Staying loyal to Trump after Bondi's Epstein files U-turn is proving to be greatest test of wills for Republicans
On Wednesday, Trump unloaded on Republicans who wanted to see promises kept about releasing the files about the disgraced financier who died in police custody after being arrested for trafficking underage girls and women.
Trump, who knew Epstein for many years, claimed the effort to keep the heat on him over Epstein was 'perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats' work,' even though Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell were both arrested during Trump's first administration.
But Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) who said he would not seek re-election after he came out against Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' last month, was more taciturn than his more MAGA colleagues.
'I think at the end of the day, just release the damn files,' Tillis told The Independent on Wednesday.
Tillis, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who shepherded FBI Director Kash Patel's confirmation through the committee, insisted that there needs to be transparency.
'So maybe one motivation, since it's not going to be here, what they thought it was going to be,' he said. 'And the other one would be motivation, maybe it's more damaging to some people than they think it could be. You can't do the whole 'we got to protect witnesses.' That's what they call 'redaction.''
But Tillis is in a far different spot than most of his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate given he's clashed with Trump on a few occasions, and does not have to worrry about being pitted against a Trump- and RNC-backed primary challenger in a reelection bid.
Republicans had earlier blocked an attempt by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to include an amendment to a rule to declassify files related to Epstein. Every Republican either opposed the legislation or did not vote.
On Monday evening, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the sole Republican on the House Rules Committee hearing to support Khanna's amendment. But when The Independent showed him Trump's post on Truth Social, he chuckled and immediately pivoted to former President Joe Biden.
'Trump, the great things he's doing, where I do agree with him. Where was the inquiry that they had to get into Biden's LLCs?' he asked. 'The cash payments. It never happened. So I see why he's frustrated.'
Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who leads a House task force on government secrets and has supported attempts to declassify files related to Epstein, challenged the idea she opposed attempts to declassify the info around Epstein with her 'no' vote.
'I didn't vote against his amendment, that was a procedural to return power to the House Democrats,' she told The Independent.
Luna's predicament, like that of many members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is that they have pushed for years to declassify information related to Epstein.
Part of this was in hopes that it would lead to the downfall of Democratic elected officials and business elites — and indeed, former president Bill Clinton and Bill Gates both were friendly with Epstein, as was Trump.
When The Independent asked about the president's post on Truth Social where he said his 'PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker,' she dodged.
'I have not read it yet, but I'll definitely check it out,' Luna told The Independent. When pressed about it, she referred to past statements where she said a whistleblower accused the government of destroying evidence.
'I will tell you that, although I have not seen any information pertaining to the Epstein whole files as a whole, what I will tell you is the President's statement was pretty clear that he supported releasing credible evidence,' she told The Independent. 'What I will tell you is that again, I don't speak for the DOJ and I don't speak for the White House, but I think that there's more to come on this, and so, I'll leave it at that.'
But Trump has always been cagey about declassifying information about Epstein.
During the 2024 campaign, when asked by Fox News about it, he said, 'I think that less so because you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.'
Trump's forceful denunications have put him directly at odds with some of his biggest defenders.
A poll from Quinnipiac University released on Wednesday showed that only 40 percent of Republicans approve of how Trump has handled the Epstein files and 36 percent disapprove of it.
The numbers come ever since the Department of Justice released a two-page memo saying it had conducted an 'exhaustive review' of materials related to Epstein and that he had no 'client list.'
That has put Republicans like Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas in a bind. Gill, a freshman firebrand, had previously called for files around Epstein to be released.
But when asked by The Independent, he demurred.
'I think there's always still a chance,' he said. 'I mean, i'd like to see them. I think most, most Americans would. I trust the president and his team. We've got a great group of people working there, so we'll see where it goes.'
When pressed, Gill repeated his remarks.
'Like I said he's put together a really good team,' he told The Independent. 'He's the leader of the party. I think he's gonna do the right thing.'
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