Hello, and welcome to TGIF. I’m Will Rahn, this publication’s resident nepo baby and bearded editor. It’s a bullpen game for us today because Nellie Bowles said she was just running out for a pack of cigarettes, but we haven’t seen her in days. That means it’s largely up to me, Sean Fischer, Suzy Weiss, and the rest of the TGIF Extended Universe—which is what Nellie calls her vast array of stooges and suck-ups—to recap another zany week of news in the USA. So let’s get to it!

→ It’s vacation time in America: If there’s not a palm tree emoji on your Slack in the next few weeks, you’re doing it wrong. This is the time to make your escape and get to the woods, the beach, a boat—basically, anywhere your boss will have a slightly harder time reaching you.

It’s nice out. Which is to say, it’s hot out. And it’s probably too hot where you live. So why not slip away for a few days? Here in New York, Zohran Mamdani—a guy who is campaigning to be mayor of America’s largest city—has ditched the sweltering sidewalks he’s spent a shocking amount of time traversing for some time in Uganda with his wife. And who can blame him? Lake Victoria is nice this time of year, and his clown car of rivals is doing just fine tearing themselves to pieces in his absence.

Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home early this week to avoid talking about Jeffrey Epstein, and who could blame him. Democrats are having a marvelous time torturing the GOP with this Epstein stuff, and keep calling for votes to release all the files the government is still sitting on. It’s the first big break they’ve caught in years, and they’re making the most of it.

Meanwhile, poor Mike is out there talking to reporters with all the joy of a man dangling from a meat hook. He says he’s tired of being “lectured on transparency” by Democrats while insisting Republicans have been “intellectually consistent the entire time” when it comes to Epstein.

I’m not sure what he means by “intellectual consistency.” And although he’s in a rough patch, polling-wise, for various reasons, I have no idea if l’affaire Epstein is really costing Trump electoral support. But in the summer of a year with few elections, and a news cycle dull enough that two middle-aged executives under suspicion of having an affair are international news, this Epstein stuff has staying power...