In the Epstein saga, it’s Trump against America
On the long list of Republicans’ recent disgraces, Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) decision to shut down the House until September rather than allow a vote to release Jeffrey Epstein’s files may be at the very top. Apparently the people who urged Americans to “do your own research” on vaccines really don’t want you thumbing through information on Epstein.
Johnson’s spineless play is one more MAGA middle finger to a public that just wants Congress to keep its word. What makes this retreat truly shameful is the fact that Republicans aren’t doing any of this for some lofty moral purpose. Their stop-work order doesn’t represent the desires of MAGA voters, a majority of whom want the Epstein files released. It doesn’t prevent a bad law from passing or draw attention to an injustice being committed on the House floor.
Rather, Johnson and his Republican colleagues have decided that whatever is in the Epstein files is worse for them than the hell they’re currently catching from voters. That says a lot, because President Trump’s handling of the Epstein scandal is absolutely toxic with almost every group in America.
Only 40 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the files, while some of the president’s top MAGA influencers now openly wonder why he’s working so hard to protect information about one of the country’s most notorious pedophiles.
At just 38 percent approval, Trump is approaching a level of unpopularity he hasn’t felt since early 2017, as voters struggle to make sense of his abrupt about-face. Republican lawmakers aren’t having much luck figuring out Trump’s motives, either. They’ve given up even trying to defend his bizarre claim that Epstein’s crimes were a hoax financed by Democrats. Instead, they’ve turned off the lights on Capitol Hill and sprinted away.
Voters are right to be suspicious.
“We should get real answers on what happened to Jeffrey Epstein. All of that should be open to the public, it should be absolutely transparent,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News in 2023. But Kennedy, who made several trips on Epstein’s private jet, now refuses to answer questions.
In 2021, future Vice President JD Vance implied that anyone fighting to keep Epstein’s files secret could be a potential client. “What possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret?” he added. It’s a great question that still demands an answer.
Last week, the White House introduced its latest effort to delegitimize whatever horrors are hidden in the pages it still refuses to reveal. In an Oval Office press conference, Trump authorized Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “whatever is credible” from files he claimed a day before didn’t exist at all. By floating the idea that some of Epstein’s files could be fake, Trump is setting the stage to invalidate any references to him in the documents — if those specific pages are even allowed to see the light of day.
What must be going through Johnson’s head as he directs House Republicans to sink bill after bill ordering the release of Epstein’s files? Johnson has long made his Christian faith a centerpiece of his public identity, to the point of questioning whether religion should even be separate from government. Yet his desire to lead Congress with Christian morality was no match for Trump, who seemingly co-opted Johnson into his cover-up scheme without a whisper of resistance from the Speaker.
Johnson’s decision to walk off the job and away from the business of the American people is jarring even by the low standards of the Trump era. After whining for an entire campaign season that Democrats weren’t working hard enough, Johnson’s Republicans have passed fewer laws and worked less than any Congress in decades. Cornered by Epstein drama of their own making, Johnson’s Republicans are no longer even pretending to do their jobs.
Congressional Republicans no longer serve the American people at large, or even their own conservative constituents. They serve — or in the case of Johnson’s early recess, don’t serve — in whatever way best protects Trump’s personal and political interests. If that means hiding Epstein’s heinous crimes from public accountability and denying closure to his many victims, so be it.
Johnson’s decision to shutter the House in order to protect Trump reveals a Congress in an advanced state of decay and a Republican Party willing to rationalize any evil in the name of protecting its strongman. What other horrors will Mike Johnson bury in order to keep his morally bankrupt party afloat?
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.