So today the House is adjourning a day early to avoid voting on Epstein amendments/bills:
Congressional Democrats have sought to capitalize on the rare split between the president and his supporters, with an eye towards retaking the majority in the House next year. The venue for those efforts has been the rules committee, the normally low-key body that all legislation must pass through before it is considered by the full House.
Democrats on the committee last week repeatedly offered amendments to unrelated legislation that were designed to compel the release of the Epstein files, forcing Republicans to vote them down – a politically difficult vote for many in the party, as it could potentially be used to accused them of wanting to keep the files secret.
Frustration among the GOP peaked on Monday, when Democrats planned to use a rules committee hearing to offer more Epstein amendments, and the GOP reacted by refusing to vote on any more rules, essentially paralyzing the House floor. Johnson has attempted to stem the controversy by agreeing to allow a vote on a non-binding resolution on the file’s release, but that won’t happen before the August recess.
Credit where it’s due: the House Democrats got this one right.
Trump also has been in full distraction mode, releasing MLK’s assassination investigation files, which will probably be overshadowed by the transparently obvious attempt to offer Ghislane Maxwell for getting her story straight with Trump. That effort is led by Trump’s former personal attorney, now Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche. Trump is also accusing Obama of treason. Presumably he’ll be arrested soon and be deported to Kenya. Not really kidding about that one.
Unlike the DC press, which wanted to declare this story dead and gone over the weekend, Trump knows that his base is pissed about this. They were promised Epstein files, and they will throw a tantrum if they don’t get them. There must be something really bad in there, and now we’re at the point that if something is released that doesn’t implicate Trump, people will just assume that Trump’s flunkies took it out of the file. Unlike the Times, these guys can talk to the animals who support them, and when they speak kanga to those fucking kangaroos, they know that they’re in real danger.
Again, this doesn’t mean that hard core MAGA types will switch their votes. That’s not the goal. Our goal is to make sure they’re demoralized and cynical, so they’re less likely to vote, since they don’t believe their vote matters. And, clearly, their vote didn’t matter. Trump promised Epstein files and he didn’t deliver. The politics here are pretty damn simple.
