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Hello Hope, My Old Friend: As Donald Trump Faces Impeachment and Elizabeth Warren Rises in the Polls, Can Democrats Learn to Hope Again


But last month, I registered a shift. In me. In the people I know. Even on Twitter. An odd thing has happened. For the first time since the presidential election, some of us have started to feel…hopeful?

The sensation is so novel, I didn’t recognize it at first. But it began with that old nemesis of mine—polls. After months of ambitious plans, hundreds of photo lines, and countless appearances, Elizabeth Warren surged ahead in them. At last a woman whose hard work seemed to be noted and appreciated. The first primaries are still months from now, but for a lot of women, Warren presents a chance to finish what Geraldine Ferraro, Margaret Chase Smith, and Shirley Chisholm started. For a lot of us, the fact that we’ve never had a female president still stings. Even prim-and-proper England had Margaret Thatcher. (Yes, I know.)

Sure, Clinton had her problems, but those issues paled compared to her opponent’s deficiencies; the harassment and assault allegations, his numerous bankruptcies, the grift. I’m not here to re-litigate 2016, but the stark fact was that one candidate was qualified and the other didn’t know who Fredrick Douglass was.

Then, the Ukraine news broke. As reports trickled out, we learned that Trump has been pushing Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden. Even moderate Democrats backed impeachment proceedings. And in the time since, I have sometimes wondered: What would happen if we didn’t all get dark and doubtful again? What would happen if we decided to hold the Trump administration accountable for once? Stranger things have happened.

There’s an expression in politics that “Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall in love.” As much as I hate the idea, I think there’s some truth to it. But I’ve held off on following my heart. I’ve been burned, and it’s so much easier to just assume the worst than hope for the best. At least that’s how I felt until now.

For the next few weeks, the Trump administration will have to answer for their actions. And in the meantime, women continue to run rings around him. Harris is on the cover of TIME Magazine! Warren, with her focus on childcare and student debt, makes me feel warm inside! I can’t help it. I feel…almost optimistic.

This election will take place 13 or so months and several million news alerts from now. And I am not blind to the realities of our current moment. Abortion is on the chopping block. Immigrants rights’ have been trampled. Our president just asked China to interfere in our elections from the White House lawn. I’m not delusional, but I am hopeful. Because for the first time in a long time, some determined part of me feels like we’re at the beginning of something.

Molly Jong-Fast is the author of three novels. Follow her on Twitter @mollyjongfast.





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Ivanka Trump Wore Statement Sleeves in Colombia, and It Didn’t Go Well


Ivanka Trump landed in Colombia earlier this week to promote her Women’s Empowerment Initiative and speak to cadets at the General Santander Police Academy. And while the White House advisor decided to wear a local designer for the occasion, the main talking point about her $1,650 Johanna Ortiz dress wasn’t fashion diplomacy—it was that her choice of fluttery sleeves had an agenda all their own.

At a photo opportunity with Colombian Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez, Minister of National Defense Guillermo Botero, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan, an ill-timed gust of wind sent the sleeves on Trump’s dress flying like leaves tossed into the air.

Guillermo Legaria Schweizer

The statement sleeves didn’t go without, well, a statement: As Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg’s senior White House reporter, shared on Twitter, this all happened during a ceremony to honor victims of a terrorist attack that occurred earlier this year.

Ortiz’s designs are well-known for their frilly movement. In this case, though, they made for meme fodder. Twitter compared the look to everything from vegetation to a dilophosaurus flaring out, ready to spew venom.

As is the case for anyone with a high public profile, wardrobe malfunctions happen. Often at the least opportune time. Trump might have taken a page from Kate Middleton’s book and added weights to her sleeves to prevent them from acting like flying dishes with minds of their own. Or perhaps next time she’ll just save the romantic ruffles for a different occasion.





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People Are Debating Which Fictional Characters Would Have Voted for Donald Trump


Every once in a while, a viral moment happens on the Internet that brings everyone together—like when the Cats trailer dropped last week, or this new viral thread about which fictional characters voted for Donald Trump. Yup, on Sunday, July 21, Twitter user @MalKatz gave the world this challenge: “Name a fictional character who absolutely voted for Trump. NO villains.”

The responses have been hilarious, and, in some cases, highly debatable. The tweet’s original author offered up a couple of solid suggestions, including Lady Gaga‘s dad in A Star Is Born and Amy Poehler’s “cool mom” from Mean Girls. (Though, obviously Leslie Knope would never.)

It may be tough to admit for liberal fans, but it’s hard to argue with some of these. “When Emily [from Gilmore Girls] votes for Trump, it’s the final straw between her and Lorelei,” Ashley Nicole Black tweeted. I see no lies.

Mr. Big’s name popped up too, but to the person who also nominated Sex and the City‘s Carrie, we’d like to point out that Ms. Bradshaw told us herself she doesn’t vote (during the plot arc about her dating the politician). Charlotte York may have gone for Donald Trump, though. “I feel like Charlotte [from Sex and the City] would have secretly voted for [Trump] too, but would’ve also been genuinely devastated with his ‘behavior,'” one fan posited. How scarily accurate, am I right?

Check out some more responses to this inquiry, below.

“Phoebe [from Friends] voted for Jill Stein. Or not at all, because I could see her ‘not believing in voting,'” tweeted one person. Another wrote, “Most likely, Lucille Bluth [from Arrested Development] would find a place in the administration.”

Now let’s do who’s supporting who in the 2020 primaries. Let’s start with the characters in Gossip Girl. You know Blair Waldorf has some opinions.





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Trump Tells Congresswomen of Color to 'Go Back' to the Countries They Came From


Though Trump’s tweets did not call out any of the congresswomen by name, several outlets reported that they were likely aimed at congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts. It should be noted that in no capacity does it matter where any of the women were born: They are all United States citizens. Omar is also the only one of the group born outside of the U.S.—she was born in Somalia.

The women, the Times noted, are currently at odds with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In a July 10 interview with The Washington Post, Ocasio-Cortez said she believes Pelosi singles out women of color in an attempt to isolate them and their beliefs.

“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But the persistent singling out . . . it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful . . . the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”

Pelosi herself was quick to jump to the congresswomen’s defense on Sunday, writing in a tweet, “When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again. Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.”

In a follow-up tweet, Pelosi added, “I reject @realDonaldTrump’s xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation. Rather than attack Members of Congress, he should work with us for humane immigration policy that reflects American values. Stop the raids.”

Ocasio-Cortez also powerfully replied to the President’s remarks, tweeting, “Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States. But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet.”

She added in a series of follow-ups, “You are angry because you don’t believe in an America where I represent New York 14, where the good people of Minnesota elected @IlhanMN, where @RashidaTlaib fights for Michigan families, where @AyannaPressley champions little girls in Boston. You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder. You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it.” She added, “Yet here we are.”

“But you know what’s the rub of it all, Mr. President? On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don’t fear you,either,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “You can’t accept that we will call your bluff & offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe.”



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Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, and the Powerful Men Who Get Away With It


If we’ve learned anything from the presidency of Donald Trump, it’s that more often than not rich men get away with it—whatever it is.

For all the overdue justice that #MeToo secured, the last 20 or so months have seen countless men scrutinized and then…exonerated. From Trump to Brett Kavanaugh, the process tends to follow a familiar script: Justice is invoked, press conferences are held, social media is ablaze, and then the outrage fades—or worse, it never quite materializes in the first place.

When the dust settles, the man tends to retain his position (or in the case of Brett Kavanaugh, is rewarded with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court). From time to time, he’s forced to slink off for a little like Louis C.K. (whose eventual comeback seems inevitable) or Charlie Rose. But a lot of the powerful men of are able to ride it out. There’s some fallout, the word “allegations” is sprinkled into 10,000 news stories, and then people like Eric Bolling or Bill O’Reilly recover; as popular in conservative circles as ever. It’s been hard to see #MeToo as a triumph or as all it was supposed to be, especially when people like Donald Trump, Jr. use it as a punchline.

But on Saturday the Daily Beast broke the news that Jeffery Epstein had been arrested as soon as he stepped off his private jet at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. He was taken directly to a prison cell. When his indictment was unsealed, it revealed that Epstein had been charged with “one count of sex trafficking of minors” and “one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors.” It feels like a strange victory. In a time when rich men seem to have a separate justice system all their own, what does it mean for a powerful person to be treated like what he really is—a man who’s been accused of sex trafficking children for over a decade?

But it’s not so simple. I wish the fact that Epstein could face an actual sentence commensurate with his crimes means the dawn of a new era. The bad guys get caught! They suffer for it. Instead, Epstein feels not even like an aberration, but like proof: the system is broken and unfair. He isn’t just some guy who made one mistake; the charges against him paint him as a serial sexual predator. When prosecutors made their case that Epstein should be denied bail, Bloomberg reports that the team pointed to the “vast trove of lewd photographs” it uncovered in a search of Epstein’s New York mansion (once valued at $77 million) over the weekend. The images, the government said, show he is a danger to the public. But if you’ve read the Miami Herald investigation that revived the allegations against Epstein, you already knew that. And so did all the other powerful men who decided for years not to do anything about it.

In 2008, Alex Acosta, who is now the secretary of labor and was then a district attorney in Miami, secured for Epstein a non-prosecution agreement that allowed him to plead guilty to a fraction of what he was accused of; he ultimately served 13 months, most of it in a private wing of a county jail that permitted him to leave for work almost every day. This week, Acosta addressed the new charges on Twitter, writing, “The crimes committed by Epstein are horrific, and I am pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence.”





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This Is Why Donald Trump Says He Called Meghan Markle 'Nasty'


President Donald Trump‘s (somewhat controversial) state visit to the United Kingdom continued this morning—and he’s still talking about Meghan Markle, one of the members of the royal family that he actually hasn’t met during his trip. (Markle is still officially on maternity leave after the birth of baby Archie.)

During an interview with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, Trump appeared to double-down on his “nasty” comments about the Duchess of Sussex. In case you missed it, here’s how we got here: Before traveling to London, he talked to The Sun about a variety of issues, including comments that Markle made during the 2016 presidential campaign where she called Trump “misogynistic” and “divisive.”

“I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty,” he can be heard saying on an audio recording, even though the president subsequently claimed that the quote was “fake news.”

Morgan asked Trump directly, “Do you think Meghan Markle is nasty?”

“No, you know, the question was asked of me and I didn’t know that she said anything bad about me, sounds like she did,” Trump responded. “And that’s OK, hey join the crowd…And I said, ‘Well, I didn’t know she was nasty.’ I wasn’t referring to that she’s nasty, but that she was nasty about me. Essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me. But, you know what, she’s doing a good job and I hope she enjoys her life.”

“I think she’s very nice,” he continued. “Now, I don’t know her but it just shows you how terrible the news can be.” Morgan said that Trump’s comments on Markle did seem somewhat ambiguous, but the president continued to press the “fake news” angle. “That’s OK for her to be nasty,” he said. “But it’s not good for me to be nasty to her, and I wasn’t.”

He went on to say that Prince Harry, who attended a private lunch with the Trumps, was a “terrific guy” but that he did not bring up the Markle situation with him. “We didn’t talk about it,” he said. “I was going to because it was so falsely put out there.” Trump says that Harry spent a good amount of time talking with Ivanka Trump and the rest of his family and that he “couldn’t have been nicer.”

Watch the full exchange below:

Now, if we could just have a video of Harry and Markle’s conversation after he got home.



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