To the editor: When the American flag flies, red and blue share the same fabric. One does not overpower the other. Yet the leaders who represent it refuse to focus on anything beyond landing punches on their political opponents.
The MAGA clan can bark at Democrats over the shutdown all they want, but reports consistently signal something far more troubling than gossip. The more than 20,000 pages of additional documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s private estate released this week make that clear (“Trump ‘knew about the girls,’ Jeffrey Epstein claimed in emails as Democrats, GOP release trove of records,” Nov. 12). Then President Trump reveals just how quick he is to turn on his own, claiming “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican” would question him.
This obsession with playing “big stick” only distracts from accountability, and leaves figures like Virginia Giuffre reduced to convenient props.
Right now, our flag stands for little more than the colors that divide us. But one thing remains certain: The victims embody the perseverance and valor it is supposed to symbolize better than a party line ever could. And that can’t be written off as a hoax.
Samantha Hoffman, Conover, N.C.
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To the editor: I wonder why MAGA Republicans want to see the files. If they show that Trump participated in illegal activity and sexual assault, would they care? They knew he was a convicted felon and an adjudicated sexual offender last November, but they voted for him anyway.
Since criminal convictions and sexual assault don’t seem to matter to them, perhaps they’re upset about something else: Trump lied to them when he promised to release the files. But his well-documented, proven, chronic lies have never upset them before, so why now?
A more likely reason they seek release of the files is that they hope well-known Democrats were involved in Epstein’s crimes. This revelation would allow them to assert their well-used, rotten-child-style justification for excusing years of Trump’s immoral, hateful behavior: Others did it too.
Jay Lynch, Pittsburgh, Pa.