MY Columns

You will know him by his friends

Nothing was more important than family in the small town of Delaware City, Delaware, where I grew up. Our extended family, the Cook Cousins, numbered in the dozens. And whenever the whole clan - grandparents, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandchildren, cousins - got together, especially after maybe the second round of drinks, we always broke out in song.

Most of the adults had a favorite song which, with little coaxing, they would perform every time. Uncle Blondie's was "Autumn Leaves." Aunt Kass was famous for her "Ave Maria." My father had his own favorite, an old English pub tune called "The Pig." I've no idea where he first heard or learned it, but he belted it out with glee. I can still hear him singing it:

It was an evening in November,

As I very well remember,

I was strolling down the street in drunken pride,

But my knees were all a-flutter,

And I landed in the gutter

And a pig came up and lay down by my side.

Yes, I lay there in the gutter

Thinking thoughts I could not utter,

When a colleen passing by did softly say:

'You can tell a man who boozes

By the company he chooses'--

And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

After which, we would all laugh and applaud and my father would take his bow. He never explained the meaning of his ditty. He didn't have to. It was clear to all: You can tell who a man is by his friends.

I couldn't help but think of that man lying in the gutter with a pig when I saw President Trump roll out the red carpet and a military jet flyover to welcome Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to the White House this week. Remember: this is the man who came to power in 2017 by locking up hundreds of wealthy Saudis in a Riyadh hotel until they agreed to let him become the country's de-facto leader. And while he's applauded for letting women drive and go to the cinema, this is also the leader of a country where independent journalists are arrested or "disappeared," where political opposition is forbidden, where beheading is the preferred form of execution, and which still does not recognize Israel.

Remember also this is the leader who, according to our own CIA, personally approved the gruesome murder and dismemberment of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Yet when an ABC reporter raised that issue to Trump and MBS in the Oval Office, Trump berated her for "embarrassing our guest," threatened to cancel ABC's license, and waved it all off - the murder of an American journalist! - with the disgusting comment "Things happen."

Of course, MBS is only one of Trump's best buds. Don't forget Vladimir Putin, whom Trump calls "highly respected" and under whose rule, as described by Senator Bernie Sanders: "There is no freedom of speech. Protests are violently suppressed. Tens of thousands of people are imprisoned for speaking out against his rule. And the bravest and most prominent dissidents - people like Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Magnitsky - are murdered outright." And whose forces have killed some 14,000 civilians in Ukraine.

Earlier, in July 2018, Putin also got the special MBS treatment when Trump said he didn't believe the CIA when it concluded that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election. "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," he sniffed.

Then, of course, there's convicted sex pervert Jeffrey Epstein, whom Trump hung out with, chased women with and welcomed at Mar-a-Lago - for 15 years! Epstein's gone, but Trump's already rewarded Ghislaine Maxwell, his partner in crime, by transferring her from a federal prison in Florida to a new country club facility in Texas and has said he's open to issuing her a presidential pardon.

With friends like these! It's so true. You can tell who a man is by his friends. A ruthless dictator, a convicted pedophile and a man accused by the CIA of approving the murder of an American journalist. I'll leave it up to you. You tell me what those three friends tell you about Donald Trump.

Jeffrey Epstein comes back to haunt Donald Trump

He had an impressive career as U.S. senator, Senate majority leader, White House chief of staff and ambassador to Japan, but, above all, Tennessee's Howard Baker is remembered for one question he asked in 1973 as Republican vice-chair of the Senate Select Committee investigating the Watergate break-in: "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"

Back then, that was the big question for Richard Nixon about Watergate. Today, that's the big question for Donald Trump about Jeffrey Epstein. According to emails released this week, we now know the answer: Trump knew a lot more about Epstein than he's willing to admit.

For starters, let's remember: The Epstein scandal's not something Democrats laid on Trump. This is a problem he created for himself. In 2024, J.D. Vance, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino - all of whom are now leaders of the Trump administration - accused Democrats of covering up a pedophile ring led by Epstein and demanded release of the "Epstein files." Which candidate Trump promised to do, if elected.

Then, suddenly, once in the White House, Trump reversed course. No longer calling it a coverup, Trump dismissed the whole Epstein matter as a "Democratic hoax." On his orders, Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to release the Epstein files. Trump begged his supporters to stop talking about it. And Speaker Mike Johnson shut down the House of Representatives for six weeks to avoid having to vote on a bipartisan resolution to release the files.

All of which puzzled and angered many members of Trump's MAGA base, and raised the obvious question: Why? Why the change of course? Why not release the Epstein files? What are they afraid of? As even Trump's best bud Elon Musk said, it must be because Trump's name is all over the files. That's why Bondi wouldn't release them.

Bingo! As the just-released emails prove, Musk was right.

Democrats released three bombshell email exchanges. In the first, when many leading New Yorkers were being questioned in the early days of the investigation into his sex ring, Epstein told his top aide Ghislaine Maxwell: "I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked yet is trump ... (name of victim) spent hours at my house with him." Maxwell replied: "I've been thinking about that."

In the second exchange, Epstein tells journalist Michael Wolff that Trump, now president, is wrong in insisting he knew nothing about what he, Epstein, was up to: "Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop" (recruiting them from Mar-a-Lago). In a memo to himself on Feb. 1, 2019, Epstein wrote: "Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period," then adding: "He never got a massage."

In the third set of emails, Wolff warns Epstein that CNN might ask Trump about his relationship to him in an upcoming debate. What should we do? Wolff advises: "I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt."

So what do those emails tell us? They do not prove that Trump had sex with underage girls. In fact, in a 2016 deposition, victim Virginia Giuffre testified: "He didn't partake in any sex with any of us."

But they do prove that everything else Trump said about the Epstein affair is another big, fat, Trump lie. He was Epstein's close friend. He did hang out at Epstein's house. He did fly on Epstein's plane. He said in 2002 he knew Epstein liked women "on the younger side." He once told adviser Roger Stone how Epstein's "swimming pool was full of beautiful young girls." He knew that Epstein and Maxwell were recruiting young girls to entertain men in New York, New Mexico and on Epstein's private island. And he never asked himself why?

Now here's the worst part: He did nothing about it! He knew Giuffre was underage when Maxwell recruited her from Mar-a-Lago. But he never alerted authorities. He looked the other way.

It's pretty clear that's why Trump's fighting so hard not to release the Epstein files. Because, while they might not prove he was Epstein's accomplice, they will prove he was Epstein's enabler. Release the files!

Jubilation!

It feels good, doesn't it?

Democrats deserve to break out into a full-throated chorus of "Happy Days are Here Again" after their amazing string of victories on November 4.

There's no way Donald Trump or MAGA fanatics can spin it otherwise. For Democrats, this was a total blowout. A governor's race in Virginia; a governor's race in New Jersey; a mayor's race in New York City; and a ballot measure in California. Every one of those elections was a referendum on Donald Trump. And every outcome was his total repudiation. He lost every one of them. Big time.

For Democrats, it was one triumph after another. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger trounced her Republican opponent by 15 points, becoming the state's first female governor. Voters also elected a Democratic lieutenant governor and attorney general, and awarded Democrats a near two-thirds majority in the House of Delegates.

Many analysts predicted a close race in New Jersey, where Republican Jack Ciattarelli had Trump's endorsement. No way. Democrats Mikie Sherrill soared to a 13-point victory, in part by blasting Trump for terminating the new tunnel project linking New Jersey commuters with New York.

In New York City, Trump did everything he could to derail Zohran Mamdani: talked Eric Adams into dropping out of the race; begged Republican Curtis Sliwa to drop out; threatened to deny the city any federal funding if Mamdani won; and, in the end, even endorsed his long-time enemy Andrew Cuomo. It all backfired. Mamdani got more votes than Cuomo and Sliwa combined, and on Election Night had the pleasure of looking into the cameras and telling Trump directly: Mr. President, we're talking to you: "Turn the volume up!"

The biggest blowout of all came in California's Proposition 50. When Trump ordered Texas to redraw its congressional district lines in order to give Republicans five more seats, Governor Gavin Newsom decided to "fight fire with fire" and ask California voters to do the same, empowering Democrats to pick up five more seats. Prop. 50 won overwhelmingly, 64 percent to 36 percent - and 75 percent of "yes" voters said they were voting to send a message to Donald Trump.

Again, there's no way to downplay the national significance of those four contests. It was the first time voters had a chance to vote thumbs up or thumbs down on Donald Trump since January - and they clearly don't like what he's doing. In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, Trump's disapproval rating soared to 59 percent. Trump's a loser.

Tuesday's solid election results give Democrats a burst of momentum going into midterm elections, less than a year away. They also provide Democrats a few important lessons, moving forward.

One, the quality of candidates matters. Spanberger, Sherrill and Mamdani each ran an extraordinary campaign, full of energy, bold new ideas and generated tons of enthusiasm, especially among younger voters.

Two, the age of candidates matters. Americans are tired of today's sclerotic political leadership. Experience is not such a big deal anymore because, as Mamdani pointed out, politicians with years of experience got us into today's political mess. Young leaders like Spanberger, Sherrill and Mamdani are the future of the Democratic Party. Old fossils like Chuck Schumer are not.

Three, issues matter. It may seem insightful to talk about such weighty issues as threats to democracy or loss of our moral compass. But that's not what voters want to hear about. They want to know what you're going to do about soaring rents, lack of affordable housing, availability of childcare and the price of groceries. Every pre-election poll showed that the most important issues facing voters were not crime, immigration or trans - but the cost of living and healthcare. And that's all Spanberger, Sherrill and Mamdani talked about. The central issue of their winning campaigns was "affordability."

Tuesday's off-year elections were so important because they gave Democrats the winning formula for winning back the House and Senate in 2026. Field candidates like Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill and Zohran Mamdani. It doesn't matter if they're progressive or centrist. Just pick the candidate that best suits that state or district - as long as they're younger, full of energy and bold ideas, focus on the cost of living and dare to take on Donald Trump.

In that spirit, kudos to Nancy Pelosi for setting an example by passing the torch to the next generation. Once again, she's shown what a great leader she is, and why she'll be remembered as the most powerful and most effective Speaker of the House ever.