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ARepublican resistance to release of Epstein files, after months of delay and opposition from all parties involved Bit into dust on Tuesday.
Donald Trump, facing open rebellion among his supporters, bowed to the pressure and changed his course on Sunday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump called on Republicans to step back and vote “yes” on a resolution forcing the federal government to release the files, which Trump, as president, does not require congressional permission to release.
Immediately, the GOP flipped a switch and called all Republican members of the chamber. who spent weeks refusing to sign the bipartisan emancipation petition The representative was led by Thomas Massey and Ro Khanna on board. Representative Clay Higgins, a Louisiana conservative Republican The only “no” vote in the entire House.
trump The biggest loss can be This, especially given the breadth of documents and emails already made public regarding the 2019 investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile and child sex trafficker. Several mentioned Trump himself, including in several emails released last week In which Epstein writes that he had dirt on the president and claimed that Trump “knew about the girls”. Trump and the White House strongly denied this and called speculation about Trump’s knowledge of the sex trafficking ring a “Democrat hoax”.
But for now, the biggest loser is undoubtedly Johnson, who Trump saved from a massive rebellion in his own chamber. Four Republican members had already broken ranks to sign the emancipation petition; Congressional reporters expected dozens more to vote Tuesday, even though Trump had not given them the all-clear.
The Speaker of the House spent more than a month derailing the vote. He prorogued the House throughout the month of October and avoided swearing in Representative Adelita Grijalva, who was the 218th signature on the emancipation petition, in an effort to avert it. Johnson has frequently criticized the legislation he voted for on Tuesday, calling it a “shiny object” and calling it “sad” that Republicans were signing the petition.
“We are working around the clock to make sure that justice is served and also to find out why justice has been delayed for so long,” Johnson said as he called the House out of session in October.
Recently lauded as one of the most effective Republican speakers and even more so than his predecessor Kevin McCarthy, Mike Johnson now appears to be on the ropes once again.
Tuesday’s vote took the issue out of his chamber. Resolution Flew through the Senate with unanimous consentDealing a final blow to the speaker, who had requested that the GOP-held House amend the bill.
But Johnson’s own problems aren’t going anywhere. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of four Republicans on the discharge petition, remains her most vocal critic in the chamber on the right, and this latest episode allowed Greene to find her voice not only against Johnson but also against Trump, bringing her to new heights of notoriety. She and others, including the chamber’s Democrats, are focused on pressuring the GOP to advance a plan to prevent massive health care premium spikes expected at the end of the year.
Conservative Republicans, including Trump, want to completely dismantle the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and provide direct subsidies for Americans to purchase health care plans. Democrats and some centrist Republicans want to expand subsidies for the Obamacare exchange plans passed under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Johnson is well aware of what happened the last time his party tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, so he’s stuck in the middle. He’s also well aware of another reality: Any health care plan the GOP crafts through the remainder of 2025 or into the next year will be nearly impossible to sell to every member of their caucus at once, meaning striking a deal with Democrats is the most likely option for getting a bill that addresses those impending premium spikes.
The US is fast approaching another election year, and Johnson remains the most likely candidate to lose control of the House in next autumn’s midterms. Avoiding that fate and finding the political strength to pursue a solution to surging health care premiums may depend entirely on his ability to rein in wayward Republicans, who are now feeling the wrath of a spurned Donald Trump and have more reason than ever to push back.