WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders can’t stop talking about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files — the rare issue that’s driven a wedge between Donald Trump and his MAGA base and been a nagging nuisance for GOP leaders for weeks.
But while most Democrats think it’s win-win for the party to keep a divisive issue for Republicans at the forefront, not all agree. Some Democrats say the Epstein saga is an unwelcome distraction that’s diverting attention away from Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which they warn will cause millions of Americans to lose health care and food assistance.
Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, went so far as to suggest Republicans deliberately drummed up the Epstein issue — just as Congress departs for its long, summer recess — to avoid dealing back home with the political fallout from Trump’s unpopular law.
“Republicans took away people’s health care, took away their nutrition benefits to cut taxes for the wealthy and ran up $3 trillion in debt. And so they’re getting people to talk about Epstein so that people won’t find it out. … Any discussion about Epstein diverts attention from what we ought to be talking about,” Scott said in a recent interview.
