Before Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released a vast tranche of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails, Harvard professor Larry Summers, 70, came across as a smug economist who liked to attend conferences and drone on about the Federal Reserve. Now we know he was also a buffoon who complained about gorgeous women not wanting to sleep with him to a convicted pedophile.
The emails make it clear that Summers did not regard Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea to sex crimes against children as a friendship killer. Instead, the two remained tight over the next decade with Summers sharing intimate details of his personal life with Epstein. Which makes some sense. If you don’t want to be judged, you look for a friend with the nicest, largest glass house.
Of course, none of us would want our private emails to be made public. But for Summers, the issue is not the content of his emails, but the content of his character.
In one 2019 email, Summers voices concern that the attention he’s lavishing on an unnamed woman may not pay off. He writes: “I dint (sic) want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits.”
Summers analyzes the situation in classic economic terms, comparing the marginal cost (i.e., spending money on gifts) with the marginal benefit (i.e., receiving sex) to maximize profit or utility. You don’t have to be a former Treasury Secretary to know that dating is all about the ROI.
Epstein’s response to Summers’s account of his “courtship” is to offer praise. “No whining showed strentgh (sic)” Epstein wrote. (Summers was totally whining.)
The frankness of this email suggests that Summers and his wife, whom he married in 2005, probably enjoyed an open marriage. And if they didn’t, then last week was a real eye-opener for her. Or maybe there was something else going on in their marriage, which is none of our business. Any private marital arrangement is between Summers, his wife… and apparently Jeffrey Epstein.
Just to be clear about the timeline, the newly-released Summers correspondence came well after Epstein’s conviction in Florida on charges of procuring a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. That same year, Harvard stopped accepting donations from Epstein at the direction of President Drew Faust, who replaced Summers in that job in July, 2007.
Still, Summers remained loyal to Epstein, even when media outlets started to publish reports like this, from a 2011 Daily Beast article:
“In March 2005, Reiter’s department, acting on a complaint from the Florida parents of a 14-year-old girl, launched an investigation that would eventually uncover a pattern of predatory behavior stretching back years… Two or three times a day, whenever Epstein was in Palm Beach, a teenage girl would be brought to the mansion on El Brillo Way. (“The younger the better,” he instructed Haley Robson…)
The Palm Beach Police Department identified 17 local girls who had contact with Epstein before the age of consent; the youngest was 14, and many were younger than 16.…”
Perhaps Epstein’s vile behavior positioned him as a sympathetic ear for complaints about women. When the #MeToo movement was gaining momentum in October 2017, Summers emailed Epstein to express annoyance that men could be banned from a network or (horrors!) a think tank because they “hit on a few women 10 years ago.”
There’s a lot to unpack in these emails, and you know who’s not getting near the suitcase?
Summers.
On Wednesday, he issued a statement to The Harvard Crimson: “I have great regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgment.” (Summers has not responded to a Daily Beast request for comment.) His regrets may be “great,” but they’re also entirely vague.
We know that Summers understands the concept of “stain by association” because around the time he was emailing Epstein about girl problems, he used his blog to call out CEOs for their “abdication of moral responsibility” by remaining on presidential advisory boards.
Summers condemned CEOs “who have lent their reputations to President Trump,” while giving himself a pass for lending his reputation to Epstein, who had close ties to Donald Trump.
Harvard positions itself as a beacon of excellence where young minds enter to grow in wisdom and are guided by wise professors. Summers sits at the top of that pyramid, holding one of only 24 prestigious University professorships, the highest faculty distinction. Other University professors include renowned historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., human rights expert Martha Minow, and Cass Sunstein whose latest book is titled, Manipulation: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, What to Do About It. (This year’s Christmas party could get awkward.)
The institution is currently battling the federal government to protect academic freedom in a fight that requires it to project integrity and strength. Harvard President Alan Garber, who has shown courage in standing up to Trump, spoke about this existential struggle, telling alumni in January: “First, we are defending the university against misrepresentations of who we are and what we do.”
Is the venal Summers really who “we” are? Is seeking advice and approval from a pedophile really what “we” do? Graduates used to say “I went to college in Boston” as an act of humility. Now we’ll say it to avoid feeling ashamed. (Yes! I got this far without mentioning that I graduated from Harvard. Do I win some sort of prize?)
Summers could start cleaning up this mess tomorrow by doing something he hasn’t done yet. Instead of regret, he could try feeling remorse. He could apologize to the victims and publicly repudiate Epstein, who died in 2019 in a federal jail cell, in New York City, alone (or not.)
Next, Summers could resign from all his Harvard positions to avoid causing any more reputational damage to an already beleaguered university. All that’s required for this to happen is for one powerful man to take responsibility for his actions.
And, yes, I know how stupid that sounds.
Still, what does Harvard get out of keeping Summers on the payroll at a time when they’re slashing science Ph.D. programs by 75 percent? Probably more embarrassment, since Pam Bondi’s Justice Department just assigned a federal prosecutor to investigate ties between Epstein and Summers (among other Democrats).
Already, additional icky emails of Summers discussing his love life with Epstein are circulating: “Game day at conference she was extremely good,” he wrote to Epstein on December 1, 2018, adding:
“Smart
Assertive and clear.
Gorgeous. I’m f—ed.”
A mere seven months after this exchange, Epstein was arrested at Teterboro airport and charged with sex trafficking. Talk about being “f—ed.”
Summers’s gross inappropriateness should result in consequences from his employer. But if the past is any guide, right now Garber, and Harvard’s provost John Manning are debating the formation of a task force to study the Summers-Epstein emails and release a report in 2030.
Let me save them some time. Garber and Manning should pressure Summers, the Charles W. Eliot University Professor, to resign.
“Moral bankruptcy” is not an economic term, but Summers should be encouraged to file for it immediately.
The post Opinion: Harvard’s Slutty Professor Has to Go for Emailing Epstein for Sex Tips appeared first on The Daily Beast.
