House Speaker Mike Johnson blocking a vote on the Epstein Files pretty clearly indicates that he and his fellow House Republicans (most of them, anyway) are quite worried about who might be on the Epstein Files. Specifically, it sure seems like they are protecting President Trump, who keeps getting questioned about the Epstein Files, and who also keeps bending over backwards to not release them - even though he promised to do so as a candidate - as well as attempting to divert attention away from the Epstein Files in any way that he can.
Doesn't it speak volumes that Republicans were all gung ho in favor of releasing the Epstein Files just months and even weeks ago - in some cases just days ago - and now have done a complete 180 and want this whole thing to simply go away, to disappear?
Now, they are going away from Washington, literally. They will be on recess until September. Clearly, they are hoping that will be enough time for this controversy to simply go away. These tactics might have been learned from Trump, and specifically his legal team, who are famous, or rather infamous, for their tactics of delay, delay, delay, until the whole thing just loses steam.
So yes, Mike Johnson simply followed the Trump strategy of delaying and delaying, in a clear attempt also to divert. Classic Trump-style.
What do you think that says? Does it not speak volumes about how they basically know that Trump is on the Epstein Files?
Frankly, how can it be interpreted any other way?
This political storm might not go away so easily.
But then again, it just might.
Sorry, I don't mean to be skeptical. It's just that King Con Don has gotten away with everything. Literally, he seems not only to survive, but to thrive over any and every controversy surrounding him. He might be nervous and even panicking right now that the Epstein Files story is not simply going away, as he now clearly wishes it would. But my best guess is that he will get away with it, like he seems to get away with everything. Indeed, if there ever was anyone who illustrated that some people are indeed above the law in the present-day United States, it is Donald Trump, both before and now especially during his presidency.
Here's the thing: when I ask myself if I truly see MAGA fragmenting and crumbling in their traditionally unwavering support of and loyalty to Donald Trump over this whole Epstein thing, the answer is quite simple.
No, I don't.
How can I possibly say that?
Let's be clear: too many people who dislike Trump fall into the too convenient trap of believing what they want to believe. Remember some of these very common sentiments over the years:
2016: There's no way that he's going to actually win the Republican nomination, and then, there's no way he's actually going to win the election.
2017: There's no way that this presidency is going to last. He will surely be impeached, or step down.
2020: Trump will lose the election (that one came true) and then he will be swamped with legal cases against the blatant corruption of his presidency, and will spend the rest of his days behind bars.
After 2020: It sure is unlikely that Trump will recover politically and win the 2024 election.
Now: Surely this whole Epstein File has to be the point when all of his blatant corruption finally catches up with him. There's no way he will get away with this.
Yeah, sorry. But I'm not buying this one, either.
Do I believe that he is on the Epstein Files?
Absolutely. He is pictured numerous times, at different stages of life, with Epstein. There is a video of him hosting a party and hanging out, joking around with Epstein. Epstein was on record describing Trump as hi best friend. Trump himself is on record in a major publication back in 2002 talking about how wonderful Epstein is, and how Epstein loves women almost as much as Trump himself, but tends to like them on the younger side.
It seems clear enough that Trump and Epstein were as close as you could expect two elitists people like that to be. And that sure suggests that the likelihood, frankly, that Trump is on the Epstein Files.
So where are the howls of outrage from the MAGA cult members? It has now been ten years since Trump entered the center stage of American politics, which has been dominated by scams and blatant corruption and power plays as we lurch towards dictatorship. Yet, only now are some members of MAGA beginning to wake up to the fact that Trump is not really keeping his word, particularly with keeping us out of foreign wars (he launched the air strikes against Iran) and releasing the Epstein Files, which he repeatedly made clear he would do during last year's presidential campaign.
How is it that these self-professed American patriots, who never tire of waving the flag and screaming of the freedom that this country has been blessed with are only now beginning to see the abuses of power of their transparently power-hungry Dear Leader? All of those abuses, and broken promises. And only now, ten years after he first came down that golden escalator to announce his candidate for the presidential race of 2016, are some of his supporters truly beginning to question the direction that the country is going in under Trump?
I am sure that there are some good people who mean well, but still support Trump, believing things that simply are not true. But let's call a spade a spade here: most of his supporters, frankly, are not good people. Trump seems to have this dark charisma that brings out the very worst in people. Probably wanting to believe those things, because admitting to themselves that they might be wrong about the man, that they may have been tricked - and not in some minor way, but in some massive way that is to the detriment of the country, and indeed the world - is simply too painful. So much easier to simply keep supporting the man. Even if they know that he lies and lies and lies. Even if they know he has not delivered on some of his key promises (Mexico paying for the wall, building an affordable healthcare system that would cover everyone, lowering the price of gas and groceries, ending the war in Ukraine quickly, releasing the Epstein Files). Even if they know that he is not a model American, or even a good man, regardless of how often they publicly praise him. Even if they know that he is a divider, not a uniter. Even if they know that he is petty and vindictive and spoiled, with a false sense of entitlement. Even if they know that he uses racism to his own advantage. Even if they know, deep down, that he is not at all a Christian in any meaningful sense.
And yes, even if they know, deep down, that he is a pedophile.
How can I possibly say that?
Well you know, I think that the late great Carl Sagan actually summed it up quite well:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Man, was Sagan ever right!
Sagan's explanation of what history should teach us is why I don't believe that all of this will simply go away. My own suspicion is that even most Trump supporters know who the man they support really is, and that he is not what he pretends to be. They know damn well that he is bad for the country. But at this point, it is too humiliating for them to admit that they were conned by the master scam artist. Or perhaps, that they tricked themselves more than anything else, and at great cost to the country and, frankly, to the world. So much easier simply to keep drinking the orange Kool Aid and to shout your support of the man more loudly and desperately than ever, if only to drown out those voices of doubts within their own heads.
So yeah, my guess is that this whole Trump nightmare does not end here, finally, with this. That this is not the line where he goes too far. In short, that they will conveniently - and probably quietly - sweep this under the rug, so they can go back to shouting their enthusiastic support for the man they want to believe Trump is, even though I suspect that most of them know better (even if they will never admit to it).
That is why I suspect that this will be just another instance of Trump's sheer awfulness as a human being, and especially as a leader, will once again be swept under the rug.
In fact, I think it has gotten predictable.
Please don't misunderstand me, because I certainly hope that I am wrong. Trust me, I hope that this catches up with Trump. I am almost positive that he has behaved very poorly and inappropriately around underaged girls. Frankly, for that (and so much more), he deserves to pay.
However, if this long national nightmare of these Trump years should have made is learn anything, it is that wishful thinking can be dangerous. It is wishful thinking that allowed so many of his supporters to fall in line and believe what is obviously not true about the man and what he represents. It was also wishful thinking that allowed so many to dismiss Trump and not take him seriously until it was too late, and even then to continue to underestimate him. Many people still feel that Trump is merely some kind of a horrendous aberration, that he does not represent what this country is or stands for at this present moment. But he has been elected to the highest office twice now, and that he also strongly helped to usher his party in for a majority of both chambers of Congress both times that he was elected president. Forget the polls that show that his consistently revealed that his popularity is not that strong, or that it is now in serious decline or even crumbling. What does that matter now, anyway? He's in the White House, and he is ruling like an aspiring dictator. At some point, we must wake up to reality and acknowledge that these things do indeed reveal a truth about where the United States is, politically speaking.
I would love to believe that the outrage over Trump's mishandling of the Epstein Files will indeed be the end of all of this.
But history seems to show us different, does it not? Maybe it's time to stop believing in fairy tales that we want to believe in, and start paying attention to the actual lessons which history is begging us to learn from.
The Epstein fallout continues — and the House GOP is clearly starting to get worried Opinion by Paul Waldman • July 23, 2025 •
The Epstein fallout continues — and the House GOP is clearly starting to get worried
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-epstein-fallout-continues-and-the-house-gop-is-clearly-starting-to-get-worried/ar-AA1J7Y2O?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=688201985caf4a88b563b47e34b10e8b&ei=13
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