First Draft: 🧹 Clean House, Then Senate, Then Country
Democrats face a moral imperative to purge all Epstein associates from their ranks, Donald Trump has destroyed the job market, and Twitter is not real life?
📻 🎶 On This Day in 1943, a 27-year-old Frank Sinatra made his first radio appearance as a singer on ‘Your Hit Parade,’ a hugely popular countdown program. In his early years, Sinatra was an outspoken opponent of racism and antisemitism, refusing to play segregated venues and supporting many civil rights causes (including benefits for Martin Luther King Jr.).
Good morning! Peter here, penning my final edition of ‘First Draft’ for a little while. But don’t fret! I’m not going anywhere. You’ll still constantly find my writing in Zeteo, and I’ll return to pen the newsletter as often as my schedule allows. I want to thank you all for enduring my bad puns and dumb dad jokes over the last six months or so. I was honored when Mehdi asked me to help him launch this baby last summer, and boy, it’s been one heck of a ride! My support team – Mel, Laurin-Whitney, Andrew, Swin, Minnah, Akshay, and Prem – has been second to none. Thank you all! This morning’s “On This Day” was a special shoutout to my mom, who would sing Sinatra’s “You Make Me Feel So Young” with me on my way to preschool many, many moons ago.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the Democratic Party has no choice but to seize the moral high ground on Jeffrey Epstein, the economy is in the abject toilet, social media is actually not quite shaping reality, Donald Trump wants his name on Penn Station, and some weekend reads!
🧼 Power Wash the Party
“Cohen brought up RONA - keeper of the secrets,” then-disgraced financier and convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein texted a lawmaker during a February 2019 congressional hearing where the House Oversight Committee was grilling Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, about both his and the president’s myriad histories of malfeasance.
The lawmaker responded, “RONA??”
Minutes later, they texted Epstein again, “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym?”
In seconds, Epstein replied, “Thats [sic] his assistant.”
The member of Congress proceeded to question Cohen under oath.
One mere minute after the interrogation concluded, Epstein texted his approval: “Good work.”
The recipient of that glorified pat on the head was none other than Democratic Congressional Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands – re-emphasis on Democratic.
Watch the exchange below, the context of which is only now known by the public because of a November Epstein files drop and some dogged reporting from the Washington Post.