When the story first broke (again) this year in February about the Epstein files, there was a flurry of news stories talking about how upset and disillusioned Trump’s own base was that their Dear Leader had obviously lied to them when he promised that those files would be released. There was hopeful/prayerful speculation that this would finally be the fateful blow that brought Teflon Don to his knees.
Because it wouldn’t go away. And because MAGA stayed pissed. Because it looked like they weren’t buying the explanatory lies this time.
No matter how much Trump deflected, pouted, ranted and raved, and lied, the story of his Epstein betrayal persisted at the top of the headlines. His most loyal cult-like followers remain enraged that the document that they were promised would expose a treasure trove of evidence against volumes of immoral Democrats, the document that Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed in February was sitting on her desk and being reviewed, simply evaporated like early morning mist. Instead came the photos of Trump and his buddy Epstein buddying it up around New York on the high-end party circuit. And then there was the Happy Birthday love letter from Trump to Epstein. Then there was the Wall Street Journal story this week. From Politico:
According to the Journal, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Trump during a White House meeting in May that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files. The fallout continues as we speak, with the White House and Republicans in Congress facing that age-old Washington question: What did they know, and when did they know it?
And then…
So what now?
Granted, if this really is the story that will unravel the stable genius, then it will probably take more than a few weeks. Hell, Watergate took a steady drip-drip of stories over a period of more than two years, from June 17, 1972, when the first story broke, until August 1974, when Nixon finally was allowed to resign in disgrace. So maybe if we wait long enough, then, like with Watergate, there will be more and more drips until the final long-awaited Day of Accountability.
Just to keep hope alive, there have even been reports that, following the Epstein debacle, small cracks could be seen in the Whatever-Trump-Wants Republican Party. There were salivating hints that at least some Republicans might finally begin to experiment with walking upright as they rediscover their spines and defy Trump’s mad designs and demands.
Could it be true? We wondered. Is there really, finally, gratefully reason to hope that…?
But then, just this week on Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed yet another servile and suitably slimy Trump yes man, Emil Bove, to a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge. By a vote of 50-49. There were only two dissenting Republicans, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. The rest could be seen bending over, pants down, falling into line as per usual. Epstein? Who? Sorry, never hearda the guy. And pass the Vaseline.
A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Bove was on Trump's legal team during his New York hush money trial and defended Trump in the two federal criminal cases. He will serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Democrats have vehemently opposed Bove's nomination, citing his current position as a top Justice Department official and his role in the dismissal of the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. They have also criticized his efforts to investigate department officials who were involved in the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Bove has accused FBI officials of "insubordination" for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the attack and ordered the firing of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases.
If the Republicans really have received permission from MAGA to turn on Trump, or even to administer a bad boy spanking, it would appear that memo hasn’t yet reached their offices. For now, looks like same as it ever was.
Please share and subscribe to help us grow this publication.
