigation and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, federal prosecutors have so far uncovered no clear evidence that James knowingly made false statements to a financial institution to secure favorable terms on a mortgage for her Virginia home, according to multiple sources briefed on the investigation.
Trump himself has pressured the Department of Justice leadership to investigate James more aggressively, and two officials — Ed Martin, the head of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, and Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — have pushed the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to seek an indictment of James.
When federal prosecutors recently declined to indict James, Pulte encouraged Trump to fire Erik Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and replace him with a prosecutor who would be willing to bring charges against James, sources said.
They don’t have a case:That’s the kind of stuff that led Nixon to resign and outraged the entire country. With Trump it’s just another Wednesday.
They don’t have a case:
Pulte and Martin have argued that James committed mortgage fraud because one of the documents related to a 2023 home purchased by James falsely indicated the property would be her primary residence. However, investigators have so far determined that the document — a limited power of attorney form used by James’ niece to sign documents on her behalf when James closed on the home — was never considered by the loan officers who approved the mortgage, sources said.
Lawyers drafted the document itself for a third-party closing company based on a template that was never corrected, sources said, and every other document in James’ loan file for the mortgage accurately stated that she would not reside at the home.
Bill Pulte is a huge problem for Trump. This mortgage fraud gambit is cute but legally bullshit. Recall that he was recently challenged to a fight by Scott Bessent for “making him look bad.” I wonder if this might be the reason:
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that President Donald Trump has been using to try to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Bessent’s conflicting agreements obligated him to occupy homes in New York and Massachusetts as his main residence at the same time in 2007. But there’s no sign of any wrongdoing on his part, mortgage experts say. Rather, his case demonstrates that an incongruity in home-loan filings isn’t necessarily proof of fraud.
Other evidence from Bessent’s mortgages shows that his lender, Bank of America Corp., wasn’t relying on the pledges and never expected him to occupy both homes as primary residences.
Trump needs a new hatchet man. Two actually. Martin is a loser too. Beavis and Butthead here don’t seem to have a clue.
The U.S. president got a not-so-royal welcome in the UK (The New Republic):
As Donald Trump embarks Tuesday on his second state visit to the U.K., demonstrators have spread an enormous banner depicting the president with notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein across a lawn outside Windsor Castle—where King Charles III is set to host him.
The banner is one of many antics planned for the trip by Everyone Hates Elon, a British guerilla group formed earlier this year to troll billionaire Elon Musk with viral stunts.
ICYMI — ahead of his state visit, Trump was welcomed to the UK with the world’s largest Epstein-Trump photo. Right outside Windsor Castle, where he’s staying.
For Trump’s visit, Everyone Hates Elon is endeavoring to put the 1997 photo of the president and his former friend Epstein “everywhere he goes,” thus making it “the defining image” of the trip, according to a fundraising page. (As of this writing, almost 1,800 donors have contributed 31,760 pounds—or more than $43,000—to the cause.)
For every 15 pounds raised, the group vowed to add another square meter to the banner, which was unveiled Tuesday as “the WORLD’S BIGGEST PHOTO of Donald with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.”
Not to miss a trick, Everybody Hates Elon slipped Epstein & Trump merch into the Windsor Castle gift shop.
Pranksters did not back off after the sun set on what remains of the British empire (USA Today):
Four people in England have been arrested in connection with projecting images of President Donald Trump with his arm around sex offender Jeffrey Epstein onto Windsor Castle, the home of the British royal family.
The stunt at the royal residence comes just as the president arrived late on Tuesday, Sept. 16, to begin a state visit to Britain. King Charles is expected to greet Trump at the castle about 25 miles west of London on Wednesday.
Photos and videos shared online by British media and others show that also projected onto the castle tower were images of a birthday letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein more than 20 years ago, though the White House has denied its authenticity; a photo of Melania Trump between Trump and Epstein; and pictures of Epstein’s victims.
We’re sure Trump’s golf outings in the UK will be equally well pranked.
Mustn’t make too much fun of the sun setting on the British empire. Trump and his MAGA Golden Horde are working hard at having it set on ours.
Players from around the political horseshoe saw in Charlie Kirk’s murder last week the opportunity to exploit his death to advance their own causes and to punish their enemies. If there is anything unseemly in the response to the tragedy it is the zeal with which that has taking place even in the absence of a coherent motive. “Never let a good disaster go to waste” now applies to assassinations.
The Donald Trump administration’s attack dogs jumped on Kirk’s murder like a Rottweiler on a fresh steak. They see a vast left wing terrorist network behind Kirk’s killing. Stephen Miller, Trump’s pet psychopath vows “to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again,” although he cannot name any.
AG Pam Bondi had to walk back comments that her department would bring federal charges against anyone engaging in “hate speech” after even her own allies pointed out to the former Florida attorney general that the First Amendment protects even noxious speech. The late Charlie Kirk made that clear. He certainly did not want anyone prosecuting him for ugly, gross, or evil speech.
The extremist right created federal and amateur informant networks within days of Kirk’s death to punish anyone who offered a discouraging word about the Turning Point USA founder amidst a push by his allies to elevate him to Martin Luther King status as a champion of free expression. Perhaps Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) will propose he get a federal holiday.
Elsewhere in the U.S. House, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) filed a privileged measure to force a censure vote against Rep. Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota. Omar called Kirk a “stochastic terrorist” even as she condemned his murder and expressed empathy for his wife and children.
Like DC’s Peacemaker, America’s extreme right will have peace in this country at any cost, no matter how many civil rights they need to kill to get it.
And no matter how many inconvenient facts it has to memory hole:
Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice has quietly deleted a study showing that far-right attacks outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violence extremism.
A June 2024 study on domestic extremism by the National Institute of Justice, a research agency under the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, began by noting that “militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States.”
“In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism,” it reads. “Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.”
Released emails suggest that the reasons suspect Tyler Robinson had for shooting Kirk were more personal than political, and related to his relationship with a roommate. Ken Klippenstein posted leaked Discord messages that the media has not published:
Trump and company portray the alleged Utah shooter as left-wing and liberals portray him as right-wing. The federal conclusion will inevitably be that he was a so-called Nihilist Violent Extremist (NVE); meanwhile, the crackdown has already begun, as I reported yesterday. The country is practically ready to go to war.
What one friend s finds confounding is that Robinson “just never really talked politics.”
The picture that emerges bears little resemblance to the media version. Robinson, I am told, though quiet, was a well-liked person with a supportive family. The friend group who he interacted with on Discord, far from some kind of militia camp or Antifa bunker it’s been portrayed as, represented a range of different political views but mostly talked video games.
But the extremist right is not about to let that get in the way of a useful anti-left narrative.
Not to be left out, the Russians are jumping into the post-Kirk frenzy:
Russia moved to amplify online conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s killing just hours after it happened, seeding social media with the frightening claim that America is slipping into civil war.
Chinese and pro-Iranian groups also spread disinformation about the shooting, with those loyal to Iran’s interests backing antisemitic conspiracy theories while bots linked to Beijing claimed that Kirk’s death shows that the United States is violent, polarized and dysfunctional.
Getting old sucks. The reasons for that are myriad; not least of which is watching the icons of your youth diminish and go into the West (forgive the Tolkien reference).
Yes, Robert Redford was 89 years old, which doesn’t make news of his passing a complete shocker, but this one hurts (hurts even more these days to lose the good people).
He was “a movie star” in a traditional Hollywood sense; gifted by the gods with matinee-idol looks, which he viewed as a curse of sorts. He demonstrated that he was more than just a pretty face with a lifetime of off-screen philanthropy and activism. Still, it could be a tricky juggling act. From The Hollywood Reporter:
Behind the California-kid surface was a darker and more complicated figure. The very definition of a Hollywood star, he nonetheless saw himself as an outsider and spent much of his time living away from the epicenters of the industry — including at the Utah skiing resort that he turned into the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.
He bestrode two worlds, his biographer, Michael Feeney Callan, wrote in 2011: “His life [was] peripatetic. He engaged [in] careers on the East Coast and West. It may not be a coincidence that his arts laboratory — his ‘great experiment’ [Sundance] is not too many miles from Promontory Summit, where, in 1869, the golden spike was hammered that joined the East Coast and West on the transcontinental railroad.”
[…]
He became a passionate environmentalist and supporter of Native American and LGBTQ rights and remained that way throughout his life. In 2018, he published on the Sundance website a lament about the state of America titled, “A Brief Statement About Big Things.”
That’s why the tributes are not coming solely from members of the film industry. New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued this statement earlier today:
I join all New Mexicans in mourning the loss of Robert Redford, whose deep connection to our state left an indelible mark on its cultural and environmental landscape.
Redford’s 1988 film “The Milagro Beanfield War,” filmed in Truchas, captured the heart of New Mexico’s rural Hispanic communities with authentic dignity. The story of ordinary people standing up to powerful interests accurately reflected our state’s values and history. As executive producer of AMC’s popular “Dark Winds” television series, Redford similarly captured New Mexico’s culture in an authentic manner. In 2010, Redford launched a workshop for training Hispanic and Native American filmmakers at Los Luceros in Espanola.
Redford was also a powerhouse advocate for New Mexico’s film tax credit program, helping to spread the word across the film industry about New Mexico’s spectacular landscapes, rich culture, and committed workforce as major assets to filmmakers. His advocacy helped transform New Mexico into a major filmmaking destination, bringing economic opportunities to communities statewide.
As a part-time Santa Fe resident and lifelong environmental champion, Redford understood that New Mexico’s natural beauty required protection. His conservation efforts aligned with our state’s environmental consciousness and commitment to preserving New Mexico’s majestic high desert landscapes.
Redford elevated New Mexican voices to the national stage, showing the world the depth and complexity of our communities. He used his influence to illuminate the authentic stories of the people he chose to call neighbors.
His legacy endures in every film that honors New Mexico’s stories, in his conservation work that protects our landscapes, and in the tradition of artists who understand that great art serves both beauty and truth.
Robert Redford will be remembered as an artist, activist, and friend to New Mexico.
Just another one of those busybody Hollywood Lefties.
As for his film legacy…the work speaks for itself. When I was 13, I became a lifelong Redford fan when (like many of my generation, I’d wager) I first became aware of him in a little “buddy movie” you may have heard of. As I wrote in my 2008 tribute to Paul Newman:
As I was getting ready to go work out at my health club early this morning, I was flipping through the cable channels, and came across Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (I hadn’t heard the news yet). It’s one of those personal favorites that I always get sucked into, no matter what scene I happen upon.
In this case, I tuned in just as Butch, Sundance and Etta were disembarking at the train station in Bolivia. I love that scene (“Aw…he’ll feel a lot better after he’s robbed a couple of banks!”). So there I sat, giggling as if it wasn’t the 250th time I’d watched the film, for 15 minutes before I realized, “Oh yeah, I was just headed out the door.”
Redford doesn’t have a lot of lines there, yet he nearly steals the whole scene with a smile and a wave. Now that’s charisma. Not unlike Newman, Redford was one of those actors who made it all look so easy; you couldn’t detect the “method”, as it were. He “inhabited” his characters, and you never doubted that you were observing a real flesh-and-blood human being up on that screen.
Redford proved to be just as much of a natural working behind the camera; he picked up Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for his outstanding 1980 directing debut Ordinary People (also recommended: The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, and Quiz Show).
As for Redford’s acting roles, the two films you simply must see before you die are the aforementioned Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (directed by George Roy Hill) and Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 journalism thriller All the President’s Men. You also can’t go wrong with Stuart Rosenburg’s 1980 prison drama Brubaker, Barry Levinson’s 1984 baseball drama The Natural, and Sydney Pollack’s 1973 romantic drama The Way We Were. And for a sampling of Redford’s less-utilized comic chops…I recently saw Barefoot in the Park on TCM, Gene Saks’ 1967 adaptation of Neil Simon’s stage play; I hadn’t seen it in decades and had forgotten about the wonderful chemistry between Redford and Jane Fonda. It’s really a lot of fun.
And here are a few more of my Redford favorites. Rest easy, Sundance.
The Sting – George Roy Hill’s caper dramedy is pretty fluffy, but a lot of fun. Paul Newman and Robert Redford reunited with their Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid director in this 1973 star vehicle to play a pair of 1930s-era con men who set up the ultimate “sting” on a vicious mobster (Robert Shaw) who was responsible for the untimely demise of one their mutual pals. The beauty of screenwriter David S. Ward’s clever construction is in how he conspiratorially draws the audience in to feel like are in on the elaborate joke…but then manages to prank us too…when we’re least expecting it! The film picked up Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (David S. Ward), Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, and Scoring. Redford was nominated for Best Actor.
The Candidate -This 1972 gem from Michael Ritchie (Downhill Racer, Prime Cut, Smile) centers on an activist lawyer named Bill McKay (Robert Redford) wooed by a slick Democratic political consultant (Peter Boyle) into challenging a three-term Republican California Senator for his congressional seat.
The idealistic and progressive McKay is initially reticent, as he does not want to be perceived as trading in on his family name (his father is a former governor). Assured that he can set his own agenda, say whatever he wants, and is almost guaranteed a victory due to the lack of Democratic challengers, McKay accepts the offer to run.
But you know what they say…if it sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a catch. In this case, it’s McKay’s realization that in the rough and tumble world of politics, the true path to victory is inevitably littered with a discarded ideal or two (compromise, compromise, compromise).
The perceptive, wryly satirical screenplay earned an Oscar for Jeremy Larner (his experience as a speechwriter for Eugene J. McCarthy on the Senator’s 1968 campaign undoubtedly contributed to the film’s air of authenticity). Redford and Boyle are outstanding, and ably supported by a wonderful ensemble that includes Melvyn Douglas, Don Porter, Allen Garfield, and Karen Carlson.
Three Days of The Condor – Sydney Pollack’s 1975 “conspiracy a go-go” thriller, which was adapted by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and David Rayfiel from James Grady’s novel “Six Days of the Condor”, puts a unique twist on the idea of a government-sanctioned assassination; here, you have members of the U.S. clandestine community burning up your tax dollars to scheme against other members of the U.S. clandestine community (there’s no honor among conspirators, apparently). Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow head an excellent cast. The film conveys the same dark atmosphere of dread that infuses The Conversation and The Parallax View.
Downhill Racer – This underrated 1969 gem from director Michael Ritchie examines the tightly knit and highly competitive world of Olympic downhill skiing. Robert Redford is cast against type, and consequently delivers one of his more interesting performances as a talented but arrogant athlete who joins up with the U.S. Olympic ski team. Gene Hackman is outstanding as the coach who finds himself at loggerheads with Redford’s contrariety. Ritchie’s debut film has a verite feel that lends the story a realistic edge. James Salter adapted the screenplay from Oakley Hall’s novel The Downhill Racers.
The Hot Rock– Although it starts out as a by-the-numbers diamond heist caper, this 1972 Peter Yates film delivers a unique twist halfway through: the diamond needs to be stolen all over again (so it’s back to the drawing board). There’s even a little political intrigue in the mix. The film boasts a William Goldman screenplay (adapted from a Donald E. Westlake novel) and a knockout cast (George Segal, Robert Redford Zero Mostel, Ron Leibman, Paul Sand and Moses Gunn). Redford and Segal make a great team, and the film finds a nice balance between suspense and humor.
We are about to be treated to a grotesque display of Trumpy bootlicking by the Royal Family and British government. The British people don’t seem too keen on it as you can see by the posters they are putting up all over London.
The Brits still have free speech, apparently. Here’s the big one they have unfurled at Windsor castle:
ICYMI — ahead of his state visit, Trump was welcomed to the UK with the world’s largest Epstein-Trump photo. Right outside Windsor Castle, where he’s staying.
Because of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s increased presence, Alex, a Northeast-based hospital researcher, has been staying home more. Alex does not eat at restaurants or travel for fun. He prefers to walk 30 minutes to his work’s shuttle stop over driving his car or taking a bus on a road where an ICE agent might be.
“I look Latino,” said Alex, who is one of several people HuffPost agreed to identify by first name only for their safety and privacy. “I get very self-conscious when I’m outside in public. If I go to pick up something at the store, I get very anxious if I have to stand there waiting for too long.“
This September, after the United States Supreme Court ruled that immigration agents can use race as a factor when deciding who is a reasonably suspicious target in Los Angeles, Alex stopped going to the grocery store and started getting his food delivered.
Alex is a legal resident and carries his green card everywhere he goes. But is that enough? The Supreme Court has allowed the ICE to racially profile so he can still be stopped. And despite kavanaugh’s fatuous claims, they do detain citizens and legal residents far longer than a few minutes. If they don’t have “their papers” who knows what might happen? There are even stories of the masked ICE agents taking their Real IDs.
Jonah, a Visalia, California, resident and U.S. citizen, said he carries proof of citizenship because he lives near farms, which have been targets of ICE raids.
“I do feel American,” Jonah said. “I do wonder, though, if my neighbors see me that way.”
“I have a Spanish surname and dark brown skin, so I carry my passport with me at all times,” Jonah said. When he goes to the grocery store, Jonah’s wife, who is white, will drive to “put ourselves in the best position to not be pulled over, harassed or arrested” by immigration authorities, Jonah said.
63.7 million Latinos live in the United States. There are probably quite a few million more who look like they might be. And they aren’t the only one’s subject to such racial profiling. They can target Asians and African Americans as well, because they “look like” they might be undocumented immigrants based on their race. In fact, the only people who cannot be automatically assumed to be subject to masked ICE agents in unmarked cars randomly rousting them are white people.
This may seem remote to those of us who aren’t among the race or ethnicity that’s under scrutiny. But a whole lot of people are, and they are living in fear in America today.
If you are wondering specifically just who the “growing extreme left” that JD Vance and Stephen Miller plan to “identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy” might be, I think this clears it up:
In the latest example of his dangerous extremism, J.D. Vance has enthusiastically promoted a book that uses genocidal language to stoke hatred toward both liberals and progressives.
Unhumans, by right-wing conspiracy theorists Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec, offers a sinister thesis: Progressive-minded Americans are not humans. Instead, they are “communists.” In turn, the authors define communists as bloodthirsty “unhumans” hellbent on the destruction of civilization.
Right-wingers, they write, must stop these unhumans with a policy of “exact reciprocity.” This means doing exactly to these so-called unhumans what the authors claim the unhumans are planning to do to them.
The 283-page screed reads like an effort to incite a civil war. It strains to create a sense of urgent terror in its readers. On nearly every page, it demonizes and dehumanizes “the left”– a vaguely defined group that apparently includes journalists (“the unhuman-occupied media”) and people who believe in things like diversity, equity, social justice and the rule of law.
The definition is so broad that it seems most Democrats would qualify as unhumans.
Here’s Vance’s blurb:
Miller’s the one who wrote the speech calling Democrats vermin so I have to assume this comports with his understanding.
Reporter: What do you make of Bondi saying she is going after hate speech, a lot of allies say hate speech is free speech.
Trump: Probably go after people like you, you treat me unfairly, you have hate in your heart. ABC paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, your… pic.twitter.com/MCMDjhQoMh
Jonathan Karl: What do you make of Bondi saying she is going after hate speech, a lot of allies say hate speech is free speech.
Trump: Probably go after people like you, you treat me unfairly, you have hate in your heart. ABC paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, your company paid me 16 million for a form of hate speech, maybe they’ll go after you… You should take your beautiful wife tonight and have dinner. You won’t be shot. You won’t be accosted. You won’t even be looked at incorrectly by anybody.”
Creepy…
President Trump warns an Australian reporter that he’s hurting Australia because he asked him about his business activity: You are hurting Australia very much right now. They want to get along with me. Your leader is coming to see me soon, I'm going to tell him about you. pic.twitter.com/jIUvfsziPv
REPORTER: How much wealthier are you now than when you returned to the White House?
TRUMP: The deals I made for the most part, other than what my kids are doing — they’re running my business — most of the deals that I made were made before. Where are you from?
REPORTER: Australia
TRUMP: In my opinion you are hurting Australia right now. You are hurting Australia very much right now. They want to get along with me. Your leader is coming to see me soon, I’m going to tell him about you. You are setting a very bad tone. Quiet.
This isn’t funny anymore. His entire administration is now openly threatening anyone who criticizes them. Pam Bondi said last night that they will prosecute “hate speech” which is not (currently) illegal.
But it does have a younger generation ready to take the helm
If you weren’t aware of right-wing organizer and podcaster Charlie Kirk‘s work until his tragic murder in Utah on Sept. 10, you probably didn’t realize he was the likely heir apparent of Donald Trump‘s MAGA movement. In fact, many people who were aware of his mission — which included co-founding Turning Point USA, the youth organization that helped return Trump to the White House, and touring colleges to engage young conservatives and harangue young liberals — might not have understood that. Kirk’s assassination made clear just how valuable and influential he was to the right. At 31, an official position of power within the GOP would have been his for the taking in just a few years.
His importance to the MAGA movement was underscored by their instantaneous crusade against the amorphous left. GOP influencers and officials, from the president on down, have vowed to avenge Kirk’s death by using the power of the state to quell dissent and, as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller put it, “dismantle the left” — even as they eulogized Kirk as a model for free speech.
Democrats have been gobsmacked by this massive outpouring of anger that shows no signs of quieting. The party’s elected officials proclaimed their horror at the killing and made clear that political violence of any kind is unacceptable. But a few have stepped forward with messages that have resonated in different, deeper ways during this awful week of rage.
At 36, Talarico is only a few years older than Kirk, and while he doesn’t explicitly fashion himself as a voice of the younger generation, he may nonetheless represent the same generational change for Democrats that Kirk did for the MAGA movement. But Talarico’s message could not be more different.
One of them is James Talarico, a Texas state representative and Presbyterian seminarian who announced a run for the United States Senate in the Lone Star State against GOP Sen. John Cornyn the day before Kirk’s assassination. At 36, Talarico is only a few years older than Kirk, and while he doesn’t explicitly fashion himself as a voice of the younger generation, he may nonetheless represent the same generational change for Democrats that Kirk did for the MAGA movement.
But Talarico’s message could not be more different.
Like Kirk, he is a strong Christian believer who is exceptionally good at communicating in a way that appeals across generational lines. Talarico is a master at social media, generating over a million followers on Instagram and TikTok, and he has appeared on Fox News and “The Joe Rogan Experience.” (Rogan told him he needed to run for president because we need “a good person” in office.)
Talarico’s words after Kirk died were memorable both for their grace and political savvy. “I disagreed with Charlie Kirk on nearly every political issue,” he said, “but he was a child of God. He was our sibling. Our brother. A human being — endowed with infinite worth and entitled to unconditional love. But now, his wife is left without a husband, and his children are left without a father. This latest political assassination comes just three months after the Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota State House was shot and killed in her home. Political violence has no place in America.”
Unlike some commentators who used the moment to endow Kirk with character traits he did not possess or practice, Talarico used the universal spiritual language of his church to eulogize Kirk as a human being rather than a political personality. He no doubt did that deliberately, as Talarico says constantly in his speeches and appearances that he believes America’s problems are more spiritual than political. But he made sure to note that violence and hateful rhetoric isn’t happening on just one side of the political aisle.
For some of us who live in blue cities, this all might seem a bit too much. We would likely prefer the more secular appeal of Zohran Mamdani, another youthful candidate who is running to be mayor of New York City. But despite the differences in their styles, both Talarico and Mamdani are making a strong case against the pernicious influence of the billionaire class and for the old-fashioned notion of the common good — and they are doing it not with angry rants but with smiles. Their words and actions, both in their own ways, offer a measure of relief from the relentless negativity and antagonism we’ve been dealing with for what feels like decades, and they are tailored to the places they seek to represent. It is smart politics.
Fresh-faced and squeaky clean, Talarico looks like he could have been a star in a 1950s sitcom. He speaks about loving your neighbor, but then he deftly pledges to “take on this broken political system and the very powerful people who benefit from this system being broken.” It’s populism in the language of a Sunday sermon, something that could appeal in a place like Texas.
But over the past seven years in the Texas statehouse, Talarico has also proven himself quite capable of facing down the hardcore right. According to Rolling Stone, he took on the two biggest billionaire GOP donors in Texas, oilman preachers named Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks:
“Tim Dunn on Sunday mornings preaches at a far-right church. And if you listen to his sermons, he doesn’t preach a theology of universal love. He preaches a theology of power and control and domination,” Talarico said. “He believes climate change is God’s will. He compares homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia. He believes only Christians have a right to serve in public office.”
“What you’re seeing is a perversion of Christianity,” he said. “You can call it Christian fascism or Christian nationalism. Essentially, it’s the worship of power, in the name of Christ. And that is idolatry in its purest form.”
Coming from a devout believer like Talarico, that critique could resonate with at least some Texans who actually read the Bible and sense that their leaders, both political and religious, have gone down a dark path. (And bonus points to Talarico for directly calling it Christian fascism — he knows what we’re dealing with.)
Democrats want their leaders to fight, and as a leader in the battle against Texas redistricting that unfolded over the summer, Talarico showed he can be steely when necessary. But he’s betting that people are also looking for a way out of this maelstrom of endless, bitter recriminations, knowing that we have to try and find a way to unify if we want to save our democracy.
After the horrific week we have all collectively experienced, which began with Kirk’s senseless assassination and then continued with insults and aspersions from the right, you don’t have to be religious to feel Talarico’s words as a healing balm. I don’t know if this country, much less Texas, is ready for what he’s selling. But it’s high time we found out.
