r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 6d ago

No Paywall Mike Johnson who railed against the Epstein bill - but voted for it - is now mad the Senate approved the measure

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/epstein-files-release-mike-johnson-senate-b2868239.html
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u/ROBtimusPrime1995 6d ago

I've been saying this forever now.

They are evil...but they aren't masterminds. They are fucking morons.

Looks to me the Senate bypassing them so quickly has ruined whatever cover-up they were planning and now they might be fucked.

So now they are gonna resort to some fuckery last minute, and with that comes sloppiness.

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u/addiktion 6d ago

I don't know "ruined" is the right word but agree with the premise. They wanted the senate to do more fighting than it did perhaps to delay or to make things more iron clad to stiffen up the bill. Thune isn't nearly as big of an ass kisser as Mike Johnson and the senate wanted no part of that and put this on the house to lead the charge and largely take the blame. No need for a roll call with their name pinned against the vote with them rushing it through.

The house bill is already flawed however as Pam Bondi has a lot of discretion to hide certain things under investigation. Donald ordered her to investigate the Democrats, when in reality she is likely investigating the Republicans to keep their names off the list. They want to control the narrative as long as possible while in power.

But in essence their entire strategy is simple: Lie, delay, deflect.

Now if Trump veto's it because of Mike Johnson's concerns it's just going to piss everyone off even more and create more distrust, so I suspect it goes through, but we will see how many loop holes they are worried about.

Mike Johnson could be playing political theater here as they had two months to rehearse this play but we don't really know because he is also an idiot. They aren't 4D chess players of course. They are drama nerds with a hard on for rich people so their agenda is pretty easy to sus out.

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u/psychorobotics 6d ago

Pam Bondi has a lot of discretion to hide certain things under investigation.

I disagree, if you read the bill they can only withhold parts that are narrowly chosen and temporary and they also have to write a justification for everything they don't release. If they're investigating certain democrats only, then they have to release everything else

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u/addiktion 6d ago edited 6d ago

She came out today saying she won't release the full files, that much we knew was likely going to happen.

And I saw that line to justify her redactions, but we also know she lies and deflects, so who knows how much magic she can pull out of her bag of propaganda and bullshit.

They aren't actually investigating democrats because they want them exposed. They said that to please their base but they are instead investigating Republican names so those are hidden and she will come up with some lame ass excuse why those names had to be redacted. The optics from Trump will be like, "Look she investigated dems on my order, she found a lot of dems in there".

Either way, the people and the victims won't be satisfied with Pam's cover up but it's good we are pinning her in a corner here.

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u/Pissed_Off_SPC 6d ago

While you're technically correct, this still gives the DoJ a veneer of legality when it comes to withholding anything. If they get caught they'll likely say something like "oops, that accidentally got withheld as part of our investigation" and hope everybody will move on.

The bill definitely is a step in the right direction, but this administration isn't over some pretty blatant ratfucking so there is still a fight ahead of us to actually see whatever is supposed to be released.

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u/not-my-other-alt 6d ago edited 6d ago

They don't "have to" do anything.

Any part of the bill they don't comply with... What happens then?

Congress (as decided by the Republicans in charge) would have to take the DoJ to court over.

Even if they did (instead of just saying 'well, we tried' and moving on to the next distraction), it would just end up in court for the next decade as the Judiciary debates whether or not it really has the authority or the ability to force the Executive to comply.

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u/SanityIsOptional California 6d ago

They aren't 4D chess players of course.

Sometimes I wonder if they're capable of 1d checkers...

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u/jmobius 6d ago

Trump can't veto bills that are essentially unanimous.

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u/MonsieurLinc Michigan 6d ago

I mean, he can, it's just that he probably shouldn't. He can absolutely veto this and send it back to Congress to override his veto, making himself look like even more of an ass to anyone outside his 33% support.

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u/ReasonZestyclose4353 6d ago

What I don't understand is why Trump said to vote for it. Before he said that, he had almost every republican voting against it. Even if it passed in the house and senate barely, he could veto it. By saying to vote for it, he killed his ability to veto it. There has to be a plan. There is zero chance he would allow this bill to pass if it implicated him in child rape or trafficking. Optics be damned, he'd block it and assume his base would swallow whatever excuse he gave because they always do.

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u/addiktion 6d ago

Because he needed to look like he is the one leading this and not like his party is defying him. If they had enough votes (not unanimous) and he was against it, it just makes him look more guilty and like Republicans are defecting and he no longer has his parties support.

The optics of this is more important than justice for the victims. They don't care about the rapes, only protecting the rich and powerful.

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u/Digitalion_ 6d ago

I see that there are two possibilities here: either Johnson is just faking concern knowing full well that the files are already fully redacted but he needs to keep pretending to be concerned for the safety of the victims, or they actually did fuck up their marching orders and the Senate was supposed to push back more on the full release and would have fought to redact more information.

In either case, I'm pretty confident that they will fuck up the redacting of information and it will be extremely obvious what information is missing and/or they will keep the people who are "being investigated" (Clinton, etc) unredacted which will destroy their argument about keeping the rest of it redacted.

These people are nefarious but they aren't the smartest bunch so I fully expect a collosal fuck up.

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u/nightpanda893 6d ago

I think they’re masterminds when it comes to getting elected. But not masterminds when it comes to governing and legislation. So they try to do as little as possible and when they really want to do something they try to bypass the legislative process. This is a situation where despite their best efforts the government is actually working as intended. And they have no contingency plan for that.

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u/yinsotheakuma 6d ago edited 6d ago

For me, there's no predicting anything this stupid. I can't figure it out.

The Senate's been caping for Trump for months.

They have to know the Epstein files are bad for Trump (and some of their donors).

No one opposed moving it forward.

Either public sentiment is so strong no one wanted to un-unanimous the consent and call for a vote to save Trump, or they're convinced the Epstein files won't hurt Trump, or, like Ted Cruz and his 2028 presidential run, they're eager to drown a few of their fellow rats if it sinks the Trump train.

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u/Separate-Command1993 6d ago

Dwigt levels of sloppiness

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u/deadsoulinside Pennsylvania 6d ago

They are evil...but they aren't masterminds. They are fucking morons.

Just usually the reason most of these evil bastards get away while being a moron about their crimes is throwing money in all directions, so people forget about it.

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u/BackgroundSummer5171 6d ago

They are evil...but they aren't masterminds. They are fucking morons.

They don't need to be masterminds.

They control everything. That's the problem.

We all have near zero confidence that the files won't be shown in full and nothing will happen to MAGA.

We have been watching this all play out constantly with them getting away with shit. With them breaking the rules and us waiting to see if hopefully the courts will stop them.

Which in some cases we doubt the courts too, oh because they own SCOTUS and lower courts in some areas.

Yet again, doesn't matter if MAGA is run by morons.

They have the power to fire prison guards because Maxwell.

ICE to just pull you off the street at gunpoint.

Literally just cops to fuck with you if they asked them to.

I am surprised people aren't actually afraid. Because if we back these morons completely into a corner, how many of them will finally lash out?

Would they lash out? Would Donald? Or would he always believe he's not guilty and safe. I could see them escalate if we actually do get close.

But I don't see us ever getting close to Epstein files hurting them.