Tara Palmeri sits down with New York Post investigative reporter Isabel Vincent to discuss her explosive new book "RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise." Isabel obtained RFK Jr.'s personal diaries — without his cooperation — and they reveal a man obsessed with the presidency, riddled with sexual compulsion, and shaped by generations of Kennedy entitlement. The diaries include a scoring system for women he slept with (rated 1–10, with "victory" meaning he resisted), passages about failing his dead father's expectations, and entries where he castrates roadkill while his kids wait in the car. They also dig into the unanswered questions around his second wife Mary Richardson Kennedy's suicide — the missing phone, the missing computer, no suicide note, and a half-redacted police report — plus Cheryl Hines' $600K book deal, RFK's meetings with pharma lobbyists his own base hates, and why Isabel believes he is absolutely going to run for president in 2028.

0:57 – Tara: RFK has big ambitions — "this is a stepping stone"

2:13 – How she obtained his diaries: a source left three volumes at dinner

4:39 – The diaries as confessional — he writes about women like he's the victim

6:39 – First time a Kennedy confessed to infidelity in his own writing

8:24 – Mary at home with four kids under ten while he crusades and cheats

9:48 – His father told him he was "most like JFK" — conditioned since childhood

10:49 – Isabel: "I think you're going to see him run for president" in 2028

11:50 – Cheryl Hines: the $600K book advance and a marriage of convenience

13:04 – The Olivia Nuzzi affair and whether it almost ended his marriage

15:06 – The mythmaking: Twinkies, saunas with Kid Rock, cold plunges in jeans

17:05 – Does he really believe what he says? Congressional hearings and stubbornness

20:13 – Kennedy entitlement: his father had the speed limit raised so he wouldn't get a ticket

21:53 – Mary's suicide still weighs on him — but he had her body dug up and reburied

22:25 – The roadkill obsession: seagull skull collection, job at the National Zoo

28:32 – Hardest story to report: Mary's suicide — missing computer, no note, redacted police report

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Tara Palmeri joins former CIA officers John Sipher and Jerry O'Shea on Mission Implausible to break down the Ghislaine Maxwell VIP prison treatment, Trump's refusal to rule out a pardon, and the DOJ sitting on 99% of the Epstein files. Why was a convicted sex trafficker transferred to the lowest-security federal facility — and given a puppy — after meeting with Todd Blanch, Trump's former personal lawyer? Why has the DOJ only released 1% of the total Epstein package while pulling prosecutors off counterintelligence cases to work on redactions? And why are survivors still living in fear while Ghislaine gets vegan food and haircuts? Tara also explains how Ghislaine wasn't just Epstein's girlfriend — she was the mastermind, the crueler perpetrator, the "Mary Poppins" who lured girls in with her posh accent and then abused them out of jealousy.

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Tara joins a panel at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy alongside journalist Julia Angwin, Marissa Kabas of The Hand Basket, and Memo Torres of LA Taco for a conversation on resistance journalism in the Trump era. The panel covers how independent journalists are breaking the biggest stories — from federal funding freezes to the Swalwell scandal to ICE raid coverage — while facing daily legal threats, zero institutional support, and shrinking trust in legacy media. They also dig into objectivity vs. honesty, the symbiotic relationship between indie and legacy media, and why reader-supported journalism may be the only model that can't be captured.

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Who is the real Michael Wolff? Tara joins Lev Parnas and investigative journalist Ellie Leonard to pull back the curtain on the man who calls himself the "Epstein whisperer." Wolff raised nearly $1 million through GoFundMe claiming he'd depose Melania Trump — but the anti-SLAPP lawsuit he filed can't actually lead to depositions. They also break down Michael Cohen's shifting story about the Katie Johnson case and why both men are now attacking the independent journalists actually doing the work.

00:00 – Intro: Who is the real Michael Wolff?

0:46 – Michael Cohen and Wolff team up to call Tara and Ellie "conspiracy theorists"

2:02 – Tara: "I've never been called a conspiracy theorist in 18 years of journalism"

2:42 – Wolff, Cohen, and the podcast where they attacked independent journalists

3:10 – The bid to buy New York magazine with Epstein AND Harvey Weinstein — documented

5:07 – Cohen and Wolff playing clip: they call Tara and Ellie "far-left activists"

7:13 – Michael Cohen's collapsing Katie Johnson story — private investigators, contradicting lawyers

10:19 – Wolff is sitting on Epstein tapes and shopping them to the highest bidder

13:57 – The GoFundMe anti-SLAPP lawsuit explained: it can't actually lead to depositions

16:02 – Wolff says he has Epstein on tape — so why not just release it?

18:28 – He's thinking about the perpetrators staying quiet, not the survivors speaking up

23:23 – He made $13 million on his book — why does he need a GoFundMe?

29:31 – Wolff tried to discredit Julie K. Brown, Tina Brown, Ronan Farrow — now it's us

33:07 – "I'm not getting out of the way" — Ellie on continuing the work

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Tara calls in from Perugia, Italy and Nomiki Konst joins from Barcelona for a deep dive into the Eric Swalwell fallout. Donors are furious and demanding their money back, a billionaire backer is suing to claw back $1 million, and the former congressman's gubernatorial campaign is dead. Nomiki shares her own story of Swalwell aggressively flirting with her at a DNC meeting in 2018 — in full view of party leadership — raising the question of what Democrats knew and when. They also discuss the modeling industry's trafficking pipeline, how visa control keeps women trapped, Amanda Angara's explosive allegations, and why MeToo didn't go far enough the first time around.

Read the full story: https://open.substack.com/pub/tarapalmeri/p/exclusive-swalwell-donors-are-calling?r=1ili3&utm_medium=ios

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Lauren Leader — co-founder of All In Together and one of the leading voices on women in politics — joins Tara to talk about the pattern no one in Washington wants to name: every woman in Trump's cabinet is being pushed out. From Pam Bondi to Kristi Noem to Tulsi Gabbard to Linda McMahon, the firings keep coming — and Lauren explains why this is textbook "glass cliff" politics. They go deep on the manosphere's hijacking of the Epstein story, why victim testimony from women is treated as hearsay, the Victoria's Secret–Wexner–Epstein pipeline that sexualized an entire generation of girls, Joe Rogan's 11% female guest rate, Michael Wolff's Epstein ties, and why the U.S. ranks 43rd in the world for gender parity.

Get 15% off OneSkin with the code TARA at https://www.oneskin.co/TARA #oneskinpod #ad

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Tara calls in to break down the Amanda Ungaro story — the Brazilian-born model and mother of Paolo Zampolli's child who was deported by ICE, allegedly at Paolo's request, in the middle of a custody battle. Tara and her co-host, V Spehar of Under the Desk News - go deep on how Amanda's story connects directly to the Epstein-modeling pipeline: Paolo's rivalry and friendship with Epstein, the visa system that kept women trapped, the photographer Antoine Verglas who shot Melania's most iconic photos and stayed close to Epstein, and what Amanda says about Melania's role in that world. They also get into Swalwell's downfall, why Melania made her surprise Epstein statement, the 2012 RNC party stories, and why millennial politicians may be the first generation clean enough to actually pursue accountability.

1:18 – Paolo, Epstein, and rival modeling agencies: how they recruited women through visas

2:09 – Amanda targeted at 15 from Brazil — decades-long relationship with Paolo

2:59 – Paolo called ICE to win a custody battle — the New York Times report

3:49 – Paolo in the Epstein files: frenemies who almost bought a modeling agency together

5:44 – "Jeffrey's girls were everywhere" — Paolo's own words

7:30 – Paolo at Trump inaugurations: Melania's permanent plus-one

11:15 – Steve Hanson, Epstein, and the restaurant-modeling pipeline

18:24 – Amanda remembers meeting Melania at 18 on Trump's plane

19:09 – Melania told Amanda "tough luck" after her deportation

22:44 – Why Melania should testify on the Hill

23:28 – Amanda never got a green card — that's how she could be deported after all these years

32:00 – Tara in Italy: cab drivers saying "Israel, Epstein, war, Iran" — they see it the same way

41:10 – The Epstein-chef connection: Adam Perry Lang, the pilot's flight logs

42:08 – Until millennials get power, this won't change

47:43 – Reporting out Amanda's claims: "it's explosive, and it's enough for Melania's statement"

50:28 – Swalwell, the Democratic establishment, and why Pelosi should have stopped him

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Robert Wolf — former UBS Americas chairman and Obama economic adviser — is back for another weekly fireside chat with Tara, and the numbers are brutal. GDP collapsed to half a percent, the CPI came in at 3.3%, and gas prices spiked 21% in a single month — the largest increase since 1967. Robert breaks down why stagflation is no longer a hypothetical, how the Iran war is creating an energy shock that's driving every indicator in the wrong direction, why Buy Now Pay Later is becoming a trap for younger Americans, and what it would actually take for the economy to recover. Plus: Kevin Hassett gaslighting on Fox, Iran potentially making $57 billion a year off a Strait of Hormuz toll, and Tara's Gen Z producer says no one coming out of college has jobs.

See the report:

https://substack.com/home/post/p-193724546

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Investigative reporter Scott MacFarlane — fresh off leaving CBS News to go independent — joins Tara for his first appearance on The Red Letter. They cover the DOJ's credibility crisis under acting AG Todd Blanche (who said "I love you" to the president on national TV), the Epstein files stonewalling, Pam Bondi dodging her congressional deposition, RFK Jr.'s new podcast and the measles surge, Trump framing the Iran war as a holy war, and a 25-point Democratic swing in Marjorie Taylor Greene's former district that signals real trouble for Republicans heading into the midterms.

Scott McFarlane is a veteran investigative journalist who spent 25 years covering the Justice Department and Capitol Hill, most recently at CBS News. He recently launched Scott McFarlane Reports as an independent outlet.

0:00 – Intro: Scott McFarlane goes independent after 25 years in network news

1:44 – Why indie media feels more authentic than legacy TV

2:32 – The DOJ has become the president's personal law firm

3:50 – Todd Blanche says "I love you" to Trump on national television

4:58 – The Epstein files: DOJ credibility crisis and survivor exposure

7:19 – Will a whistleblower ever release the full Epstein files?

10:45 – RFK Jr. launches a podcast — and Scott can only last six seconds of it

12:17 – Measles surging as vaccination rates drop 3% since 2020

14:34 – West Virginia's legislature gridlocked over vaccine requirements

17:15 – MAGA base is upset: Trump over-promised and under-delivered

19:53 – JD Vance and Kushner head to Islamabad — can anyone take this seriously?

20:52 – Invoking God to justify war: "you're begging for trouble"

23:04 – Georgia special election: 25-point Democratic swing in deep MAGA country

25:48 – The future of independent journalism and closing

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Tara Palmeri Joins Abby Phillips to discuss why the Iran War is the last straw for some of core of Trumps base.

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