The “Epstein files” and the Ick factor

The “Ick!” factor is obviously very high on everything to do with the infamous “Epstein files.” Which, depending on which Republican is spinning at the moment, may or may not exist. And if they exist Obama and Hillary Clinton forged them.

Here’s Congressman Jamie Raskin, who is a Democrat who actually believes Democrats should fight for their own side and their own constituents. He also understands the importance of creating larger narrative frameworks for Democratic issues. Many Democratic politicians and political consultants have all-but-completely lost sight of the latter.

Here he talks about his own strategy of working the Epstein files issue. (1)



Kyle Kulinski breaks down Trump’s Epstein panic this week: (2)



And here are two different perspectives on how the Epstein-files issue seems to be playing among the Republican base, which is also the Trump/MAGA base. Digby Parton looks at the ways in which this issue is uncomfortable for the Trump Republicans. (3) She recalls that conspiracy-obsessed Republican rank-and-file went nuts over the bizarre Pizzagate scandal, a rightwing fantasy about a child-prostitution ring they said was rung by Hillary Clinton.

You can imagine how excited they all became when Epstein was exposed back in 2018 with the publication of a three-part series in the Miami Herald revisiting his 2008 conviction for sex-trafficking that had been swept under the rug and subsequently ignored by some very powerful people who continued to associate with him. The intrepid reporter who investigated and wrote that story, Julie Brown, was motivated to look into it when President Donald Trump nominated Alex Acosta the U.S. Attorney who had given [Epstein a very favorable sweetheart deal in that case to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Here was a real life, elite, pedophile sex trafficker with many, many friends in high places. Q was right! They were ecstatic when Trump’s Justice Department took up the case and arrested Epstein in 2019. Soon the world would know the whole truth. Except Jeffrey Epstein, the most high profile prisoner in the country, friend of presidents and billionaires, was somehow able to commit suicide in his cell. For an awful lot of people that didn’t pass the smell test, igniting a whole new set of conspiracy mongering.

So initially, some of the Trumpistas were unpleasantly surprised when Trump posted a ant calling the infamous Epstein files a Dem-u-crat conspiracy:

[W]hen Trump rudely dismissed their concerns in a cabinet meeting and then admonished them on Truth Social in a long rant blaming Obama and Clinton, demanding that they focus on the scandals he wants them to focus on, the crushing betrayal was personal. Never before has a Trump post received such a massive negative response on his own platform.

Jess Piper, a rural Democratic activist in Missouri who has an informative Substack blog, took a different look: (4)

There is anger on the right about the Epstein mess, but it’s not trickling down to the everyday Trump supporter.

I know because I talk to MAGA voters every day. I am related to them. They don’t listen to influencers if the message doesn’t align with what Trump says.

But there is a distinct cultish aspect to the MAGA movement, aka, the current Republican Party. She notes:

Trump can control their thoughts and emotions when he speaks directly to them. He can pressure them to conform to his lies. He can remind them that there is no questioning him.

No criticism. No critical thinking.

I recently asked a Trump supporter what he thought of the non-release of the Epstein files that Trump promised. He said it was a cover-up. It’s not Trump’s fault, but it is likely Pam Bondi’s fault.

Blame a woman. As old as time.

It’s the deep state. It’s Biden. It’s the Clintons. It’s Soros. It’s the ever-present evil Democratic child-abusing and child-eating cabal.

So, what’s going on here? Why would Trump supporters talk incessantly about the Epstein files and his jailhouse suicide and the wealthy men who abused little children and then just shake their heads at the news that the files were no longer files — in fact, there were no files?

They are indoctrinated.

She opens her column with the cult issue: Trump is “leading a cult and doing what every cult leader does: whatever he wants …”

“Cult” is not an overstatement. Steven Hassan regularly discuss the cult aspect of the Trump movement in his YouTube podcast. (5)

But Digby’s perspective and Jess Piper’s aren’t mutually exclusive. I assume based on current US politics that something like a third of the country is even downright authoritarian or at least open to dictatorial-type government. And that’s the aspect Jess is addressing. In terms of a Democratic narrative and campaign focus, she is emphasizing that Democrats need to focus on voters who are actually persuadable, who have views and attitudes to which the Democrats can appeal while still being Democrats. But she invokes a religious analogy to explain why Democrats can’t waste their time and energy trying to find issues which will achieve the impossible, i.e., persuading devoted cult members to change their opinion in an upcoming election:

Why won’t the Epstein mess change their minds? How can we flip them? What message can we bring to a Trump voter to change their thinking?

I’m going to say this as gently as I can: You can’t. You can’t change a three-time Trump voter.

Think about this: Why can’t you just knock on your Catholic neighbor’s door and convert them to Mormonism? Why can’t I talk my Baptist mom into being an atheist? Because religion is often tied up with someone’s identity.

And so is Trumpism.

The Democratic Party nationally is still stuck in a weird kind of time warp where it’s always 1992. The hottest “alternative media” star was Rush Limbaugh on his talk radio show. California was still a swing state, so Presidential candidates need to appeal to conservative Southern states. And, as the infamous 1992 Florida election showed, Florida was also still a swing state. So they are still trying to coopt Republican issues and telling themselves that “the fever will break” in the Republican Party. Obama declared thirteen years ago Tau, Byron during his 2012 reelection campaign, after four years of escalating radicalism in the Republican Party: "I believe that If we're successful in this election, when we're successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there's a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that.” (6)

Unfortunately, the “fever” has been driving Republican fantasies in a big way since 1964. And under Trump, it’s become a full-blown cult. And, yes, the Republicans will continue to come up with some moral-panic issue like The Trans. And whichever issue they pick will probably have something to do with bathrooms. The Democrats are not going to out-moral-panic the Republicans among their hardcore base. But those voters don’t care how many women Trump has slept with, with out without their consent. And they don’t care if he was best friends with a mega-sleazebag like Jeffrey Epstein.

And the Democratic Party consultant class seems to be stuck in a mode of targeting voters according to issue sets. Which is perfectly fine as far as it goes. But what leaders like Jamie Raskin are emphasizing is that the Democrats need to put those issue appeals in the context of an overall narrative the defines the Democratic identity and also sounds like the Democrats are willing to actually fight the Republicans politically.

Trying to mealy-mouth about Democratic issues rather than actively defending and promoting them surrenders half the battle to Republicans from the get-go.

Notes:

(1) Jamie Raskin makes the move Trump FEARED over Epstein. Brian Tyler Cohen YouTube channel 07/13/2025. <https://youtu.be/otv7y3Wxa94?si=VnZwFZSVHWOO8osA> (Accessed: 2025-15-07).

(2) Trump Claims OBAMA Wrote Epstein Files In CATASTROPHIC Meltdown! The Kyle Kulinski Show. Secular Talk YouTube channel 07/14/2025. <https://youtu.be/rQXQDN80qd0?si=H5v4NteNGbIoLR9V> (Accessed: 2025-15-07).

(3) Parton, Heather “Digby” (2025): MAGA’s Heart Ids Broken. Hullabaloo 07/14/2025. <https://digbysblog.net/2025/07/14/magas-heart-is-broken/> (Accessed: 2025-15-07).

(4) Piper, Jess (2025): The Epstein Files Fallout Will Not Touch Him. The View from Rural Missouri 07/14/2025. (Accessed: 2025-15-07).

(4) Piper, Jess (2025): The Epstein Files Fallout Will Not Touch Him. The View from Rural Missouri 07/14/2025. <https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/the-epstein-files-fallout-will-not> (Accessed: 2025-15-07).

(5) E.g., How Cults Take Over Minds—And Nations. Cult Expert-Dr. Steven Hassan YouTube channel. <https://youtu.be/JxfC3VKJAzU?si=xLJ-tfix8pTfSaoV> (Accessed: 2025-15-07).

(6) Obama: Republican 'fever' will break after the election. Politico 06/01/2012. <https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2012/06/obama-republican-fever-will-break-after-the-election-125059> (Accessed: 2025-015-074).