House Speaker Mike Johnson demanded Tuesday that the government “put everything out there” when it comes to information about Jeffrey Epstein, a declaration that appeared to put him at odds with his pal Donald Trump, whose Justice Department has said that no further details about the disgraced financier’s crimes will be forthcoming. Emphasis on the word appeared, though, because given the opportunity to “put everything out there,” the House Speaker declined to do so.
Yes, just hours after telling right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that he is “for transparency” when it comes to Epstein, the GOP leader blocked a procedural maneuver by Democrats that would have set up a vote in the House to release the Epstein “files.”
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Johnson is not the only one who has publicly demanded that more information about Epstein be shared with the public, and then stonewalled an attempt to do so. Also on Tuesday, GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene insisted that “America deserves the truth about Jeffrey Epstein,” and then voted against Democrats’ move to release the documents.
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Republicans are, of course, in an extremely tough position that is entirely of their own making. After spending years insisting that there was a vast cover-up designed to protect the “elites” implicated in Epstein‘s crimes, Trump has now told them to move on. And, of course, Trump has only himself to blame when it comes to his supporters refusing to move on, given that it was less than a year ago that that he conspiratorially declared that it was “very interesting” that Epstein’s alleged client list had not been made public and told podcast host Lex Friedman, “It’s very interesting, isn’t it? It probably will be [made public], by the way, probably.“ He added, “I’d have no problem with [that].” As a reminder, it also wasn’t so long ago that Trump was publicly suggesting that Epstein may have been murdered.
Fast-forward to Tuesday, though, and the president was telling reporters, “I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. And I don’t understand why it keeps going. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.” On Wednesday, he lashed out at both Democrats and what he dubbed his “past supporters,“ raging on Truth Social: “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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