Epstein: A boon for Democrats?

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson

"Democrats will have plenty of opportunity to continue to stir the pot."

(Image credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images)

As a "MAGA-fueled conspiracy theory" upends Washington, Democrats "have finally found their mojo," said Rachael Bade in Politico. For months, panicked Democrats have lamented party leaders' "sluggish reflexes" and failure to drive home a coherent, winning message. But they've finally found President Trump's "kryptonite" in the Epstein affair—and are exploiting it skillfully. The Democrats' push to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files split Republicans, and forced a panicked Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down the House for an early summer recess. The clamoring for a vote embarrassed not just Johnson but Trump, as it exposed "the surprising limits of his sway" on a party he has long gripped in a stranglehold. When the House returns in September, the clamoring for a vote on releasing all of the Epstein material—including mentions of Trump—will resume. The MAGA base is angry, a frustrated Trump is on the defensive, and "Democrats will have plenty of opportunity to continue to stir the pot."

Democrats need a "reality check," said Noah Rothman in National Review. In Epstein, they think they've found the magic wand that will "finally vanquish their MAGA tormentors." But a recent Fox News poll shows the issue has barely dented Trump's approval ratings among Republicans, even though 60% of them don't believe the administration has been "open and transparent" in this case. The allegiance of the party's base to Trump is not "conditional," and in the end, Republicans will not abandon him over a contrived scandal demagogued "by Democrats in Democratic-leaning media venues to Democratic audiences."

You're in deep denial, said Joe Perticone in The Bulwark. The Epstein affair has wrought "panic among GOP lawmakers unlike anything I've seen in a decade of reporting on Congress." That's because MAGA is extremely unhappy over the administration's bungled cover-up of a pedophile scandal that's been a longtime MAGA obsession, and unlike with past Trump scandals, Republicans "can't keep their heads down and trust that the base will keep holding them up." Democrats should make the most of this opportunity, said Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch. If they want to win elections, they need to get down in the mud, like Trump and the Republicans do. It's hardly "a distraction" from more serious concerns to ask "whether the president was an accomplice to the most notorious child molester in American history—and is now trying to cover it up."