We can't swear in the new senator from Arizona who coincidentally has the tie breaking vote to force the release of the Epstein files.
> On September 23, 2025, Grijalva was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election to succeed her father, defeating Republican nominee Daniel Butierez.
Then what? Do you really think that would be enough to change anything?
Could you just say it?
Now, even if those files end up being a nothingburger (because republicans will just shrug off whatever makes them look bad), it'll be on republicans if they let the release happen.
My main point is: republicans aren't opposing the release because "they're on the list", they're opposing it because it'll look like a loss if the release happens.
All you did was hide my previous point in here and then pretend it's not there. These mental gymnastics must be exhausting.
I thought there was difference because I thought your stance was that republicans are afraid that the files themselves contain things that make them look bad (eg Trump or some other big-name republican was mentioned in them), and I don't think that's the case. Edit: well, I don't think they're afraid of it, not that there's nothing that makes them look bad.
> These mental gymnastics must be exhausting.
Not sure what makes you feel that's a necessary thing to say, TBH.
With the scope of approach the House, Senate, and Executive cabinet are taking to avoid any release or mention of the Epstein files, I truly believe anyone who says such a thing are either not presently politically-literate, or are less than honest with themselves and others.
I simply see no other avenue, and I've heard no coherent logic that steelmans the Republican position on this matter for ANY motivation besides fear of, at the very least, members of their cohort being implicated for child sex crimes. Nonetheless, I'll be happy to hear a shot taken again at it.
For the past ~25 years I've paid attention, and in particular since 2008, virtually no scandal has cost the GOP any tangible support.
I see no reason to expect that anything in these files would have different results, so I see no reason for republicans to think differently and fear the release based on the contents of said files.
Whatever comes out would get brushed off with the mix of "deep state", "lying victims", "locker room talk", "circumstantial means nothing", etc, we've already seen, and it would be effective.
The numbers as is are really bad for so much of the GOP. Maybe no one holds them accountable now, but these sentiments aren't easily forgotten when it's out in the blue. Ford pardoned Nixon nearly Day One of taking over and that pretty much forever sealed his chances at re-election.
Proof that it contains egregious crimes by Trump, really could widen that. Doubly so given that these are crimes which Trump can still be prosecuted. Particularly since there is no statute of limitations on many sex trafficking crimes.
Could it widen it enough to allow Republican politicians to reject Trump? That's a good question. But I do find it hopeful that Ted Cruz, who has been so good at folding to Trump that he now resembles a piece of origami, was actually able to stand up and mock Trump's administration for his attempt to crush free speech by shutting down Jimmy Kimble. If Trump loses a chunk of his base, maybe some R politicians will remember what it's like to have a spine.
There are no Republican politicians left
That their policies don't look like Republican policies of 30 years ago shouldn't surprise. Republican policies of 30 years ago didn't look much like Republican policies of 60 years ago.
The current ones don't fail to be Republican. It is just that Republican now means something different than it used to.
The same exact comments could be made about Democrats. For example look at Joe Biden's legislative record. He was President as a champion of DEI and LBGTQ+ rights. But back in the Clinton era, he sponsored a crime bill that put a ton of blacks in prison, and sponsored DOMA, a bill that blocked federal recognition of gay marriages.
There’s only MAGA now
Their policies don’t even look like their policies 8 years ago - there are no policies or principles
There's a lot of diversity of views among those who might have voted for Trump. For instance his nonstop backing of Israel and decision to continue the war in Ukraine have been divisive, as was his decision to bomb Iran. In general Republican views are not like the equal but opposite of Democrat views. There tends to be much more diversity on most topics.
For instance you probably think the average Republican is pro-gun and anti-abortion. In reality only 24% of Republicans completely oppose abortion [1] and only 27% think gun laws should be less strict. [2] The party has become extremely heterogeneous. I suspect this is largely because of people like me. I do not consider myself conservative, but am highly supportive of equality of opportunity, freedom of speech, opposed to political correctness and war, and so on. In other words a pretty much typical liberal of 20 years ago, but one who no longer really fits in the modern Democrat demographic.
I think it's fairly obvious that nobody is ever going to be prosecuted over the Epstein stuff. He seemed to have had dirt on basically everybody. So I suspect everybody will finger point and imply things to score political points, but in the end it's the pot calling the kettle black, and so I doubt anybody would have the gall to escalate it to the point of prosecutions.
[1] - https://news.gallup.com/poll/246278/abortion-trends-party.as...
[2] - https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts...
> In other words a pretty much typical liberal of 20 years ago, but one who no longer really fits in the modern Democrat demographic.
Sure. But its hardly conceivable that such a person would fir in the MAGA party either.
Of course even someone like Mussolini was a socialist activist for years so people's views do change...
Trump for instance won the majority of Hispanic males (and nearly females as well) and even started to kind-of-sort-of make black males a competitive demographic. That's still an exaggeration since it was only like 22%, but that's still far greater than usual.
But now imagine if people made their politics public - the majority of Hispanic males would be running around with their MAGA cap and more than 1 in 5 black males doing the same. It'd become clear that the stereotypes are mostly just nonsense.
That brief span of perhaps a few months was probably the last window of time we had to save the US—maybe, still would have been a long shot. But nothing was even attempted.
If anything could change something, it would be these files. The Epstein case/list along with deep state child trafficking conspiracies in general is a foundational pillar of MAGA. Trump doing a 180 and saying the list doesn't matter was like the Pope saying Jesus was no big deal. He had to know this from a strategy standpoint which makes it even weirder they are trying to hide them.
He still has 140k subs on YouTube. He peaked at $4000/month on patron but still makes $200 today /after 9 years of barely snyghubv)
You're never hitting zero after a certain point unless you shit down yourself. Joe Rogan is still popular but Alex Jones is definitely hit