In this week’s Brief: we break down a whirlwind week in U.S. politics—from the fallout surrounding the newly released Epstein files to what the shifting narrative means for President Trump and the broader Republican landscape. We also take a closer look at the growing fractures within the MAGA movement, including the tension playing out among voices like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Then we zoom out to the global stage, diving into the UN’s response to Trump’s proposed Gaza peace plan and renewed chatter about Ukraine peace talks. And we talk about Tom Cruise’s honorary Oscar and why he’s earned it.
Through it all, we’re asking: how do we stay faithful, discerning, and hopeful as followers of Jesus in the middle of so much political noise?
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Topics
- (00:00): Introduction
- (00:57): Political Turmoil among Republicans
- (03:02): MAGA Media Sphere and Internal Conflicts
- (05:23): Trump’s Controversial Stances
- (16:10): Epstein Files: What We Know So Far
- (24:32): Trump’s Lame Duck Status
- (28:30): Implications of the Epstein Files
- (30:19): Justice for Epstein’s Victims
- (31:42): Spiritual Reflections and Challenges
- (37:03): Global Updates: Peace Plans and Redistricting
- (41:07): Tom Cruise gets an Oscar
- (42:41): Tune in and Happy Thanksgiving
Resources
- Send us your thoughts, questions, and topic ideas: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- Watch on Youtube!
- Sign-up for Denison Forum’s daily newsletter: DenisonForum.org/subscribe
Links mentioned in this episode:
- X Video: Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein come together for a video calling on Congress to release the Epstein files.
- The Atlantic: Epstein Returns at the Worst Time for Trump
Other articles on this week’s top headlines:
- Denison Forum: President Trump says the House should release Epstein files
- Denison Forum: Tom Cruise receives his first Oscar
- NYT: Once He Was ‘Just Asking Questions.’ Now Tucker Carlson Is the Question.
- Axios: MAGA’s metastasizing mess
- Axios: Trump’s Epstein U-turn
- Politico: Trump’s message to MAGA
- Politico: Greene turns a new leaf
- Politico: Why Trump can never win on Epstein
- CNN: Exposing MAGA media’s cracks
- WSJ: How Marjorie Taylor Greene Alienated Trump
- TIME: Who Else Was Mentioned in the Latest Epstein Emails
- Tangle: The Epstein emails.
- WSJ: What We’re Watching
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Director of Advancement at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, the Faith & Clarity podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah: I’m Micah Tomasella,
Conner: and this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we are navigating the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and anything else happening in culture. And we are doing it all from a Christian perspective, and it has been a crazy week, particularly in the politics world.
Micah, we’re gonna break a lot of that down. You wanna give us a quick rundown?
Micah: Yeah, I can’t remember the last time I have updated just the notes and research leading into an EPS like episode. I think I updated it four or five different times in the last 24 hours, specifically relating to what’s going on with the Epstein files.
We’re gonna talk about what’s going on with Epstein in fighting within maga, just cracks that we’re seeing within the movement right now. We’re gonna touch on that. We’re gonna talk about Tom Cruise. We’re gonna talk about the UN approving Trump’s security plan in Gaza and really a lot more. So let’s jump into the brief.
Conner: The brief. Yeah. And really one of the big things we’re diving into [00:01:00] is the Epstein files, but we’re gonna get to that in just a minute. Because Micah is right. There’s been a lot of just turmoil within the Republican party. So last week we really dove into the Democrat party and the turmoil over there on the left side because the Democrats are having their own splits and own divisions on a whole bunch of ideological things.
But the right man, they’re having their own problems too. And it’s been very highlighted in the last few weeks, but particularly this week. And it all led up to this Epstein files release situation, which we’re gonna dive into that in a little bit. But before we get there, let’s just dive into the things that have been.
Kind of dividing the right from the get go really in the month of November. It’s really just reached a peak this week. One of the things about the Epstein files, just to start off up top is it came at a really bad time. I liked what Jonathan Lame said in an article this week for The Atlantic.
He titled that article, Epstein Returns at the Worst Time for Trump. And he says that the storylines reemergence. Delivered another blow to a president who is already at the weakest moment of his second term. Trump’s party got wiped out in this month’s [00:02:00] elections as voters assigned it, the greater portion of blame for the shutdown.
So that was one big problem. Micah? And then he’s also noting that the Supreme Court is set to unravel his signature tariffs. Yeah. Trump’s signature tariffs. His poll numbers have dipped as Americans conclude that he cares. Too much about gilded ballrooms and is not focused nearly enough on bringing down high prices.
So this is one of the things that’s causing division, is there’s a feeling that there is a disconnect between Trump and the American people, and even more so between his base of MAGA voters. And it it’s
Micah: A fair, it’s a fair criticism. You and I have touched on that. Absolutely.
It’s a fair criticism of we’re not really necessarily talking about if it’s fully true or not, because there’s obviously a lot of policies in play trying to bring, to bring prices down and it takes time. But as far as what it actually looks like, there has been way more press conferences about things happening internationally or what they’re doing at the White House with the ballroom than there has been talking points and press conferences about things that seem to be hitting Americans at home.
So just to say we’ll always call spade a spade, right? That is an [00:03:00] absolute fair critique of how it’s appeared so far.
Conner: Definitely, and it’s not just with Trump and Congress and all that, this is actually all dividing within the MAGA media sphere. We’ve seen this recently with Tucker Carlson specifically.
He interviewed Nick Fuentes, who is definitely a white nationalist and antisemite. He’s self-proclaimed white nationalist and anti-Semite misogynist. He praises Stalin and Hitler. Not a good guy at all. No, a really bad influence, particularly for young men in American culture, isolated young men specifically as his target audience.
Tucker Carlson interviewed him on his. Massive podcast a few weeks ago, and it’s still roiling within the party because he had basically a softball interview with Fuentes. Did not really press. On him did not push back against some of the really terrible ideas that Fuentes presented on that episode.
And that caused a lot of people on the right to be like, whoa, Tucker, you took this too far. You should not be platforming this guy. Yep. Ben Shapiro specifically. Really big guy on the right ring. In the right wing media sphere. He’s Jewish and so he really pushed back on, came
Micah: after him.
Conner: Tucker? Yeah.
[00:04:00] He came after Tucker dedicated a whole episode of his show to basically. Dog on Tucker and say, you cannot do this. This is not right. There’s morality problems here and all that, which, that’s a, that’s an argument. But of course then within the right wing area, people were saying that’s just censorship.
That’s what we fought against. For so long with liberal media, right? Yeah. If you can’t talk to who you wanna talk to, if you can’t present ideas that you wanna present, then you’re censoring us. You’re canceling us Is was the word back in 20, 21, 22 was getting canceled, right? So now they’re accusing even people within the right of canceling other people within the right, and it’s just this big fight and it’s as summer pointing out a big distraction from the things that are actually happening that are successes, right?
Micah? Not good. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not good. And there’s others who are trying to just get the MAGA movement back on track. Megan Kelly’s one of those. She’s at the forefront of this too, of, she’s like saying, guys, we gotta think about America first and stop fighting each other about platforming and all of that.
Let’s look at Trump and help Trump and Republicans in Congress and help generate interest and energy on the [00:05:00] American populace. ’cause they really see themselves as the bridge between the American people and right wing voters. And Trump and Congress and everybody in DC they’re kinda like that middle ground.
They’re the messengers in a way. And that’s really true with people like Steve Bannon who’s got Trump’s ear, and I know we’re gonna talk about him in a minute ’cause he’s maybe been mentioned in these Epstein files as well, but, he’s extremely influential and there, there’s all kinds of people like that.
Michael the other thing that really happened was Trump had an interview this past week with Laura Ingram on Fox News in which he defended. H one B visas and he argued that foreign labor is needed at times because US workers do not have quote unquote, certain talents. So that, that, that set off a firestorm within the current firestorm already happening, where people were like on the right side saying, this is not what we voted for.
We don’t want more immigrants coming in. We voted for mass deportations. We voted for. Shutting down the border and not taking American jobs with foreign workers. That set off just a whole [00:06:00] wave of posts on social media and people going on TV and all that saying, whoa, Trump, you are completely missing the mark here.
This is not what we want. And he’s out there defending H one B visas, which are for supposed to be for highly skilled laborers, right? Typically coming from a lot of times, Asia, maybe Europe, India, they come in and they fill jobs at tech companies. AI companies are really trying to do this. But it’s been a thing that’s roiled to a lot of people.
What do you think, Micah?
Micah: On that specific point I just think we’ve gotta be able to look at it and say, I don’t know, we just have to be able to pivot. Is the first thought that comes into my head of, you campaign on a certain thing and you make certain promises you’re gonna be held accountable to that.
But I think somebody who could step out of the party platform can look at this and say, because the whole H one B Visa thing was, I think. It was the fine not the fine, but like what you had to pay for. It was like a hundred thousand dollars or something and then that was rolled out and then everybody on the left was like, are [00:07:00] you kidding me?
These big tech CEOs like come on. And then it seems like Trump’s changed his tune after conversations and saying, Hey guys, on some of these things, we need the workers now. There isn’t the infrastructure in America. It wouldn’t be fair to say America isn’t capable of, training up and raising up leaders for whatever we need.
I do believe that, and I believe in American excellence in that way. However, we’re just not set up to train people. That way and then have them step into the jobs right now. And so for him to just call it like he wants to call it, I don’t necessarily have an issue with that statement per se. I think he’s probably right that we don’t have certain people here who we, that we need to get certain things accomplished.
But at the same time, if you’re gonna say, I’m gonna do this is what’s gonna happen, and then you change tune and you don’t do that well, there’s gonna be issues. Yeah. People are gonna be upset about that.
Conner: Yeah, they absolutely are. Axios really called it out this week, and they noted that between the H one B visa thing and AI development and Trump’s like cushiness with AI execs and these AI companies they’re, they noted that MAGA purists feel like he’s just not [00:08:00] aligning with the average American and is instead focused on those wealthy guys, the wealthy tech and business leaders, and he’s consistently meeting and dining with these people.
He did it last night. We’re recording on Wednesday. On Tuesday night. He had a massive dinner with a bunch of AI tech leaders and Saudi Arabians. And athletes and all of that makes it seem like a very elitist thes. It’s a fair,
Micah: yeah. The optics have just not been great. Like a lot haven’t, of the people who voted for him, maga for the first time, like on the right, for many years, they actually brought in so many middle income, lower income Americans to vote.
Got more of the Hispanic and black population than really ever before in this last election. And the optics right now just aren’t great in that regard. Yeah. Especially for those people who voted for him.
Conner: They’re really not. And it gets worse because a lot of people also think he’s focused too much on foreign affairs.
Now, obviously a lot of that’s been with Israel and Gaza and trying to get a peace plan there. We’re gonna talk about Ukraine and Russia in a little bit. But he’s been focused on so many other foreign affairs, traveling the world, [00:09:00] making these trade deals, tariffs, all of that, bringing in world leaders.
The White House has been like a revolving door of world leaders just coming in, trying to make deals with, and tariffs and with, Trump and it’s it makes it look like he’s distracted essentially to a lot of people. They think that he’s just focused on appeasing world leaders and trying to focus on anywhere else but Americans.
And that’s a problem. That’s an optics issue, right? That includes this week he, in the last week, he had the leader of Syria, who used to be an Al-Qaeda member, so that’s not a great look. And then he had the Saudi Arabian Royal Crown Prince. And that guy was responsible according to the CIA for ordering the killing of a Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018.
That was Trump’s CIA in 2018 that told him, oh, we think he ordered the murder. And then Trump brought him into the Oval Office this week and people were asking about that and he really pushed back on, on that whole thing. So it’s just one of those things, man, where it’s looks. Bad. No matter which part you’re in, it just doesn’t look bad.
And clearly the people on the right side are calling it out too. [00:10:00] Yeah. And then he is also just oddly focused on Venezuela right now. We’ve been talking a lot about that with the drug boats strikes and all of that, but it’s going beyond the drug boat strikes. He has literally ordered so much of the Navy into the Caribbean to basically set up and prep for a potential military conflict with Venezuela, like full on military conflict and sending either airstrikes in or the CIA in or whatever it is.
Into Venezuela, and so yeah, Steve Bannon, like I mentioned, is probably the most influential person in MAGA because he has a massive platform to speak to voters. He also has the ear of the president as a former advisor, and he even said this, he said that Trump knows his movements base better than anyone, but a lot of his base feels he’s spending too much time on Palestine and not enough time on East Palestine, Ohio, which East Palestine was the place where that train crash happened a couple years ago and led to a big chemical spill and everything.
The idea of he’s just so focused on foreign. Lands foreign affairs and not enough on the problems here in our own country. And that’s really shown in the, the [00:11:00] affordability crisis that’s out there. People do not feel that the economy is working, even though Trump, and this is what Biden did.
They both, as presidents are preaching, Hey, it’s working, we’re in a great economy. Stock market’s up all of this. But that’s not the way people feel when they go to buy their groceries and get food and shoes and clothes for their kids for the new school year, right? Like they feel like everything is still so expensive.
And their wages are not going up. So while the economy looks to be good because of the stock market, it doesn’t feel that way for the average American. And that polling is really showing that people feel that they are not being heard. And then Micah, here’s what happened this week. It all really peaked with this Epstein files, and it happened specifically when House representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a name you might know, because she is known as one of the.
Very conspiracy minded members of Congress. She definitely fell into the trap of Q Anon. She has actually admitted that and apologized to that back in 2020 and 2021 that she was pedaling all these conspiracy theories like Jewish space [00:12:00] lasers causing fires in California. She literally was saying that was a real thing she has since said.
Okay. I fell for all that stuff. Weird. Nonetheless, she’s always been right there by Trump’s side. She was one of the only people who stood by him when he lost in 2020 and was exiled from DC. And so they’ve had a great relationship this whole time, but man she split from him because of this Epstein thing.
’cause she was saying we have to get these files passed, like this bill passed to release these Epstein files to get justice for all of these victims. And when Trump was really fighting back against that, she was like, I. I, I don’t understand. And, she’s departed from him and they were like besties and Trump put out a he actually did put out a post that called her a traitor and that she should, step away and he’s not gonna support her anymore.
He’s not gonna endorse her. All of this stuff, which is weird given how tight they were, especially in those exile years. Now he’s I want nothing to do with you. You’re crazy and you’re a traitor. But yeah, she’s really just arguing that he’s out of touch with his political base on the economy, foreign policy.
And specifically [00:13:00] this Jeffrey Epstein case, and she’s painting herself as unapologetically America first and she’s trying to say that Trump is getting away from his America first mindset and that he’s too supportive of Israel and that he’s not focusing on the affordability crisis that we’ve just discussed.
It all really came to a head last week with Trump, with Marrie Taylor Green. All the economy stuff, all the foreign affairs. And then specifically Micah, I’m gonna hand it off to you ’cause I know you wanna dive into this specifically, these Epstein files and everything that’s occurred with that.
So yeah, there’s a lot there. Do you have any last thoughts before we break down the Epstein files on this? Kinda like just division within the party and specifically with Trump himself.
Micah: The word that just keeps coming to mind. ’cause we did a deep dive on the Democrats last week, and then some people could say, oh, we were being hard on them.
Or, oh, today we’re being hard on Trump, we’re being hard on maga, we’re being hard on the Republicans. Ultimately. Optics are just so important. It’s how you win elections. It’s how you get positive polling. Really optics is how Americans feel every day. Like it, how they feel doesn’t, it might not [00:14:00] necessarily line up with the truth.
Of, oh, hey, in my current circumstance and in my life right now, things are more expensive. There could be swaths of the economy, big parts of the economy that are booming, that are successful, but they’re just not reaping those benefits, right? And so when we’re looking at all this, we’re saying, here’s what’s, here’s what’s happening.
Here’s this fighting that’s taking place. Here are these critiques against Trump, whether if it’s true or not, they’ve gotta do a better job in their messaging and focusing more on their optics and what they’re spending time on. And that is, without a doubt, true. Right now, we’re not necessarily spending time diving into each individual argument and saying, is Trump focusing on peace in the world?
A bad thing? No, I wouldn’t say that. We’re gonna talk a little bit later. There’s something happening in Russia and Ukraine, a 28 point plan. I think that’s a great thing for the world, for peace, for America’s strength. But people care about what’s going on in their lives and they want to feel like they have a president that cares about what’s going on in their lives.
And I think that’s super fair. I think it’s fair to feel that way.
Conner: It’s totally fair that you elect the president to [00:15:00] represent you on those, on the world stage, but also to fix your problems and to make the country better and Yep. I think a lot of people would say Trump is doing that. I think a lot of people would say Obama did that, and that maybe Biden did that a little bit in different ways, but.
It’s really hard. It’s always easy to share your successes, but that usually is very temporary. Totally. In the American’s mind, people focus on the problems. Totally. So you gotta keep that at the forefront.
Micah: We talked about this last week and I’m gonna jump into Epstein, but we talked about this.
It’s this concept of people, voters are becoming more and more impatient for change. So we saw that in the Democrats winning these few elections. We’ll see that going into the midterms. It’s like people will flip on you real quick if you don’t do exactly what you say you’re gonna do. This is a 50 50 country, right?
So like we’re silly to think it’s not gonna keep flip flopping, right? Like people want change, right? And people care about optics. They want change. They wanna elect somebody they feel like’s actually gonna fix. That’s why
Conner: pretty much the issues. Yeah, that’s why pretty much every two years Congress flips it doesn’t matter who [00:16:00] the president, it’s just people want change’s, so it flips.
That’s not,
Micah: and that’s not new, right? We’re in so much uncharted territory, it feels but that concept right there, that’s not new. That’s been going on for 250 years since our nation’s founding. Alright, let’s jump into the Epstein file part of this. Here’s what we know right now.
Honestly, this is one of the stories where like the speculation has been really loud and I feel like people are saying Epstein files this and that. People are getting ahead of their skis on this. So I think it’s really important that we slow it down and stick with what we actually know, and that’s what I’m gonna be.
Careful to walk us through today is here’s what we actually know. Here’s where things stand right now as we’re recording on Wednesday morning, November 19th. This will be released on Thursday morning, November 20th, but this is where it stands right now. But before I say anything else, I’m gonna start with this point and end with this point.
We need to remember that there are real victims in this. That we can get really interested in rich and powerful people being exposed, but actual people’s lives were destroyed by Epstein and the system that protected him, and that has to stay front and center in this discussion. I just [00:17:00] feel that really strongly is so many people’s lives were absolutely destroyed, upended the trauma that they experienced because of rich and powerful people protecting him because they were complicit in it as well, right?
Yep. And that’s what everybody’s curious about. We just have to remember. There are a lot of people that were hurt from this, and I just wanna say that from the start. Okay, so here’s what’s been released so far. Congress is now has now a large batch of Epstein’s estate documents. We’re talking about thousands of emails, text communications, calls, voicemails, all kinds of things, right?
So Congress has that in their hands now. And so here’s what we’ve seen already. Emails between Epstein Maxwell, his assistant. The journalist, Michael Wolf, mentions of Donald Trump, including Epstein, claiming that Trump spit time at his house. Another email where Epstein suggests Trump knew about the girls, but told his assistant to stop.
Names of notable figures appear in the documents, including Larry Summers. He’s the former United States Secretary [00:18:00] of the Treasury who exchanged. Emails consistently with Epstein over the years. Yeah. Even after Epstein’s conviction this morning, actually, he stepped down from open AI’s board. This is affecting him greatly.
It’s so far, it’s coming out like they were besties, and so right now you just. You just can’t really operate out there right now, if that’s true. Yeah. So that’s, yeah he stopped all of
Conner: his public engagements, but he’s still currently on staff as a professor at Harvard. So I know a lot of people are asking questions about that, like, how can this man continue to teach?
We’ll see specifically around young college students it’s just weird.
Micah: I know Michael Wolf. This one’s really interesting too. So he’s an author he’s a media member. Doesn’t have a ton of respect even before this, but he appears in the emails advising Epstein on media strategy.
Epstein sending him stuff for tips and stories and things like that. Like this weird thing of this guy in the media and Epstein having this relationship. Steve Bannon, we’ve seen him in the news and in a, he’s a prominent figure on the right. He’s a former White House strategist for Trump and hi, his name shows up amongst.
[00:19:00] Epstein’s network context. Okay, so that’s important context too. New leaks show. Epstein’s network also included media figures, Wolf and others gave him advice on how to manage press coverage. There’s renewed momentum in Congress to force the Department of Justice to release everything that re remains, which is what we’re about to get into further, including files from multiple investigations and currently sealed records.
Hopefully those things will be unsealed so that we can actually find out the truth. A lot of these materials are messy. Much of it. Has been redacted. So some of it’s unverified and nothing yet is giving us a full picture, and I’m not sure if we’re gonna get anything that satisfies the conspiracy theorists in all of us.
Is there this list of rich and powerful people who are pedophiles? That’s really what this comes down to. Does that list. Exist, and if it does, are they actually gonna give it to us, right? I’m not sure. Not sure this is gonna satisfy certain people, even if it does all get released.
Conner: Even if that list does come out, like what does the list [00:20:00] mean?
What does that indicate that each person on the list took? Pardon in? Did they just know? I know. Were they just a contact? That’s the thing. J Jeffrey Epstein was so intertwined in these circles. He was like a figure that nobody knew until all this information came out. But he knew everybody. Everybody in the elite circles in science, politics, media man, he just Hollywood.
Everybody knew him. He found a way to. Build relationships with everybody. If you were rich and
Micah: powerful, he knew you. And it wasn’t even necessarily like he didn’t pick one lane. Politics, no. Like you said, media, sports, Hollywood. If you’re rich and famous, you knew Jeffrey Epstein and
Conner: really specifically Wall Street.
He has a lot of Wall Street guys. Wall Street too. So it’s one of those things. A list may never come out, but it’s these, in these emails, these associations with him. Yeah. Where if you just e even communicated with him, it’s not a great look because it, it lends the belief to a lot of people that. You had some knowledge of what was happening.
Yeah. Behind the scenes, and maybe you didn’t partake in it, but did you have knowledge? That’s where they’re trying to get Trump is like they’re saying, [00:21:00] yeah, Trump probably didn’t do anything. Now we don’t know that for a fact. But even if he didn’t, did he have awareness of what was going on with Epstein and all these girls?
Micah: Yeah. And you’re probably not gonna be like, unless there’s a true smoking gun, you’re not gonna be able to prove that certain people, including Trump, actually did something. You can, through the process of elimination, how many times they’re showing up, they’re at a certain place, they’re communicating.
Okay, you had to have known about this, right? And if you did, why didn’t you do anything about it? Here’s specifically
Conner: the people who were communicating with him after he’d already been convicted of sex crimes in 2008. The people who like Michael Wolf and people who were
Micah: that’s the smoking gun about Michael Wolf, is they stayed close and they kept talking.
Not a good look. All right, so we just talked about what’s been released so far. Here’s what we still don’t know yet. Okay? So this part matters just as much. We do not know these things yet. There is no verified or official client list despite the internet, insisting on it existing there. There isn’t a verified or official client list yet.
The Department of Justice has said it has no [00:22:00] evidence of a list or a black male operation being mentioned in these emails. And I wanna clarify this. Being mentioned in these emails is not the same thing as being. Implicated in a crime, even the crime of knowing what’s going on, just because you’re in an email conversation doesn’t mean that you were a part of this or knew that it was going on, right?
We do not know what will be unsealed once the government releases everything, so just because they release everything, what’s redacted, what’s sealed? What’s unsealed? We don’t know that yet. Some of the remaining files involve victims, grand jury testimony, ongoing investigative materials. There’s some stuff that is being actively investigated, so that stuff isn’t gonna be released until there’s resolution on it.
So we’re seeing pieces of the puzzle, not the entire puzzle yet, and I just wanna clarify that. But here’s why. The timing of all of this is really important. Here’s why the timing matters. This resurfaced at a politically challenging time for Trump. You already touched on this earlier with your quote.
The GOP MAGA is divided right now. His approval numbers have taken a hit over the [00:23:00] shutdown. Americans are frustrated. By inflation affordability, we’ve already hit on that. But now the Epstein story returns with new documents, new media leaks and even more political pressure pressure at a bad time for maga.
So the two things make this moment even more. These two things make the moment even more interesting. Number one, I just wanna call this out. The bipartisan vote shows unusually broad support, okay? Both parties clearly want transparency here. The house passed it. On only one vote. No, I’ll get into that here in a little bit.
The Senate didn’t even take it up for a vote. They went ahead and passed it on. It’s sitting on Trump’s desk to sign right now. So both parties now all of a sudden with Trump’s blessing, especially on the right. Everybody wants to know the truth now. And I think that’s important. We’re seeing an odd on such a big topic, it’s odd to see.
Its such unanimous bipartisan support. And then number two, Trump. He reversed his position and it adds another political angle. He is flip flopped on this. It [00:24:00] highlights how unpredictable the fallout could be and how much pressure he’s navigating. Several outlets have pointed out that this is one of the few controversies that Trump just can’t control.
He can’t blame his way out of or change the subject or change the narrative. This has been a dark cloud hanging over what’s going on. So these documents are not in his orbit. They’re in the hands of Congress and in the hands of the victims. So I’ve also seen people in the media, Conner say, Trump is in danger of entering lame duck territory.
Yeah. What do you think? And tell us what that means, Conner.
Conner: Yeah. Lame duck territory is the idea of somebody who’s in office, but they’ve lost kind of their influence and power ’cause they’re gonna be out of office soon. Now the idea has been for Trump, because he’s gonna be term limited. He wouldn’t really be a Lion Duck president until after next year’s midterms, and so he is trying to get a lot done in these two years before the midterms and before, honestly, likely.
Congress turns to a Democrat Congress. That would make him a lame duck. ’cause he is, he loses a lot of power and [00:25:00] influence at that point. But I think people are calling it out now because he did shift positions Micah a week ago. It seemed like this was a dead on the table situation. I broke it down last week when the government reopened that new Congress member was finally sworn in and she was the final signature needed to get the Epstein resolution.
A petition passed so that they could vote on this bill. But before that even happened, Trump was trying to make the rounds, make calls to other congressional members to get them to pull their names off that petition. Yep. So that it would not pass. And so it made him look suspicious, like he was trying to, keep it from getting out there.
Then, just a few days later, he was like, all right, nevermind. Let’s just pass this thing. Let’s get it all released now. He would claim that was because it was a distraction. That’s what the White House has been saying, that this whole thing’s just a big distraction. It distracts from everything we’ve been talking about, affordability crisis that caught on me foreign affairs, and maybe that’s true, but at the same time this is a massive issue and there’s thousands of women who need justice.
I think there’s probably,
Micah: I think the answer’s probably yes to a lot of the reasons. I don’t think it has to be [00:26:00] one sole reason. Is Trump worried that himself or maybe some people that he’s close to are gonna be implicated seriously in this? Is he worried about, Hey, this is literally everything that everybody’s talking about and I’m doing all these peace deals around the world.
I’m lowering affordability in these ways. The stock market is this I think that the answer can probably be yes to multiple things.
Conner: This is true. What, so what I’ll say, and back to the lame duck thing, is. Yeah, he was probably going to lose this fight no matter what. Yeah. It seemed like more Republicans were gonna peel off and vote for this bill against his wishes.
And so the only thing he could do was say, alright, let’s release it. Yeah. Otherwise, it was going to make him look weak. And so this is the first time in the second term that he lost a battle to Congress. That all of a sudden he was not the one in power. He kinda lost his influence. And so that’s where the lame duck.
Idea comes from is this the first time and maybe not the last time in the near future that he’s being well pushed around?
Micah: Yes, Conner, thank you for that clarification. And I do think it’s an important conversation, but to call out the changing positions on the campaign trail.
He campaigned [00:27:00] Don, we’re gonna release this, and then for the last four months he did everything that he can to not release them. And then now. Few days ago now he’s let’s do it. I’ll sign it. And he’s gonna sign most likely today, the day of recording. And we’re about to have some answers, but it’s an important thing of you just wonder what the motivations are behind all this.
But here’s where things stand right now. The Epstein, it’s called the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Passed both chambers of Congress, passed the house and then passed the Senate. The house voted 4 27 to one, and the Senate approved it just by a unanimous consent. No one dissented to the fact of, Hey guys, let’s just pass this along.
The bill is now officially on Trump’s desk right now, ready to sign, even though he spent months. He called it a hoax. He called it this. He called it that. Okay, now it’s on his desk and he says he’s gonna sign it. So once he does, the DOJ will have 30 days to release thousands of unclassified Epstein related documents.
This includes flight logs, this includes FBI interview notes, internal memos, personal communications, immunity agreements, and other investigative records [00:28:00] that have never been made public yet. Okay, so those are the things that are gonna be released, and the DOJ has 30 days to do it. The DOJ is allowed to redact victims’ identities, any child abuse imagery, and anything connected to an active investigation.
But it must explain every redaction to Congress in writing. I found this information ’cause I was like, what is gonna come out? The Wall Street Journal did a great writeup on this morning that gave me all the context of, hey, what, how long do they have and what’s gonna come out? Yep. Some material could still be contested.
We’ll see. But it, ultimately here’s what this could mean. And I think that’s an important thing to point out. Here’s a straightforward answer that I’m coming to after researching this a lot. It could mean very little. Yeah, this could come out and it could mean very little. The remaining files might not contain new evidence of new crimes of rich and powerful people involved.
They might not change anything legally. They might only add more names and more speculation and have no clear documentation for what happened, and everybody’s left with more questions than answered. That could happen, [00:29:00] or this could mean everything. Like I, I don’t think this is an in-between. I think this is either not gonna satisfy, or and it’s not gonna give proper answers.
Or potentially it could implicate a whole lot of people. Thus, all the infighting about this so far, if the sealed materials include credible documentation of who participated in this, who facilitated it. Who covered up the abuse, the reaction could be huge. It could ripple. The story crosses politics, business, media, culture.
It, it touches every single part of the rich and famous American life. Every single sphere
Conner: and the British Royals, clearly Prince Andrew was one of the That’s right. He’s the one who’s taken the most heat. Yeah. Michael, one thing I would say about these documents is I think a lot of people are also expecting to learn if.
Jeffrey Epstein actually died by suicide in his prison cell. And that’s one of the big parts of this conspiracy. I just
Micah: really doubt we’re gonna know that
Conner: one. I don’t, I would just say I doubt these files say anything about that. ’cause the official narrative has always been that he died by suicide, even though he had two guards watching him in 24 hours.
[00:30:00] There’s a lot of reasons why the conspiracy has built up. Yeah. That someone went in there and killed him. Anyways, I, that’s one of the big pieces of this conspiracy, but that’s not the biggest piece. I just think we’re gonna hopefully learn more about Yeah. Who was facilitating in this and get justice for the victims.
I think that we’ll know.
Micah: Yeah. And I think that we’ll know in the next month which way it goes, but the victims. Let’s talk about the victims one more time. There was a recent video from Epstein’s victims that was there making the round on X that Conner sent to me yesterday. It was just incredibly powerful, like a 92nd video.
It reminds us that this is not. Just a political storyline or talking point, or a fun conspiracy theory at all. Okay. It’s trauma, it’s exploitation. It’s a system that failed to protect vulnerable, underage girls minors. That’s exactly what happened. We’ll link it in the show notes here too, just so that you guys can see.
That video is very powerful if you haven’t seen it yet. If these files bring any accountability. Any clarity or any sense of justice for the victims, that’s the most important outcome of [00:31:00] this not getting, we all wanna know everything at all times. That’s not the most important thing to come from.
This justice for the victims will be people being held accountable. And justice being served for those that exploited minors, exploited children, basically. Yeah. It is not about, it’s a powerful video. Yeah. And it
Conner: played on Monday night. It played on Monday night Football as a commercial. Yes, it did. It did.
So it broadcast to many millions of people that night. Yes. In fact, it was paid for by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, whose name is also in some of these emails. An interesting situation there. Not saying he’s guilty of anything, he’s just, he was connected in some way.
Micah: Yeah. That could be him trying to cover something up or truly, Hey, he’s mentioned in some emails.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you knew what was going on. Okay. Like we have to remember that. But let me give a spiritual application and challenge. And Conner, you feel free to tag on here, but Dr. Denison, our founder of Denison Ministries, wrote in his daily article earlier this week that character matters.
And not just character doesn’t just matter for [00:32:00] presidents or public officials, but for any of us who claim the name of Jesus. We’re held to the same standard. If you are in Christ, you are held to the same standard. It’s not one way for us and one way for the president, or one way for a leader, whatever it might be.
When leaders fall or systems hide the truth, people get hurt. Okay? And the call on us is to be able to walk in integrity, care about truth, protect the vulnerable, and depend on the spirit rather than our own strength. That’s what we’re called to do as believers. And a simple application here, some hard work for us.
Ask what you expect from leaders. Ask yourself that question, not just policies, not results, but character, humility, and a life that reflects truth. What do you expect from your leaders? Reflect on your own influence. Reflect on your own leadership. Your leadership at home, at work, at church, your friendships carries real weight, whether if you recognize [00:33:00] it consciously or not, how you move, how you operate, how you speak, what you do when nobody’s looking, what you do, when everybody’s looking.
It matters, it has weight. Remember that the victims matter in this the most. This is not a political storyline. This is not about, this is about human, sorry. This is about human beings who are created in the image of God who were deeply harmed. This is where Jim’s invitation, he put this, I’m gonna quote him directly fits so well into this.
He said, and whatever your role is in the body of Christ, I invite you to submit to the Spirit right now asking him to empower you against temptation and produce his holiness in your heart. And you and I cannot sanctify ourselves, but the spirit of Jesus will make anyone more like our Lord, only if we are willing.
Ephesians five 18 says, and do not get drunk with wine. For that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. You can tack onto this. Don’t be drunk with power. Don’t be drunk with influence. Yeah, don’t be drunk with pride. Don’t be drunk with van Vanity. It’s all debauchery. It [00:34:00] all pulls you off track, but be filled with the spirit.
So here’s the challenge. Identify one place this week where you have influence and ask whether you’re avoiding truth. That’s just uncomfortable. Ask that question. Are you avoiding the uncomfortable questions in truth right now? Choose to pursue truth with compassion. And then finally, let’s pray for the victims.
As we’re processing through this, we talk about how do we invite God into our news consumption? Look at all these people who’ve been hurt, who need justice. Pray for them. Pray for this circumstance and situation for all involved. Pray for leaders to walk in integrity who’ve maybe never walked in integrity before God can do that.
God can change hearts and lives and change circumstances. Pray for the spirit to form holiness in your own life. Don’t spend so much time calling others out, that you neglect yourself, that you neglect where you are and in your influence.
Conner: That’s really good. And I would just tack onto that. Pray for unity within, yeah.
Good. So many different bodies within the church with Christians around the world. But pray for if you’re an American. Let’s pray [00:35:00] for unity within our country. Yeah. Last week we talked about division within one party. Today was division in another party. Which just means there’s even more division between the two parties in our entire country.
Yep. Let’s pray for Unity. I will say the one thing that is unifying this country right now is everybody wants these Epstein files released. Yep. Except for apparently the one guy who voted no Clay Higgins from Louisiana, clay Higgins. He had his reasons, which was something about victim identity and all of that, but.
It seems this is like a 100% across the board. Everybody says, let’s get justice. And so there is a unifying aspect here across both parties and across the whole country. In polling, it’s 99% say, yeah, release it. This is great. Which is
Micah: a good thing. Which is a good thing. And honestly, let me just call this out real quick too.
I, I don’t want any president being so much more powerful than Congress to say we have three equal branches of government for a reason, right? So I think it’s a good thing for now and the long term that there were people that broke off that didn’t stick with the status quo and said, Hey, we need justice here.
We need to know what happened. You know what I mean? And no one [00:36:00] can coerce or change that. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing that’s happened. So Yeah. This is
Conner: true. Yeah. It was basically four Republicans that checked the power of the president last week. They were like, we’re, and then
Micah: everything changed.
’cause I think everybody, you just needed four Republicans who were brave enough, but I think the majority of them felt the same way. But then those four people standing for truth changed everything.
Conner: Yeah,
Micah: that’s great.
Conner: It’s crazy and it is in a way a unifying thing. And again, just to call all those prayers you said, Micah, praying for the victims, our country, everything with the with political division, but also the Epstein files.
There’s a lot that we can be praying for. So we’ll definitely be in prayer for that and we encourage y’all to join us. Alright guys. That’s a lot. Going on and there’s still more to be had this upcoming weekend in the weeks ahead. So we’re gonna hit on that here in our check-in and tune in section.
Just a real quick mention, you can always email us at culture [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram at Culture Brief Podcast, shoot us a DM if you’ve got topic ideas. We got a couple last week and we talked, touched a little bit on it today, so that was great. We [00:37:00] always enjoy your messages.
Alright, Micah. There’s some stuff happening around the world beyond the American stuff. So what else is going on?
Micah: Yeah, so let’s jump into the check-in section. I think there are just 87 things worth mentioning. I’m just gonna mention too to you right now that I think are the most important, that are the most forefront.
And these are two topics we’ve covered extensively. The peace plan in Israel and Gaza, and then the redistricting, the gerrymandering that’s been taking place. There’s been an update on that. So first, so the UN Security Council approved Trump’s security plan, the 20 point plan, but the security plan specifically in Gaza.
So the UN approved a US sponsored resolution, endorsing Trump’s 20 point Gaza peace Plan. This happened on November 17th, officially. The resolution authorizes an international stabilization force for the Gaza Strip and establishes a board of peace. To oversee governance and reconstruction efforts. This is an important step to actually get things moving over there.
[00:38:00] While 13 council members voted in favor both Russia and China abstained, so they didn’t vote No, but they didn’t vote? Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. The militant group, Hamas rejected the resolution as imposing international guardianship and refusing to disarm. So let’s just pray. That this begins real steps for lasting peace.
And we’ll keep you in the loop on that moving forward. But this is a big next step. You know how this peace plan is oh, is it gonna fall apart? Now we’re getting to the point where there’s, the UN’s involved in approving things and now you’re gonna have several nations represented with vested interests, sending security forces working together.
This really could work. And let’s pray that it does. Okay. Yeah. And then secondly. Let’s talk about the Texas redistricting effort and an update on this. A federal three judge panel blocked Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections. Ruling that the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act.
The court ordered the state to revert to the 2021 map. While the legal challenge continues, the next step is an appeal. [00:39:00] The Texas Ag Paxton is expected to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which could decide whether the blocked map can be reinstated or whether Texas must keep using the.
Older map, but in the meantime, elected officials will prepare for 2026 using the prior districts. I’ll just say this, Texas kind of kicked this whole thing off. And so if this doesn’t go through, if Texas can’t redistrict, but California does big misstep Oh, for the Republican party because then you just netted the Democrats, all these extra seats, and what you tried to do didn’t
Conner: even work.
To clarify, Texas was trying to add five Republican seats, correct. In response, California got five Democrat seats added. But Texas’s effort is now removing those five correct. Republican seats. Correct. And they might have actually, this is just totally gonna backfire. And then Indiana is like pushing back on Trump.
A lot of the state senators there, they’re trying to redistrict to add a seat and they’re pushing back. And Trump had them in the Oval [00:40:00] Office this week trying to convince them and they’re like, no, maybe not this whole thing might be one big misfire.
Micah: We’ll see, we’ll see how quickly the Supreme Court picks it up.
In theory, when I was reading about this, they could pick it up pretty quickly. Yeah, and this could be worked out before 2026. We’ll see this fight is not over, but once it gets to, to the Supreme Court, that’s typically the final word yep. We’ll see what happens there. We’ll keep you in the loop.
Conner: Yeah. Great. Something else last week, or actually I think it was two weeks ago, I talked about the Nigerian Christians being killed and persecuted over there. This week, US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz formerly the National Security Advisor, who is Yeah, the person who started the Signal Gate text to leak.
Micah: Yeah. He’s
Conner: now the UN ambassador for the us. Anyways, he was. Calling the killings of Christians in Nigeria, a genocide wearing the mask of chaos. So he’s basically declaring a genocide over there. He brought in Nicki Minaj, who’s been very outspoken. You might know her music. She’s a rapper. She is very big on social media and she has been calling this out basically every week.
And so he brought her in to talk to the un, essentially, and discussed [00:41:00] what’s happening there. Bring attention to it. Yep, we continue to pray for the Nigerians. It’s good that attention is being sent there. It’s
Micah: a great thing. It’s a great thing. Yeah, it
Conner: really is. Something else, Tom Cruise. Micah, he finally got an Oscar.
Now you might be thinking the Academy Awards were this week. They absolutely were not. You could say this was an Oscar. But Tom Cruise really just got an honorary Oscar. So he did not win for any specific movie. He was not voted on that. No. The board of Governors at the Academy of Motion, picture Arts and Sciences selected Cruise for quote, his incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience into the stunts community.
So good for ly Tom Cruise for getting an honorary, it’s like getting an honorary doctorate. Actually. He deserves it. There’s so
Micah: many, there’s so many Oscar winning actors that no one’s ever heard of. Because they always pick these like movies that no one watches. Tom Cruise definitely deserves probably several.
’cause everybody goes and watches his movies and they have four decades. He definitely deserves one. Yes, it’s true. I love that. He has been
Conner: dominated four times for real Oscars, but never [00:42:00] one. So maybe one day he’ll get an actual one, but this is, it’s cool. Yeah, he’s got the, he’s got the statue now. He gets to ticket it home.
But as Dr. Dennison pointed out in Tuesday’s daily article on this he said that he was saying what Cruz said in his speech was making films is not what I do. It is who I am. There’s a lot I think we could dive into with that statement. That’s a big theological thing. But just remember guys, that while we are all given talents and passions and we can see the rewards of stewarding those gifts specifically, it should never be our full identity.
Yeah. Christ. Obviously Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, so he would not fully agree with that statement.
Micah: Yeah.
Conner: Yeah. So there’s that good for Tom Cruise. Michael, one thing to call out that we could be watching over the next few weeks because. We will not have an episode next week, so I’m gonna give you guys some things to look out for.
No episode next week due to Thanksgiving. I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy some food, family, football, maybe the Macy’s parade. Hopefully the Cowboys win, right? We’ll be enjoying our stuffed bellies and cowboys football for sure. That means we won’t be having an episode. [00:43:00] So let me just tell you something to keep an eye on.
And this really came out overnight coming into this recording. We’re apparently closing in on a potential peace deal in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia. Yeah. Trump’s administrators, administrations negotiators and some of Vladimir put Vladimir Putin’s top aide have reportedly been quietly drafting a 28 point peace plan.
Kind of modeled off the one that they used in Gaza. Yeah. So whatever those 28 points are, man, it seems to be something that works and Russia seems to be on board with it. Now, the US has sent over some top generals, which is pretty rare to actually send military brass. Yes. And when they do that means that they are very serious about this.
There’s gonna be some serious military implications to meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, to basically try to convince him that this plan valdimir is Vladimir. Yeah, I always say
Micah: it wrong, Olo. Deir.
Conner: V La Deir. Anyways, they’re meeting with him. They’re trying to sell him on this peace plan, and if it works, we might, by the time we come back to record in two weeks, have a whole episode just dedicated to that, [00:44:00] or we’ll just see what happens.
It could also fall through, we don’t know. Yeah. But the point is we’re closing in and we need to be praying for that to happen for peace in that region as well. It’s time for this war to end. It has been long past time for it to end. There is death and destruction every day. Just last night Russia launched a massive drone attack on Kiev and other parts of Ukraine and dozens of people were killed.
It’s awful. And so it’s time for this to just,
Micah: this has gotta end this has gotta end. Praying for what’s going on in Gaza, what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine. So many people are being, so many innocent people are being affected by this. And so we are continuing to pray for peace. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you guys.
We’re very thankful to our loyal culture brief audience. Thank you for letting us have a week off next week so that we can enjoy time with our family and enjoy family food and of course football. But thanks for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast. All articles, videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes.
If you enjoyed today’s episode, please please subscribe and rate and review the show and share it with a friend, and we’ll see you in two Thursdays from now. [00:45:00] I.
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