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Dems Trolling Trump, GOP Over Epstein 07/16 06:17
PHOENIX (AP) -- Democrats are latching on to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,
demanding records be released and trolling Republicans on social media, news
shows and in the U.S. House as they revel in a rare fissure between President
Donald Trump and his fiercely loyal base.
Conspiracy theories over Epstein's death in prison and potential evidence in
his sex trafficking case, including an alleged "client list," have largely been
a fixation for the right, one egged on by Trump himself.
But Democrats sensed an opening after the Justice Department said last week
no additional evidence will be released, and some of Trump's most influential
allies refused to heed his pleas to move on. They're highlighting the dramatic
about-face by some Republicans, which has divided the MAGA movement and could
weaken a critical following for Trump. The more in-your-face approach also may
help Democrats appease elements of the party's own base, who are hungry for a
more aggressive confrontation with the other side.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and likely 2028 presidential
candidate, was among those who joined in Tuesday. Khanna tried to put Vice
President JD Vance -- who has previously called for the Epstein files to be
released -- in the hot seat. Khanna shared an X post from 2020 GOP presidential
candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called for the Trump
administration to "release the Epstein files and let the chips fall where they
may."
"A 2028 power move, @JDVance," Khanna wrote to Vance on X. "Where do you
stand on the Epstein files these days?"
Vance and Haley are both possible 2028 Republican presidential candidates.
A split in MAGA
MAGA followers were incensed after the Justice Department and FBI abruptly
walked back the notion there's an Epstein client list of elites who
participated in the wealthy New York financier's trafficking of underage girls.
Some called the Republican president "out of touch," and many have continued to
demand transparency.
Trump has tried to downplay the Epstein case's importance and close the book
on the controversy.
"I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to
anybody," Trump told reporters Tuesday.
He also said there were credibility issues with the documents, suggesting
without citing evidence they were "made up" by former FBI Director James Comey
and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both Democrats.
The controversy puts many elected Republicans in an uncomfortable position,
caught between a president who demands loyalty and a sizable segment of their
base convinced the files will expose a vast conspiracy covered up by elites.
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday became the highest-ranking Republican
to break with Trump on Epstein, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson
that "we should put everything out there and let the people decide."
A topic of House debate
Some of Trump's rivals have noted the president's own connections to Epstein.
"Wonder why we're not getting that list," the anti-Trump Lincoln Project
posted on X with a photo of Trump and Epstein together. Trump has acknowledged
knowing Epstein socially in the 1990s but said they had a "falling out" many
years ago.
The debate over the Epstein files even spilled over at a meeting of the
House Rules Committee late Monday evening. The top Democrat on the panel, Rep.
Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, offered a pair of amendments from colleagues
seeking the release of the documents.
On the first tally one Republican, conservative Rep. Ralph Norman of South
Carolina, voted with the panel's Democrats for the proposal. It was rejected on
an otherwise party-line vote. The second amendment was rejected in a party-line
vote.
"You guys are tying yourself into knots trying to find a way to avoid
dealing with this issue," McGovern told Republicans.
Super PAC highlights about-face by GOP
Meanwhile, a super PAC working to elect Democrats to the House is naming and
shaming Republicans who once demanded to see records from Epstein's sex
trafficking investigation but voted against the Democratic effort to release
them.
GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Anna
Paulina Luna and Cory Mills of Florida are "complicit" with a Trump
administration that's trying to bury documents about the wealthy financier who
abused underage girls, the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC said in an
emailed memo.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said if the Trump administration
doesn't act, then Congress should step in to help resolve what he called a
conspiracy that has been aired by the president and his supporters.
"The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,"
Jeffries said during a press conference at the start of the week at the Capitol.
"This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, (Attorney General) Pam Bondi and
these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several
years," he said. "And now the chickens are coming home to roost."
Said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday at the Capitol, "They
should release the files now."
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