Hi everyone.
Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw my way.
Let’s get right to it…
I saw you made some comments on Social Media about the whole “Ryan Lizza claims his ex Olivia Nuzzi slept with Mark Sanford” story. My initial response was, “Gee, I wouldn’t want to marry either of these people, they’re BOTH selfish jerks”.
Now, I get that he’s probably miffed that she not only cheated on him twice with marginal Presidential candidates old enough to be her father, but is now making money with her book about the RFK affair. But he obviously forgave her for the first affair and stuck it out for 5 more years, and only dumped her when the RFK affair became public. I think that at that point, he loses the right to use the first affair against her. It just comes off as petty revenge at this point. Do you agree? — Aylene W.
Hi Aylene. Yeah, the entire situation is so bizarre that I had to joke about it a bit on social-media. The imagery it conjures, and the absurdity of it all, is just off the charts.
I don’t personally know any of the individuals involved, but I think, at least based on the public evidence, that A) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is batsh*t crazy, and B) Mark Sanford and Olivia Nuzzi are both quite morally and psychologically troubled. I think all three are narcissists. I’m entirely open to the idea that Ryan Lizza is no better, and I did find his written account of his relationship with Nuzzi to be kind of pretentious, but from my 10,000-foot view of the situation (and that’s all it is), I get the sense that Lizza struggles more with self-esteem and self-image issues than anything (which is probably why he stuck with Nuzzi after at least two affairs). Again, this is just speculation on my part.
Did Lizza’s forgiveness (or at least acceptance) of Nuzzi’s affairs deny him of the moral right to later hold them against her? I don’t know. But suffice to say, vengeance was at hand. According to Lizza, Nuzzi’s written accounts (which she had assuredly been paid handsomely for) were full of lies, and he knew this nugget would hurt or embarrass her.
By the way, I just reread my answer to you, and it felt like I was summarizing a Lifetime movie. Lol.
Could it be that Trump’s obsession with tariffs stems from his core need to control and manipulate people and situations for ego satisfaction and personal gain rather than any genuine political policy ideals? Nah, he would never do that! — Scott K.
I don’t think it started out that way, Scott. I think, many years ago (long before he ran for president), Trump was somehow turned onto the idea of tariffs, and fell in love with it… despite not understanding how tariffs work (including their numerous pitfalls). But I think, now that we’re into his second term as president, it’s almost unconscionable that he could still be so clueless on the matter. He has to have heard from a number of economic advisors (going back to his first term) about how counterproductive tariffs are. So yeah, I’m now more inclined to believe he just likes to meddle with the economy in ways that personally benefit him (and others close to him), similar to how he’s been abusing the pardon power. For now, the IEEPA and the cowardice of the Republican-led Congress are letting him do it with tariffs. I’m hoping the Supreme Court shuts this crap down once and for all.
I will never get Trump’s fascination with tariffs. Does this “brilliant” businessman not have any friends who are economists? Is there no one in his administration with any backbone that says these tariffs are a bad idea and bad for the economy? I’ve said enough about Greg Gutfeld. He is as Juan Williams once accused him of, a puppet of Donald Trump. That comment angered Greg like I’ve never seen. Because he knew it was true. Juan of course was taken off The Five not long after these comments. — Eric S.
Hi Eric. I think I addressed most of your points in my reply to Scott above. I hadn’t heard about the “puppet” exchange between Williams and Gutfeld, but I did see number of online clips in which Gutfeld attacked Williams so viciously and personally that it was no wonder Williams left the show. To be clear, I’ve always thought that Juan Williams is too partisan, but Gutfeld is every bit as partisan (if not more). The big difference is that Gutfeld is way more of an ass about it, and quite a bit more shameless.
I suspect most of Trump’s policies are actually coming from Vance and Miller. Given Trump’s often rambling campaign style speeches, in the most inappropriate of places, I can’t help but wonder if we’re seeing basically a less severe case of what we saw with Joe Biden - i.e. a POTUS who is suffering from mental decline, obsessed with random things, while his handlers manager actual policy and actual decisions. Biden’s decline was further along of course, and it was easier to lock him up in the White House than Trump, but I am definitely seeing some similarities - what say you, John? — John M.
I suspect there’s probably a lot of truth to what you’re saying, John, and I don’t even think it needs to be attributable to mental decline. Like I’ve said before, I think Trump’s primary motivation for running for president again was to escape all of the legal trouble he was facing. Since he’s effectively done that, I think he’s now mostly focusing on the self-serving stuff.
Miller is definitely calling the shots on immigration. RFK Jr. is being given a dangerous amount of leeway to pursue his warped agenda at Health and Human Services. On foreign policy, there seems to be a big disconnect between the policies Trump thinks (and says in public) are being carried out at his command, and what’s actually being done at the Pentagon. There’s a lot of speculation that Elbridge Colby is pulling the strings, and while it would make sense for Pete Hegseth to be involved as well, Hegseth seems so intensely focused on the performative role he sees for his office that he may be largely clueless on the policy stuff. Being that just about all of the foreign policy discrepancies have worked against Ukraine in some way, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vance has a hand it as well.
This situation should deeply concern people, because it really does seem like Trump is comfortably detached from, or oblivious to, a lot of what his administration is doing. In the first term, that may have worked to the country’s advantage, but not this time around. There are far too many bad and incompetent actors holding key positions in the administration.
Hi John, with Pres Trump’s health obviously failing, would he commute G. Maxwells sentence sooner than later? If at all? I’m feeling he will not finish his term out due to whatever health issues are brewing and his lack of self care and no sleep. — Sharon H.
Leaving aside any health issues, one thing we know for certain is that Trump has been weirdly supportive of Ghislaine Maxwell. He publicly offered her well-wishes a number of times, before taking the big step (through the DOJ) of getting her moved to a lower-security prison (that she otherwise wasn’t eligible for, as a sex offender). And there, she’s been receiving special treatment that the other inmates aren’t. Why? I think it’s either because she has dirt on Trump, or Trump at least thinks she has dirt on him. That’s why I do think he’ll eventually commute her sentence, probably after some of the current Epstein drama dies down.
Sir John—I suspect that I’m in good company wondering WHY the sudden about-face from Trump regarding the release of the Epstein Files. What do you speculate that the reason could be for this? Is it possible that Trump has had access to all the files previously and made certain that he was never implicated in any way for either having sex with minors or with being aware of what was going on with any of his wealthy donor buddies that may be implicated? Is it possible, as one member here suggests, that Pam Bondi has already cleansed the files to exonerate Trump of any criminal behavior? Seriously —how likely are these scenarios, considering the fact that a judge (appointed by Obama if I’m not mistaken), has refused to reveal the files up to this point? How would Trump or Biden have had access to this information under those circumstances? And if the Democrats did have dirt on Trump’s association with Epstein, then why haven’t they used it up to this point? —“Thank Heaven For Little Girls” regards from The Emperor
Hi Emperor. Trump, who had been fighting hard to keep the files from being released, reversed himself when it became clear that the House was going to pass the legislation to release them. At that point, he couldn’t do much to keep the dam from breaking open, and the best remaining political option was to publicly endorse the measure and claim it was in the interest of transparency.
Before I get to Bondi, I should reiterate that I’ve never claimed (nor do I believe) that Donald Trump has done anything sexual with underage girls. My belief all along has been that, as a former friend and associate of Epstein, there was likely damning or embarrassing information on Trump (or somehow related to Trump) in the Epstein files. The same may well be true of prominent Democrats and Democratic donors, which could explain the Democratic party’s lack of interest in all of this (until just recently). It’s also worth remembering that Trump himself was a longtime Democrat and Democratic donor when he was friends with Epstein.
From what has already been released, it seems pretty clear that — at minimum — Trump knew about plenty of Epstein’s perverse activities, and stayed silent about them. The two’s later “falling out” was unrelated (having to do with Epstein poaching employees from Trump).
Regarding Bondi, I wish I could discount the concerns of those who suspect she’ll purge information on Trump in her release of the files, but I can’t. In her relatively short tenure as AG, she has repeatedly, to the detriment of her reputation and credibility, served as a political weapon for Trump. She no longer gets the benefit of the doubt — at least not from me.
I’ve never heard of Stabbing Westward. Tell me more. — Ben G.
Lol. I assume this is in regard to my tweets on the matter.
Stabbing Westward is one of my favorite bands. Their popularity peaked in the mid-1990s with big hits like “What Do I Have to Do?”, “Shame,” and “Save Yourself”. They disbanded in 2002, and reunited just a few years ago to put out more great music from the alternative/industrial rock genre. I’ve caught a couple of their live shows since then, and even interviewed front-man Christopher Hall for a different website.
Good guys, and great musicians.
Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.
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Ok, here's a really brief question this time: Which Friday political news story surprised you less, the announced resignation of MTG, or the Trump - Mamdani lovefest of a meeting?
I never was a huge fan of Juan Williams because like you said he was very partisan. I just thought that moment really stuck out for me on how it got under Greg's skin. Greg seems to hold a lot of sway because I believe he had a hand in both Juan and Geraldo leaving The Five. No big loss for either, but you take on Greg at your own peril. I do think Harold and Jessica are better fits for the show. I haven't been a regular watcher of The Five since the election. Got to be too much.