The MAGAfied Washington Post has praised the lone House Republican who voted to keep the Epstein files under wraps.
In an editorial, the paper backed Rep. Clay Higgins’—and by extension, a pre-capitulation President Donald Trump’s—stance on the files—that they are old news, not in the public interest, and stand to do more harm than good.
“Conspiracy theories are unlikely to be put to rest with looming disclosures,” writes the editorial board, which also described the bipartisan push to declassify documents as a “sordid exercise.”
It is unclear if the paper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, had a hand in the editorial, which is headlined, “The Epstein files will come out. No one is looking good.”
The world’s third-richest man once took a laissez-faire approach to the Post, but has recently made dramatic changes its editorial pages, beginning with him personally killing an endorsement for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris last year. He then said the pages would back “free markets and personal liberties,” which many suggested as a code for going MAGA.
Critics questioned how the Post could say with such authority what will come of the files, without having seen them themselves.
There is no shortage of Americans clamoring—across party lines—to know more about Epstein and his associates. Among those who want documents declassified are the many victims who were abused by Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was given a sweetheart prison deal by the Trump administration this summer.
Trump, 79, signed a bill Wednesday night to publish the Epstein files, ending his months-long fight to keep such legislation from reaching his desk. The measure passed the Senate with unanimous consent and passed the House 427 to 1, with Higgins being the lone “no” vote.
Higgins, of Louisiana, has been widely attacked for his stance. He claims that the bill “abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America” and could “result in innocent people being hurt.” The Post wrote that he “has a point.”
The editorial went on to say, “After all, the purpose of criminal investigations is to determine whether people are guilty of crimes. The Justice Department exists to prosecute those crimes. It does not exist to satisfy public curiosity…
“Yet here the Justice Department, by popular demand, is being directed to open its investigative books and publish a trove of information related to any ‘entities’ with ‘known or alleged ties’ to Epstein. That could include private information obtained in search warrants that is not incriminating.”
That read like a more polished version of Trump’s past remarks on the matter. Many have interpreted his fears of harming “innocent people”—something he does not care about during his violent ICE raids—as him fearing that his association with Epstein, with whom he has been photographed on several occasions, will doom his presidency.
The Post’s take on the Epstein files was harshly criticized by its own readers—at least those who remain after last fall’s subscriber exodus—in the comment section.
The editorial’s most-liked comment read, “The EB has finally talked about the Epstein files, but only to pick the side that they shouldn’t be released. You can bet your bottom dollar Bezos knows which buddies of his are in them.”
The second-most-liked added, “Don’t trust WaPo Editorial Board (was Bezos ever connected to Epstein?)” Bezos has never been directly connected to Epstein and the thousands of pages of emails from Epstein’s inbox released last week by the House do not suggest any communications between them.
Another popular response said, “The Editorial Board is neglecting the fact that it is in the public interest to know if their public officials and people of high rank in their communities (like college presidents) were involved in sexual exploitation of minors, even if that involvement is just silent complicity. Bezos propaganda.”
The editorial page is now run by Adam O’Neal, a 33-year-old journalist from the conservative commentary world, who has brought in MAGA-friendly columnists, given an interview to Fox News and this week spoke to the libertarian magazine Reason where he suggested he was sympathetic to many libertarian views.
The post Jeff Bezos’ MAGAfied WaPo Has Bonkers Take on Epstein Files appeared first on The Daily Beast.
