GOP senators want nothing to do with Trump-Epstein-MAGA controversy the hill
Senate Republicans are scrambling to steer clear of the controversy exploding within their MAGA-aligned party’s base over allegations the Trump administration is hiding information related to convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein and his “clients.”
President Trump is facing what may be the biggest backlash he’s ever encountered from usually loyal activists, such as former national security adviser
Michael Flynn and prominent conservative activist Laura Loomer.
Attorney General
Pam Bondi and FBI Director
Kash Patel are coming under tremendous pressure from MAGA activists to provide more information about the people who may have been involved in Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking activities, even though the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI concluded in a memo that there is no “incriminating ‘client list.’”
Republican lawmakers don’t want to go near the Epstein controversy that divides their base.
They already have their hands full responding to political attacks from Democrats on Trump’s tariff policies and on the Medicaid spending cuts they passed into law this month, along with trillions of dollars in tax relief and new spending on border security and defense.
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“For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again,” Trump posted on Truth Social, implying Democrats have pushed the clamor of Epstein’s files.
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GOP lawmakers are ready to accept the administration’s explanation of its handling of the issue, despite the uproar from the party’s base.
Sen.
John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s leaving the handling of all Epstein-related matters to Trump.
Cornyn and other Republicans don’t seem at all inclined to endorse activists’ calls for Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the alleged Epstein files.
“I trust the president to handle it the way he deems appropriate,” Cornyn said Monday. (LOL!!!!!!)
Trump has expressed his irritation with the relentless focus of some conservative social media influencers and activists on the possibility of a cover-up to protect wealthy and powerful figures who consorted with Epstein and the underage girls he allegedly trafficked.
The president expressed his disgust with the topic when a reporter asked him about Epstein at a July 8 Cabinet meeting.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump asked, appearing annoyed by the question.
“This guy’s been talked about for years,” he said. “We have [the flooding in] Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”
But Republican strategists are starting to acknowledge that dismissing the controversy and moving on to new topics isn’t working for Trump, at least at the moment.
“I think this administration is definitely going to have some second thoughts about their strategy. Ultimately, they will have to put out more information. I just don’t see how the current strategy is sustainable to say, ‘Everything’s out there and there are other issues that are more important.’ That’s not a winning message, and it’s not a message that’s going to go over well,” said Brian Darling, a Republican strategist and former Senate aide.
“I think the strategy has to change by the administration,” he added.
Loomer, a prominent activist who seems to have Trump’s ear on key executive-branch appointments, warned in a Saturday post on the social platform X that the “lack of results at the DOJ and lack of transparency” could “cost the GOP House and Senate seats.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she warned.
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