While the room goes to the vote on Epstein files, the spotlights move to vulnerable GOP senators
This is an extract adapted to the September 25 Episode of “Deadline: White House”.
After the Democrat Adelita Grijalva obtained a victory Tuesday during a special election in Arizona, the Chamber seems to be one more step to force a vote on bipartite legislation which would oblige the Trump administration to publish its files associated with the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
For weeks, the administration and its allies on Capitol Hill, like the president of the Mike Johnson room, tried to crush the efforts to force a vote led by the republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. But if their attempts to stop this petition would succeed, they would have already succeeded now.
These members of the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, put their flag in the soil. They will keep their names on this petition. In the end, I think they will succeed and force this vote in the House – and I also believe that there will be more Republicans who will join them.
Behind the scenes, Johnson does his best to do what Donald Trump wants. This is what he always does. But this is a situation that he cannot control. This problem is bigger than Johnson – and, frankly, he will be bigger than Trump.
If this vote passes the room, everything comes down to the Senate. This is where it becomes really interesting. We now have senators who face real opposition next year. In Ohio, republican senator Jon Husted – who took the vacant seat of the vice -president JD Vance – presents himself against former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown.
You also have the Republican senator Susan Collins in Maine and Senator John Cornyn in Texas, who will probably be confronted with strong opposition before next year. Even Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi republican, could end up with a serious democratic opponent.
They will all have to ask a very important question in the coming weeks: will they spend all their political capital to keep the files of Epstein secret?
He will not be a political winner for the Republican Party. And believe me, these members of the congress know it – and they know it much better than Trump.
Allison Detzel contributed.
