Some House Democrats are privately protesting their party’s messaging on the Jeffrey Epstein files, with one arguing that Democratic lawmakers’ purported outrage at the administration’s handling of the documents is “bullshit.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is urging members of his caucus to keep Epstein at the center of their messaging during the August recess. However, some House Democrats appear to be growing weary of talking about the Epstein files after a weeks-long campaign hammering Republicans on the topic.
“Candidly, this whole thing is just such bullshit,” a House Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told Axios regarding the Democrats’ Epstein messaging campaign.
The lawmaker’s frank remarks follows Jeffries telling reporters Monday that House Democrats had not become preoccupied with the Epstein files until President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term. Though Jeffries has demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi release records related to the late sex criminal, he made no similar calls during former President Joe Biden’s four years in office.
“The far right, Donald Trump, right-wing conspiracy theorists and others are the ones who have put this Jeffrey Epstein thing in the public domain,” Jeffries said in response to a question asked by the Daily Caller News Foundation. “No one looking at the facts disputes that this isn’t anything that any of us as House Democrats have been focused on ever — in terms of trying to fan the flames of what may or may not happen.”
House Democrats’ communications arm sent out a messaging alert to members Wednesday requesting offices “amplify” the Wall Street Journal’s reporting that Bondi told Trump his name allegedly appears in the Epstein files, per Axios. Trump told reporters on Friday that he was never briefed on this.
However, House Democrats’ departure from their more traditional messaging on the economy and health care appears to have irritated some of their colleagues who would rather message on more substantive policy concerns.
Several House Democrats told Axios the party should be focused on hounding their Republican counterparts over their votes supporting Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including the law’s reforms to Medicaid.
“I think the big focus is going to be on health care, because that’s what people care about, and I don’t think this issue [the Epstein files] is big outside the Beltway,” Democratic New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, a top target of House Republicans’ campaign arm, told the outlet.
Suozzi’s Democratic colleague, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, similarly told Axios that Democrats should be talking about more substantive policy issues, such as the cost of everyday goods, rather than the Epstein files.
Democrats’ messaging battle follows Speaker Mike Johnson torching his Democratic counterparts Thursday for hammering Republicans over the Epstein files despite being silent on the controversy throughout Biden’s presidency.
“We’re not going to allow the Democrats to use this for political cover. They had four years,” Johnson had told reporters. “Remember, the Biden administration held the Epstein files for four years and not a single one of these Democrats – or anyone in Congress – thought about that at all.”
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