Democrats are displaying they’re able to get soiled and hit President Trump the place it hurts by stoking the Jeffrey Epstein controversy that’s severed his MAGA motion.
The technique strays from the official line coming from high Democrats similar to Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who say they need their midterm marketing campaign message to heart on Medicaid cuts and different kitchen-table insurance policies contained in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
However the concentrate on Epstein has additionally been remarkably profitable, energizing the Democratic grassroots and aggravating tensions throughout the GOP.
And this week, it prompted Republican leaders to scrap their legislative plans and head early into the lengthy summer time recess — all to keep away from votes on the Epstein saga.
Even traditionalist Democratic veterans are applauding the tactic for its effectiveness.
“As long as we don’t live in the mud, crawling down in the mud every now and then is not bad, in the political arena,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) stated.
The case of Epstein, the late financier and convicted pedophile, has roiled the Trump administration in current weeks after the Division of Justice (DOJ) launched an unsigned memo saying Epstein didn’t have a “client list” and that there was no proof that he sought to blackmail world “elites” who might need dedicated intercourse crimes or different offenses. The DOJ additionally stated it might not launch any extra paperwork surrounding the case.
The memo straight contradicted claims from Trump, who had campaigned on the notion of releasing not less than among the information, and lots of distinguished figures in his orbit, who’ve lengthy claimed that Epstein operated an intensive pedophile ring that concerned among the world’s strongest folks — a prison enterprise that was lined up by the federal government to guard those self same elites.
A number of the loudest promoters of Epstein-related conspiracy theories have since been appointed to high positions within the Trump administration — together with U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, Patel’s deputy director — feeding expectations from Trump’s supporters that the information would quickly be launched. In February, Bondi had fueled these expectations additional when she stated she had the “client list” on her desk and was making ready to launch it.
The DOJ memo dashed the hopes of most of the MAGA trustworthy, fracturing the motion that’s stood on the coronary heart of Trump’s political ascension. And Democrats have discovered uncommon success in dumping salt on the wound.
At each flip, Democrats are publicly bashing the administration for reneging on guarantees to launch the Epstein information, aggravating the bizarre cut up inside Trump’s far-right MAGA base.
They’re demanding votes on payments to power the Justice Division to launch these information, paralyzing Home ground exercise on the Republicans’ most popular legislative agenda.
And so they’re backing an obscure procedural maneuver designed to power a ground vote on the Epstein information within the fall, making certain that the nationwide debate on the sordid episode — and the complications it’s created for Trump and the GOP — will endure for not less than a number of extra months.
“This is a cover-up of epic proportions, where you’ve got the majority party literally having us leave Congress early, and not having the Rules Committee meet, because they don’t want to deal with releasing the Epstein files,” Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), vice chair of the Home Democratic Caucus, instructed reporters Tuesday within the Capitol.
“The story’s not going to go away because, at core, this is an issue about underage women who are sexually abused and assaulted,” he continued. “Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi shouldn’t be defending Epstein’s legacy, nor his shoppers, nor ought to congressional Republicans be doing the identical.”
The Epstein saga has created an enormous headache for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and different GOP leaders within the Capitol, who’ve struggled to comprise the unrest inside a GOP convention that’s divided over whether or not the Epstein paperwork ought to be launched.
On Monday, the Democrats’ vows to proceed pushing Epstein resolutions introduced motion on the Guidelines Committee to a screeching halt, which in flip prevented Republicans from bringing their week’s deliberate agenda to the ground.
With out payments to vote on, Johnson on Tuesday introduced that the Home will go away Washington on Wednesday, quite than Thursday, for the lengthy summer time recess. He insisted the transfer was not meant to defend Republicans from powerful Epstein votes — or defend Trump from doubtlessly embarrassing disclosures — however to finish the Democrats’ “political games.”
“We want any individual who’s been involved in any way in the Epstein evils to be brought to justice as quickly as possible,” Johnson instructed reporters. “What we refuse to do is take part in one other one of many Democrats’ political video games.
“We are not going to let them use this as a political battering ram.”
Complicating Johnson’s efforts, some Republicans have joined Democrats in demanding the discharge of the Epstein paperwork. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is a high sponsor of laws that might power the DOJ to launch the data, and he’s additionally main the trouble to power a vote on that invoice via a discharge petition.
Due to the obscure guidelines governing that procedural gambit, a vote on the underlying Epstein proposal received’t occur till after Congress returns from the lengthy summer time recess in September— a timeline all however making certain that the difficulty received’t go away anytime quickly.
Jeffries this week downplayed the concentrate on Epstein, saying Democrats hope to focus on the foremost items of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” significantly the cuts to Medicaid and meals stamps that have been included to assist pay for tax cuts.
Different social gathering leaders, nevertheless, stated Democrats haven’t any intention of taking their foot off the fuel relating to making an attempt to launch the Epstein information — and highlighting his ties to Trump.
“We’re going to continue to support those efforts,” stated Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the Home Democratic Caucus. “Donald Trump and his son and his closest mates spent years fanning the flame of this concept, and now we’re holding them accountable.”
“Do they want to protect the rich and the powerful? Or do they want the truth?”
