In this Off the Record update, I return from a short break to dive headfirst into the chaos consuming both Oklahoma and Washington, D.C.

We start local with Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s scandal-plagued Superintendent of Public Instruction, whose latest controversy — a TV in his office allegedly flashing nude images during a board meeting — has spiraled into investigations, denials, and finger-pointing. But that’s just one entry in his long rap sheet: rewriting curricula to push Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies, mandating Bibles in public schools, banning LGBTQ+ books, mishandling the Nex Benedict tragedy, misusing pandemic relief funds, and cozying up with far-right influencers like Libs of TikTok.

Then we zoom out to the national stage, where Donald Trump is running the same playbook on a much bigger scale. In just one week, he seized control of Washington D.C.’s police force despite crime being at historic lows, deployed the National Guard, held a failed “peace summit” with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, pulled Melania into billion-dollar lawsuits tied to the Epstein saga, and backed a Texas redistricting scheme designed to hand Republicans five new congressional seats before 2026.

Different scale, same playbook: create a crisis, distract from the truth, consolidate power.

And in the final reflection, I break down why this is dangerous territory for all of us — because democracy doesn’t collapse with one scandal, it erodes piece by piece, while we shrug and call it normal.

If Walters is the warm-up act, Trump is the headliner — and together, they’re rewriting the rules.

• News 9 — “Timeline of events in Walters’ TV controversy investigation” 【news9.com】

• 19th News — “Oklahoma schools superintendent Ryan Walters under investigation over explicit images” 【19thnews.org】

• KJRH — “Walters denies allegations amid ongoing investigations” 【kjrh.com】

• The Daily Beast — “MAGA schools boss Ryan Walters fumes at nude office TV claims” 【thedailybeast.com】

• People — “Oklahoma will require schools to teach disproven Trump conspiracy theory” 【people.com】

• The Guardian — “Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact” 【theguardian.com】

• Them — “He pushed LGBTQ+ book bans and religion in schools. Now Ryan Walters is mired in scandal” 【them.us】

• Wikipedia (Ryan Walters entry) — for verified background on curriculum mandates, Bible requirements, Nex Benedict case, and pandemic relief misuse.

• The Guardian — “Trump slammed for unjustified power grab as he seizes control of D.C. police and deploys National Guard” 【theguardian.com】

• AP News — “Trump declares crime emergency in D.C.” 【apnews.com】

• The Daily Beast — “Trump circles drop F-bomb after ‘failure’ Putin summit” 【thedailybeast.com】

• The Guardian — “Trump news at a glance: Putin plan for Ukraine peace; WV to send National Guard” 【theguardian.com】

• People — “Trump encouraged Melania to pursue billion-dollar defamation suit tied to Epstein rumors” 【people.com】

• Wikipedia (Trump legal affairs entry) — for lawsuits, inspector general purge, Epstein details.

• The Guardian — “Thousands join US ‘Fight the Trump Takeover’ protests against redistricting” 【theguardian.com】

• AP News — “Trump-backed Texas redistricting push sparks national backlash” 【apnews.com】

• The New Yorker — “Texas Democrats’ remote resistance” 【newyorker.com】

• Wikipedia (2025 Texas proposed redistricting) — for verified background on mid-decade redistricting push.

📚 Sources Used in This EpisodeWalters’ ScandalsTrump’s Latest MovesTexas Gerrymandering Crisis

In this emergency episode of Off the Record, we take on the firestorm ignited by Donald Trump's claim that he would consider pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell — the convicted sex trafficker at the center of the Epstein scandal. But that’s only the beginning.

We dive into the media spin, the normalization of abuse, and the calculated distractions meant to protect the powerful. Then, we turn our focus to Jubilee — a popular YouTube platform now under fire for giving actual fascists a national spotlight while ambushing respected journalist Mehdi Hasan in a room full of extremists. We name names, we expose strategies, and we ask the hard question: How much longer are we going to pretend this isn’t deliberate?

This isn’t a debate. This is a warning.

• MSNBC – Trump says he’d consider pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell
  https://www.msnbc.com

• CNN – Trump’s history with Epstein and Maxwell resurfaces
  https://www.cnn.com

• Wall Street Journal – The lingering influence of Jeffrey Epstein’s network
  https://www.wsj.com

• Mehdi Hasan’s public response – via @mehdirhasan on X (Twitter)

• Time Magazine – Jubilee faces backlash for platforming fascism
  https://time.com

• The New Republic – Jubilee’s false neutrality is dangerous
  https://newrepublic.com

• Media Matters – The weaponization of “debate” on YouTube platforms
  https://mediamatters.org

🧾 Referenced Sources:

In this episode of Off the Record, we go deep into the story the media won’t stay on — and the distractions they use to keep us from looking.

Segment 1 unpacks how President Donald Trump was formally briefed in May 2025 that his name appears in the Epstein files — and how his legal team, the DOJ, and even corporate media are doing everything possible to bury it.

Segment 2 turns to Oklahoma, where State Superintendent Ryan Walters is waging war on public education: pushing illegal Bible mandates, immigration profiling in schools, censorship of racial justice, and handing education over to unaccredited private virtual programs.

Segment 3 exposes the latest distraction campaign — from Stephen Colbert’s surprise cancellation, to South Park’s brutal satire of Trump and the weaponized outrage cycle that’s drowning real accountability.

Finally, in Segment 4, we reflect on the cost of silence. If we keep letting them distract us, we will lose the truth — and the future.

This is not just an episode. It’s a wake-up call.

This episode kicks off our deep dive into the slow dismantling of American public education — not by accident, but by design. We explore how a 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, triggered a nationwide panic that turned classrooms into testing centers, teachers into proctors, and students into data points.

We examine how policies like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top created a culture of compliance, narrowed the curriculum, and fueled burnout across the profession. Along the way, I share personal experiences from the front lines — including what it felt like to work under a principal who cared more about daily attendance numbers than the actual lives of her students and staff.

This episode is not just about policy. It’s about people. It’s about the joy that was stripped away from learning. And it’s about the belief we’ve lost — that teaching is a profession worth respecting, protecting, and rebuilding.

In the next episode, we’ll tackle what happened when funding cuts collided with test-driven education, turning a rigid system into one that’s now falling apart.

• National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983). A Nation at Risk.
  https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html

• Economic Policy Institute (2022). The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high.
  https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-penalty-2022/

• American Statistical Association (2014). Statement on Value-Added Models.
  https://www.amstat.org/asa/files/pdfs/POL-ASAVAM-Statement.pdf

• National Education Association (2022). Survey: Educators say burnout is a serious problem.
  https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases

• Cowen Institute, Tulane University (2015). The State of Public Education in New Orleans

• U.S. Department of Education (Archived). No Child Left Behind Overview.
  https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html

• Brookings Institution (2013). The Misuse of Standardized Testing in American Education
  https://www.brookings.edu/articles/standardized-testing-and-the-common-core-standards/

Referenced Sources:

In 2003, Donald Trump wrote a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein. That’s not speculation. That’s what the Wall Street Journal just reported, backed by documents from Epstein’s own archive.

This isn’t just a polite note. It’s a window into a relationship Trump pretended didn’t exist. A relationship with a man who, by 2003, was already known in elite circles for trafficking girls. Trump knew. He had hosted Epstein. He’d been photographed with him. He’d even joked about his taste in “younger” women.

So why write him a birthday card?

In this episode of Off the Record, we break down the timeline, the article, and the disgusting hypocrisy of a political machine that still props up a man who was friendly with a known predator — and who wants to call everyone else a groomer.

We connect the dots the media won’t. Because Trump didn’t just look the other way. He picked up a pen and said “Happy Birthday” to a monster.

They say the Republican Party freed the slaves.
They say Democrats are the real racists.
They say Lincoln would vote red today.

But while they hide behind 1865, they're banning books about Black history in 2025.
They’re gutting voting rights, erasing DEI, mocking Juneteenth, and protecting a rapist named Trump.

In this episode, we tear down the myth that Republicans are the party of racial justice.
We walk you through the party switch — not just in names, but in values.
We expose the Southern Strategy, the dog whistles, the classroom bans, and the deadly consequences of their fake patriotism — from Texas flood deaths to school shootings they refuse to stop.

We call out the GOP’s rebranded racism — and we hold establishment Democrats accountable too. Because failure isn’t the same as sabotage. And silence isn’t neutrality.

Sources & References:

Party Realignment & Southern Strategy

• Kevin M. Kruse & Julian Zelizer, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974

• Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America

• Lee Atwater interview (1981), via Rick Perlstein archives / CNN

• Joseph Crespino, Strom Thurmond’s America

• Pew Research: “The changing face of the Democratic and Republican parties”

Voter Suppression

• Brennan Center for Justice: “Voting Laws Roundup” (2023–2025)

• Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013)

• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: “An Assessment of Minority Voting Access” (2021)

Book Bans & Curriculum Censorship

• PEN America: “Banned in the USA” Reports (2023–2025)

• Florida Dept. of Education, 2023 curriculum guidelines

• Texas Tribune: “Greg Abbott blocks AP African American Studies course”

• NBC News: “DeSantis defends new slavery standards”

Trump’s Legal & Racial History

• E. Jean Carroll case (Trump found liable for sexual abuse and defamation)

• NYT: “A Running List of Trump’s Accusers”

• Washington Post: “Trump’s use of racist rhetoric”

• BBC News: “Trump and the Proud Boys — ‘stand back and stand by’”

• ACLU: “The Muslim Ban: Timeline of Discrimination”

Gun Violence & Republican Inaction

• Everytown for Gun Safety: “Tracking State Gun Laws”

• CDC: Firearm death statistics by state (2020–2024)

• Texas Tribune: “Despite mass shootings, Texas GOP loosens gun laws”

Texas Floods (2025 Disaster)

• Houston Chronicle (July 2025): “Record Floods Kill Over 120 — Emergency Response in Crisis”

• Climate Central: “Texas floodplain risk worsens as regulations stall”

• FEMA Funding Rollbacks (2023–2024) and Congressional Budget Data

General Context & Historical Analysis

• Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

• Isabel Wilkerson, Caste

• James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

• 1619 Project by The New York Times