Democrats sensed a rare opportunity after Donald Trump flip-flopped on releasing the Epstein files, leaving his administration vulnerable to attacks from his own devoted MAGA base. Now Democrats are piling on — and it’s just the right strategy for this moment.
A number of House Democrats are making legislative moves to require Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all records related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Last week, Bondi released a nothing-to-see-here memo at odds with Trump’s and her own conspiracy-mongering about Epstein’s 2019 death and a purportedly scandalous client list.
The Epstein files are arguably the most high-profile wedge issue on the right.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Axios that he plans to add an amendment to a House cryptocurrency bill that would compel Bondi to “retain, preserve and compile any records or evidence related to any investigation, prosecution or incarceration” of Epstein. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, also announced that he’ll be submitting a resolution demanding the release of all Epstein-related case files. “Either [Trump] and his acolytes fueled the rumors of the significance of these Epstein files to help his campaign, or something is there!” he posted on X. He added: “Put up or Shut up.”
Plenty of other Democrats have echoed the demand, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.. “Democrats didn’t put the Jeffrey Epstein thing into the public domain. This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years, and now the chickens are coming home to roost,” he said.
The Democrats are even come up with new ways to troll Trump over his Epstein U-turn. As NBC News reports, the Democratic National Committee has “launched a new account on X that posts messages each day reminding its followers that Trump has ‘not released the Epstein files.’ The account has also reposted Trump-focused, Epstein-related criticism from key social media influencers.”
The Democrats are right to argue that Trump needs to be held accountable for pulling a 180 on the Epstein files. He’s spread conspiracies about Epstein since the day he died — just hours after Epstein’s death by suicide in 2019, Trump reposted a tweet implying the Clinton family was somehow involved, and subsequently defended the unfounded claim. On the 2024 campaign trail, he said he’d release more information on Epstein, and then-Sen. JD Vance said, “We need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.” After Trump returned to office, Bondi turned the release of the Epstein files into a massive spectacle, inviting right-wing influencers to pick up binders of information tied to Epstein’s case, promised all files would be “transparently disseminated to the American people” and boasted about a list of Epstein clients “sitting on my desk.”
Then, all of a sudden, DOJ said that all of the conspiracies surrounding Epstein’s death are false, that there is no evidence of an “incriminating ‘client list’” or that would lead to additional prosecution of third parties.
The Democrats are right to demand that Trump answer: Was his administration’s earlier position false? Or is its current position false?
The Epstein files are arguably the most high-profile wedge issue on the right. Far-right conspiracy-peddling pundits are furious about it, including Laura Loomer, Tucker Carlson, and Alex Jones. It’s also causing fissures within the administration: Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino is considering resigning over the way Bondi has handled the matter, NBC News reports.
Trump’s Epstein flip was a huge subject of conversation at the Student Action Summit hosted by the conservative activist group Turning Point USA this weekend. “It’s not even about Pam Bondi to me. It’s like, look, Trump, we elected you because you were supposed to be different,” said Sharon Allen, a 24-year-old attendee told NBC News. “So you have to prove to us you’re different. … You can fire her [Bondi], do whatever, but at the end of the day, Trump, you are president. We trusted you to get rid of these people and expose these people.”
Trump's base isn't taking it well because a grand reveal of a hidden conspiracy is central to their worldview. The premise that Trump would expose a shadowy network of corrupt elites is central to his rhetorical strategy as a right-wing populist — and it tracks broadly with QAnon conspiracy theories dating back to Trump’s first term which held that Trump’s secret mission in office was to expose a satanic child sex trafficking ring. That Trump has failed to fulfill this long fantasized-about idea — and is so transparently trying to change the subject by trying to fabricate a new Epstein conspiracy theory — is devastating to a lot of people on the right who are convinced that everything bad in America can be explained by way of a simple and evil conspiracy theory.
As my colleague Hayes Brown points out, Trump has painted himself into a corner. It is strategically savvy for Democrats to capitalize on the moment. You don’t get these kinds of opportunities often, and simply by demanding answers to questions Trump has raised, Democrats can force Trump to be left exposed to his right flank — and his own base can see how he has defrauded them, just as he does the rest of the country.