Today's Poll Question: Is Epstein fallout more about guilt by association than guilt by deeds?

You're ready to vote on today's Daily Pull question at smirkconnish.com.

But first, Michael explains it for you, right here.

Welcome to the smirkconnish podcast from SiriusXM for independent vines.

Hey gang, what do they say?

In like a lion, out like a lamb.

It's the second of March, Monday the second of March, 2026.

I find this really interesting.

As the news was breaking, Saturday morning, I quickly switched up the plan for the poll.

The news breaking relative to the US going to war with Israel against Iran.

And I thought, okay, well, the obvious thing is to ask very basically, do you support

or oppose the US using military force to attack Iran?

41,739 voted on Saturday, big vote, 81.84% oppose.

So on Sunday, I thought, okay, now we know that the Ayatollah is dead and that the senior

level of the Iran governing class is gone.

What do people think now?

So the Sunday poll question was knowing what you know now.

Do you support or oppose the use of force against Iran?

Now the opposition had decreased by about 6%.

So let me say it differently.

On Saturday, as the news was breaking, only 18.16% supported what they were seeing.

On Sunday, that number had grown, but to only 25.84% and again, a healthy vote, 37,378.

Today I'm switching it up.

Today I am switching it up and I am asking a question about the Epstein investigation that

I would have been asking on Saturday and it's this, a Greer disagree, the Epstein fallout

is now more about guilt by association than guilt by deeds.

This were punished podcast from serious exam.

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So I was preempted on CNN on Saturday because of the the war story with Iran.

I was disappointed only in so far as I had a commentary ready to deliver on the Jeffrey

Epstein investigation, frankly, from an angle that I haven't heard elsewhere.

And maybe you're about to say, and for good reason, but I want to give you a taste now

of what I would have said Saturday and still believe as I record these words on Monday.

I was going to begin this way.

Another week, another series of humiliations for famous associates of Jeffrey Epstein.

Bill Gates apologized to staff at his philanthropic foundation.

He said it was a mistake to associate with Epstein, but that he'd done nothing illicit

and had seen nothing illicit.

Former Harvard president Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments

at Harvard at the end of the academic year.

Summers relationship with Epstein's spanned years and thousands of emails and phone calls

and included soliciting Epstein's advice on a romantic relationship.

Borg Brend, president and CEO of the World Economic Forum, as well as a former Norwegian

foreign minister resigned this week.

The DOJ docs reveal that Brend was in contact with Epstein until at least just months before

Epstein's death.

And then there is Bob Kerry, the former governor of Nebraska, U.S. Senator, member of the 9-11

Commission, president of the new school, Kerry resigned from the board of a clean energy

startup after the DOJ files revealed he'd met and corresponded with Epstein more than a

decade ago.

Kerry told the New York Times that he would offer no defense of his meetings with Epstein

and that if he knew then what he knows now, he would not have said yes to a meeting.

In addition to serving as a governor and a senator, Kerry is a Medal of Honor recipient

for his conduct as a Navy SEAL in the Vietnam War.

Like many other Medal of Honor citations, Kerry's begins with the words, for conspicuous

gallantry.

The citation describes Kerry suffering massive injuries from a grenade but nevertheless

leading his men while in a near unconscious state.

Kerry has two meanings, courageous behavior especially in battle and attention or respect

given to men, given by men to women.

Nobody will ever use the word gallant to describe Jeffrey Epstein and respect for women needs

to be the guiding light of our Epstein analysis, but guilt by association is not an appropriate

standard.

Guilt by deeds needs to be our standard.

We've entered a phase that some predicted when Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency

Act, mandating the release of millions of pages of sensitive information within 30 days

of passage.

Last July, Benjamin Wittis, the editor-in-chief of law fair, argued that Epstein's Files

should not be released.

There are good reasons a lot of them why federal law enforcement doesn't do investigations

in public and why it doesn't release the fruits of its investigative efforts as a matter

of course.

The case of a serial predator whose misconduct touched 1,000 victims and hundreds of other

people is no time to throw away rules and civil liberty protections that are designed

to prevent law enforcement from being an instrument of indiscriminate shaming and public exposure.

In December, Ian Millheiser, senior correspondent at Vox, similarly noted, the Justice Department

almost never discloses information it collected on a criminal suspect acts outside of a criminal

judicial proceeding and for very good reasons.

Revealing such information can endanger victims or other witnesses and it denies due process

to individuals who may be innocent and who will never receive a trial even though their

names are prominently featured in the DOJ's records.

And then just last week, Daniel Richmond, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in the New

York Times that the release of the Epstein Files is a sign of institutional failure, but

also a cause for concern.

Richmond wrote these words, the release of the Files is also a cause for concern because

so much of the raw investigative material in them untold layers of hearsay unverified

accusations and vague circumstantial connections ought not to be released for the public to

pick over.

With the constant combing through the Epstein Files and the resulting cancellation of

anyone whose name appears, we are losing any semblance of a presumption of innocence.

Instead we're witnessing a repeat of the mistake made by FBI director James Comey.

When in 2016 he took the unprecedented step of holding a press conference to announce

he was not indighting Hillary Clinton.

He further muddied the waters by saying she'd been extremely careless, causing legal observers

to wonder how that differed from the gross negligence that charges would require.

The point is our tradition is one of indighting or saying nothing.

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The daily poll question at smirk Connish dot com.

A non scientific social political question designed to spark broader discussions about

current issues. Get ready to cast your ballot and leave a rating and review of this podcast

on your favorite podcast app.

The point is our tradition is one of inditing or saying nothing.

And speaking of Hillary Clinton of all the names in the Epstein files, why would the GOP

lead House Oversight Committee choose to depose her where there's been zero evidence of

any impropriety?

In her testimony, she said she had no recollection of even meeting Epstein and when they deposed

Bill Clinton the day after Hillary, he made it clear that he saw nothing and quote did

nothing wrong.

It would all seem that this was being done to deflect from attention that President Trump

might otherwise attract mind you.

He too is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Several media outlets including CNN are reporting that the Epstein files contain upstand unsubstantiated

claims against Trump from a woman who was a minor in the 1980s.

And that certain related documents are missing.

Trump denies all accusations of wrongdoing and this is one of a number of uncorroborated

claims contained in the files about well-known men.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, those missing documents should be released.

But as we rummage through the files, we should remember that knowing Jeffrey Epstein by itself

is not a crime and each person forced to exit public life for no good reason deprives

our nation of their continued contributions.

The urge to cancel should be tempered by an individualized and objective assessment

of what each person knew and did.

America learned that lesson from the McCarthy era.

It's no less true today.

Well that felt good.

And those are the words that I had anticipated delivering on CNN on Saturday before the

war came.

And yeah, I get to get it off my chest here now for you.

So the poll question today asks, agree or disagree.

The Epstein fallout is now more about guilt by association than by deeds.

That's where I think we've come.

I think we've moved to that point.

And as I say, we've lost all idea of any presumption of innocence.

If your name's in the file, man, that's it.

You're done and you did it, which is not to say I excuse and of course, do I even have

to say anything?

I don't even have to say it.

Come on.

He was a bad, bad guy, a bad, bad guy.

But my God, the names that show up in those files just because they were in communication

with them, the one that pushed me was, was Bob Kerry.

The one that pushed me was Bob Kerry, Medal of Honor recipient, honorably served Nebraska

as governor and US Senator becomes president of the new school.

And it seems to me from what I read in the, the accounts probably was making a fundraising

pitch of Epstein.

That was the extent of his contact, contact.

And for that now, you know, the people with whom he serves in this clean energy company,

they, they get all nervous.

And by the way, I got to tell you this, Jonas Sarah caught up with Senator Kerry full

disclosure.

I, I, I did too yesterday, and I said in my commentary, he'll be on the program this

week.

I wanted him to read it.

But no Sarah writing for, what did he write that for?

Was it the Atlantic?

I think for the Atlantic, we had it in the newsletter yesterday.

Maybe it was Jonas Sarah's own website.

I'm not sure.

But the point is he catches up with Kerry, and he asks him about his resignation.

And Kerry tells him that those with whom he was serving on this clean energy board got

nervous because, oh, you're in the Epstein file.

And what did he tell them?

Adios, MFers, those are his words, Adios MFers, like if you're too skittish, if this is

going to wig you out, my name appears in the file because I was doing some fundraising

for the new school.

I don't want to serve with you.

I admire that.

I admire that.

Go vote at smirconnish.com on the Monday poll question.

Agree or disagree.

The Epstein fallout is now more about guilt by association than guilt by deeds.

Michael Smirconish for independent mind.

Listen weekdays on Sirius XM's POTUS, Channel 124, and anytime on the Sirius XM app.

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