Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sat before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday to answer for his continued ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. During the televised hearing, Lutnick was confronted with evidence of contact with the disgraced financier that stretched years past Epstein’s 2005 conviction. The Secretary adjusted his silk tie and shuffled a stack of papers as lawmakers questioned why such associations were not disclosed during his security vetting. According to the committee transcript, the inquiry has deepened public distrust in a federal leadership that appears to operate under a different set of moral rules than the citizens they serve.

This hearing occurs as the Department of Homeland Security remains in a state of terminal collapse, defaulting on the payroll of 240,000 civilian employees. While the men in the high offices of Washington navigate the fallout of their social calendars, the people who guard our borders and process our laws are going without their checks. The physical scene in the hearing room—the gleaming mahogany tables and the quiet hum of the air conditioning—stood in stark contrast to the anxiety of thousands of federal families facing a Friday without pay.

Read together, these events describe a capital city that has detached itself from the reality of the American home. One man defends his association with a predator in a climate-controlled room, while 240,000 others wonder how they will pay the mortgage on Monday morning. The link between these stories is not found in any budget bill, but in the evidence of an elite class that has abandoned the duty of stewardship in favor of the pursuit of private prestige. Our leaders have forgotten that power is not a prize to be hoarded, but a trust to be exercised with a clean hand and a clear conscience.