CNN data guru Harry Enten says Donald Trump’s dismal polling on his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files may explain what is driving House Republicans to break ranks.
Enten on Tuesday pointed to polls from Reuters/Ipsos and Marist University that show Trump is receiving poor ratings from Republican voters on his handling of the Epstein case.
“You have Republicans unhappy with how Trump was dealing with the Epstein files, many Republicans wanting those Epstein files released, and more than that, it was climbing in the interest levels, so it wasn’t going away,” said Enten, 37, on CNN News Central.
Though Republican voters overwhelmingly approve of how Trump handles most issues, only 44% of them approve of his handling of the Epstein files. Meanwhile, 67% of Republicans want all of the Epstein files released.
And after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published some of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails that they’d subpoenaed from the late sex offender’s estate, one of which found Epstein writing that Trump “knew about the girls,” Google searches for Jeffrey Epstein spiked 1,181%.
“So all of a sudden, the Republican representatives are saying, ‘Jailbreak time. Adios, amigos. We’re gonna leave Donald Trump,’” said Enten.
Until last week, most House Republicans were against voting to release the Epstein files. Only four of them signed a discharge petition on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which sat in political limbo for a month because Speaker Mike Johnson refused to swear in Dem Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the eventual 218th and final signature needed to force a vote, until the end of the government shutdown.
After Johnson swore in Grijalva and she signed her name to the discharge petition, Johnson scheduled a Tuesday vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The bill is expected to pass overwhelmingly, as many Republicans, including those who did not sign the discharge petition, have signaled that they will support its passage.
House Republicans have also received the sudden and surprising blessing from Trump to pass the bill last weekend, as the president said on Truth Social Sunday, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.”
Trump, 79, has long dismissed the Epstein files as a “Democrat Hoax” and worked to block their release, including exterting 11th hour pressure on two of the four Republicans who signed the discharge petition. His sudden flip on the issue raised suspicion that the White House had plans to ensure that he politically insulated from any potential damage in the Epstein files.
Should the Epstein Filest Transparency Act pass the House on Tuesday, it will need to pass the Senate and be signed into law by Trump.
Enten concluded his segment by revealing how prediction markets feel about the possibility that more Epstein files will be released by the end of the Trump administration. Despite the sudden support of Trump, only 72% of bettors on Kalshi think the Trump administration will allow the release of more Epstein files.
“It’s still far less than 100% because, hey look, we gotta see if the United States Senate will vote on this,” said Enten.
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