The Tara Palmeri Show

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

1:10 – Brave women and citizen journalists broke the story first
2:49 – The rape allegation: hotel, strangulation, and campaign finance receipts that match
3:42 – Donors want their money back — the non-disparagement agreement from Politico
6:58 – Nomiki's own story: Swalwell buying her prosecco and getting touchy at a DNC meeting in 2018
8:39 – Six years later he shows up in her DMs — "I don't think he even remembered me"
10:12 – What did Democratic leadership know? The Washington protection racket
12:23 – The DC culture that enables abuse: dorms, lobbyists, young staffers, no families around
17:16 – Did Pelosi know? She was the first to call for his resignation
19:11 – TMZ enters Washington: more congressmembers will be exposed
20:14 – Amanda Angara update: not backing down, Tara working to verify explosive claims
21:03 – The modeling-trafficking pipeline: visas, dorms, and girls with no power
24:04 – Fashion TV, Paolo's company, and how young these girls looked
25:17 – The Tyra Banks documentary: the full spectrum from Epstein to supermodel
26:07 – Victoria's Secret, Les Wexner, and MC Squared's Einstein visas
29:12 – Closing: Swalwell's campaign is dead, donors are furious, and there are more to come
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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.

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0:00 – Intro: Every woman in Trump's cabinet is getting fired
2:13 – The glass cliff: women handed impossible jobs, then blamed when they fail
7:34 – Pam Bondi was a lapdog who still got fired
10:32 – The manosphere hijacks the Epstein narrative — Rogan, Fridman, all-male panels
14:30 – Joe Rogan: only 11% of his guests are women — and it shows
21:49 – "Not one of them has been fired — they all resigned. That's not the same thing"
24:43 – Victoria's Secret, Les Wexner, and how Epstein shaped a body image crisis
30:02 – Ezra Klein and Bill Maher center men in the Epstein conversation
35:50 – Michael Wolff: decades observing Epstein, offering to brief the Saudis through him
40:14 – Anna Paulina Luna's discharge petition — credit where it's due
42:25 – Mike Johnson blocking Republican women from leadership
45:07 – The pay gap got worse, black women's unemployment spiked, maternal health crisis deepens
45:31 – The Florida woman forced into a C-section mid-labor by a Zoom judge
47:29 – Outro and thanks
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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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