Democrats play hardball on Epstein files
Democrats are showing they’re ready to get dirty and hit President Trump where it hurts by stoking the Jeffrey Epstein controversy that’s severed his MAGA movement.
The strategy strays from the official line coming from top Democrats such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who say they want their midterm campaign message to center on Medicaid cuts and other kitchen-table policies contained in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
But the focus on Epstein has also been remarkably successful, energizing the Democratic grassroots and aggravating tensions within the GOP.
And this week, it prompted Republican leaders to scrap their legislative plans and head early into the long summer recess — all to avoid 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.) said.
The case of Epstein, the late financier and convicted pedophile, has roiled the Trump administration in recent weeks after the Department of Justice (DOJ) released an unsigned memo saying Epstein did not have a “client list” and that there was no evidence that he sought to blackmail global “elites” who might have committed sex crimes or other offenses. The DOJ also said it would not release any more documents surrounding the case.
The memo directly contradicted claims from Trump, who had campaigned on........
© The Hill
