Joe Perticone of The Bulwark remarks on Congress and the Epstein Files incident in a paywalled post, to which I do not have full access:
Republicans are imploding over Jeffrey Epstein, and the evidence is hard to miss. The panic among GOP lawmakers is unlike anything I’ve seen in a decade of reporting on Congress. …
This time with Epstein is different. Republicans can’t keep their heads down and trust that the base will keep holding them up, because the Republican base is what’s causing the current panic. Far-right lawmakers are anxiously trying to navigate around the Scylla of Trump and congressional leadership pushing them to hold off on the Epstein issue, and the Charybdis of the hot-headed multitudes who lifted them into office after getting them to promise to reveal every dark secret of the Epstein case.
And now Speaker Johnson is shutting down Congress without a vote of any sort on the Epstein Files. And for more than a month.
Johnson and other House GOP leaders have resisted a push to hold a floor vote to force the release of materials on Epstein. Earlier this week, Johnson accused Democrats of playing “political games” by trying to force a vote. Johnson sent the House home for its summer break early amid the controversy roiling the lower chamber over the release of the Epstein files. The House had initially been scheduled to be in session through Thursday, but ended on Wednesday instead. [CBS News]
This, despite …
“We want full transparency. We want everybody who is involved in any way with the Epstein evils — let’s call it what it was — to be brought to justice as quickly as possible. We want the full weight of the law on their heads,” Johnson told CBS News’ chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview Wednesday.
“It’s not a hoax. Of course not,” said the House speaker, a Louisiana Republican, when asked if he considers it a hoax — a word that has been used by President Trump to describe some of his supporters’ interest in the Epstein case.
I think he’s hoping the whole thing goes away. After all, voters are supposedly notorious for short attention spans.
But he’s sent his caucus home into what may turn out to be a frying pan. Townhalls filled with angry, demanding non-partisan crowds. Is this what he really wants? Protests potentially in front of members houses. What if a few Republicans resign in fear of voters or whoever has been terrorizing Congress (see Senator Schiff’s comments here, although you’ll have to do your own searching)? Speaker Hakeem Jeffries of the Democrats, anyone?
Will this turn into a morality play of gratitude to President Trump for members of Congress’ jobs while facing the possibility that the source of said jobs is a man on a list of clients of alleged sex ring operator Epstein?
And a really angry electorate?
Stay tuned for politics as entertainment. And watch for the Detemined Distractinator.
