You Did It
We definitely live in the age of “what-about-ism”. Rather than debate the specifics of an issue, the answer by “the other side” is almost always, “what-about?” Then there’s the litany of statements about when “your side” did something similar to what the “other side” is doing. It makes for a frustrating discussion, because it never really gets down to the merits of the issues.
A quick example: the Trump ICE “gang” is going through American cities, rounding up folks who “look like” they might be undocumented migrants. The take those folks, deny all due process, confine them, and for some, deport them out of the country. When opponents raise questions about clear violations of Constitutional rights; instead of arguing the Constitution, the response is usually, “what-about”. “What-about Obama and Biden, who did the exact same thing?” Well, the answer is, they didn’t.
On the Border
Both Democratic Presidents did remove newly arrived undocumented migrants at the border. They gave them a choice, detention awaiting asylum hearings, or a bus ride back across the border without “prejudice”. That meant those migrants could still wait in line to enter the United State legally. It wasn’t the “round-up” in Los Angeles, or Chicago, or Columbus, Ohio; and it didn’t require “detention facilities” to be built throughout the nation. It was literally a roadside decision for the migrants. They got picked up, they decided what to do, and they either went to detention or went back across the border. Regardless of MAGA what-about, it’s not the same thing as the inhumane treatment by ICE today.
What’s happening with migrants today is a serious question, one that strikes directly at the heart of the United States Constitution. (For more on that, see this earlier essay, Black Letter Law). But there’s another issue, this most recent “what-about”, that is a little less traumatic.
Burn
Democrats, and all folks who find MAGA repugnant, are enjoying the current Administration crisis over the EPSTEIN FILES!!. It’s not about the atrocious actions of Epstein and Maxwell and their wealthy compatriots. Everyone, at least, that I know, finds child molestation abhorrent. So when I call out the Trump “gang” on the EPSTEIN FILES!!, instead of getting a reasonable discussion about the facts, my MAGA friends immediately resort to “what-about”. “Well, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice had the EPSTEIN FILES!!. Why didn’t they reveal them? What-about that?” It’s an interesting argument, one with enough truth in it to bring a pause to the discussion.
So here, just this once, is the answer. Then I’m done with getting in the mud about Epstein. To everyone involved in the Epstein bacchanals, to quote Hamilton, the Musical, “I hope you burn”.
Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein was indicted (for the second time) by the FBI in July of 2019. That was during the first Trump Administration. There was a large amount of evidence amassed from searches of Epstein’s homes, both in the United States and overseas. The case was more than solid, and Epstein was likely to spend the remainder of his life in jail. But in August, only a month after his arrest, he was found dead in his cell in the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York. It was ruled a suicide.
All of that was under the “watch” of Trump appointed Attorney General Bill Barr.
A year later, in July of 2020, Epstein’s co-abuser, procurer, and groomer, Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested by the FBI. That too, was under Trump’s Department of Justice. Her Federal trial began in November of 2021, now under the Biden Justice Department, and she was found guilty of varying sex crimes in December of that year and sentenced to twenty years in prison. No other criminal charges were brought in the cases around Epstein. This was, in part, because most of the possible charges occurred almost two decades before, and Federal law carries a five to ten year statute of limitation.
Back to Normal
One of the avowed goals of the Biden Administration was to get “back to normal”. This was particularly true when it came to the Department of Justice. There was the huge controversy created by FBI Director James Comey’s “speech” announcing that Hillary Clinton was not going to be indicted. In it, he then blamed Clinton for actions that might have broken the law. That speech and his later letter to Congress, violated all past practice and procedure. Some, including myself, believe that Comey’s statements were a pivotal reason that Trump won in 2016.
So getting “back to normal” meant that Justice would either speak through indictments, or not speak at all. Since no one else around Epstein could be indicted, the Merrick Garland Justice Department had nothing more to say.
During the 2024 Presidential campaign, neither President Biden nor Vice President Harris even mentioned the EPSTEIN FILES!! They wanted “normal”: the Justice Department couldn’t indict, and that was all there was to say.
But one of the promises of the 2024 Trump Campaign was to “reveal” what was in the EPSTEIN FILES!! They led many voters to believe that all sorts of “Democrats” were involved in Epstein’s sordid activities. And they all promised: Trump, Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and most prominently, FBI Assistant Director Dan Borgino, to reveal the EPSTEIN FILES!!
Until they got in power. Then, even after Bondi said she that the “files” were on her desk, they came back and said there was “nothing there”.
This isn’t about Epstein or Joe Biden. This is about lying to your own supporters. It’s about the lack of integrity in the Trump Administration. That’s what we should be arguing.
What about that?
