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When Democrat Adelita Grijalva cruised to a landslide victory in September, winning her congressional special election by roughly 40 points, it was widely assumed that she would soon be sworn in as Arizona’s first Latina congresswoman. That didn’t happen.
In fact, for the last seven weeks, the congresswoman-elect pleaded with House Speaker Mike Johnson and the chamber’s Republican leadership to let her get to work. But they refused, pointing to dubious claims regarding the government shutdown.
As the shutdown nears its end, and with GOP leaders out of excuses, the wait is finally over: On Wednesday afternoon, Grijalva took the oath of office, becoming Congress’ newest member. The House now has a 219-member Republican majority, working alongside a 214-member Democratic minority.
For Grijalva — who succeeds her father, the late Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva — it’s a breakthrough moment and a career milestone. But for the rest of the political world, there’s a related element to the congresswoman’s swearing-in that’s of great interest.
There’s a pending discharge petition to force disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein files, currently being held back by Donald Trump’s Justice Department. As Wednesday got underway, proponents of the effort were one member short of the 218 signatures needed to trigger a vote.
Now, Grijalva has joined the signatories and achieved the long-sought threshold.
A complex legislative process is now poised to unfold, starting with a waiting period of seven legislative days. Soon after, the House will, at long last, hold a floor vote on the bipartisan resolution on the Epstein files, which will be expected to pass.
Only four House GOP members — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — joined with Democrats in support of the discharge petition. With this in mind, The New York Times reported earlier Wednesday:
President Trump and his administration on Wednesday ramped up a pressure campaign on congressional Republicans who are pushing for a full release of the Justice Department’s files about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, rushing to head off a House vote on the matter. Top officials met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday with Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who is backing an effort to force a House vote on whether to demand the release of the files.
While MSNBC hasn’t independently verified this reporting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed the account, acknowledging the meeting. (Why this was held in the White House Situation Room is unclear.)
Around the same time, the president published an item to his social media platform, calling the scandal a “hoax,” arguing that “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican” would take the controversy seriously, and concluding: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else.”
Or put another way, the White House sure does seem nervous about the discharge petition. Watch this space.