Vapid Response Wednesday: Unpacking Controversies

VR1 - Welcome to Vapid Response Wednesday! Rather than explaining law in the news as we have for years on Rapid Response Friday, Thomas, Lydia, and Matt are going on the offensive in this live video series to respond and react to the stupidest takes that we can find--and we’ve got just the guy for our first pick! We begin with former Jeffrey Epstein defense attorney Alan Dershowitz’s recent piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he literally claims that “there is nothing more to see here” on the Epstein case while filling in the facts of what we know from reliable reporting and court records. What is Dersh not telling us here about his own involvement with Epstein, the unbelievably corrupt federal non-prosecution agreement which he secured for his client in 2007, and all of the other many reasons that he might not be a trustworthy source on this question? We then take on one of Matt’s all-time favorites: a well-known 1996 video presentation from far-right immigration restrictionist organization NumbersUSA in which founder Roy Beck takes the stage to set the Guinness world record for Biggest Strawman Made Entirely Out of Gumballs.

• “The Inside Scoop on Jeffrey Epstein,”  Alan Dershowitz, The Wall Street Journal (7/15/2025)

• “Alan Dershowitz: Devil’s Advocate,” Connie Bruck, The New Yorker (7/29/2019)

• “Immigration, World Poverty, and Gumballs,” NumbersUSA (originally distributed in 1996, uploaded to YouTube in 2010)

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