Republican, Democrat, spare me the team jerseys. I don’t give one fuck what color your tie is. If you’re guilty, you should be prosecuted to the absolute ends of the law. No exceptions. No winks. No quiet resignations and soft landings. The Epstein horrors were never political, they were moral atrocities, and they should be treated like the crimes against humanity they are.

And now here comes democrat Larry Summers, slinking out with his carefully manicured apology tour, “deeply ashamed,” “full responsibility,” “stepping back from public commitments.” Spare me. The man wasn’t “misguided”; he was comfortable. Comfortable enough to keep talking to a predator whose existence was an open secret among the powerful. Comfortable enough to keep basking in the glow of proximity, because Epstein’s currency was access, and Summers kept cashing the checks until the house of cards finally collapsed.

Now the boards and think tanks are suddenly discovering their consciences, funny how that works. The Center for American Progress hits the brakes. Yale Budget Lab quietly unhooks his name from the masthead. Everyone scurries to distance themselves, as if cutting the rope after the ship has already sunk is some kind of moral victory.

And Harvard, of course, says nothing. Silence is their favorite language when the rot creeps too close to the marble halls.

Elizabeth Warren is right: sever the ties. All of them. Stop pretending that selective shame is the same thing as accountability.

Because this isn’t about Summers alone. It’s about the entire ecosystem of “respectable” people who orbited Epstein like he was some kind of diseased sun, who enjoyed the warmth and now want to pretend they never saw the heat.

This isn’t about politics. This is about character.

— Michael Jochum

Michael Jochum is a writer and musician reflecting on art, politics, and the human condition.