Who Showed Up to Lead in a Dark, Tense Week?

"This was an awful week. The jokes begin in the third entry, if you want to skip ahead, and they cover the very funny subject matter of the president's relationship with a deceased sex criminal. Then the gags really get going when we talk about the tensest state of affairs between Russia and NATO since the Cold War. Can't get enough? How about a conflict of interest at the Federal Reserve? Finally, everyone's comfort food: relitigating Democrats' calamitous performance in the 2024 election."

"A national horror. The assassination of Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus Wednesday was a national shock to the system we hope the nation doesn't experience again. Kirk was the father of two very young children. Even with all the snuff footage that social media algorithms were autoplaying for us Wednesday afternoon, it was the photos of his family that we found most difficult to look at."

"But the country feels much more dangerously heated than it did on Wednesday morning, and it wasn't exactly Disneyland then. In that vein, there are two people we'd call attention to as proper leaders during a week when leadership was needed. The first is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who knows that a lot of disaffected young people look up to him, and released a note-perfect video against creeping political violence on Thursday. It's simple and powerful, and it comes from someone who understands how much worse things can get."

Multiple major political crises and controversies dominated the week. A Utah college campus shooting that killed Charlie Kirk shocked the nation, with distressing social media footage and painful family photos. Calls for calm came from Bernie Sanders, who released a video condemning creeping political violence, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who urged restraint to avoid further escalation. The president's relationship with a deceased sex criminal became a focal point of ridicule. Tensions between Russia and NATO reached their most fraught level since the Cold War. A conflict of interest emerged at the Federal Reserve, and Democrats' 2024 performance faced renewed scrutiny.

Read at Slate Magazine