Congress
‘The bill is going to come due’: House GOP braces for Epstein crisis to intensify
Internal fury over the House GOP’s Jeffrey Epstein crisis is still swirling as President Trump faces an all-out revolt from his biggest supporters on Capitol Hill.
The rebellion this week stunned White House officials and GOP leaders — and, according to Republicans involved in the talks, it’s currently set to continue the moment they return from August recess. Even as members high-tailed out of town Wednesday, several Oversight Committee Republicans joined with Democrats to force a subpoena to the Department of Justice for its entire trove of Epstein documents — a major blow to Trump and GOP leaders.
“People are going to move on this regardless,” said a Republican with direct knowledge of the internal talks this week. “The bill is going to come due.”
There’s also intense frustration among rank and file members that Democrats successfully used the Epstein case to attack House Republicans, who struggled through the crisis this week.
“Democrats smelled blood in the water,” the Republican added. “And they caught us flat-footed.”
And, White House officials know they have a problem.
Trump did speak to Rules Committee Republicans — who were at the center of the protest over Epstein this week — in the Oval Office Tuesday night. The president didn’t specifically address the Epstein crisis or the chaos of the week. But several people in the room, however, were doubtful the crisis is going away.
The Rules Committee will be back in the hot seat when lawmakers return in September. Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s discharge petition to force a vote on his bipartisan Epstein bill will be back in the spotlight then — and could hit the House floor.
For now, most Rules Committee Republicans are dead set on not helping Speaker Mike Johnson kill Massie’s discharge petition in committee, to keep it from ever getting a floor vote, according to four people granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
Johnson has tried to navigate the break between House Republicans demanding more Epstein-related information, and the president who just days ago was calling the Epstein files “a hoax” that only “weaklings” were still talking about. White House officials also fumed over Johnson’s comments on a podcast last week, when he called for more information to be released. He’s since said there was “no daylight” between House Republicans and the president on wanting transparency.
“It’s not a hoax. Of course not,” Johnson said in a clip of an interview with CBS News that aired Thursday.
Hours after Democratic socialist candidates swept to victory in New York primary races, Republicans celebrated those victories as a boon for their own party as it struggles against headwinds from the Iran war and cost of living issues ahead of the November midterms.
Inside a closed-door House GOP meeting Wednesday morning, the head of the Republican campaign arm said the victories of candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered an opportunity for GOP House candidates to draw a sharp contrast.
Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina said “Democrats have a Bolshevik revolution going on in their primaries,” according to three people in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private event.
Speaker Mike Johnson also delivered remarks to Republicans setting the stakes of the election after the “radical” left-wing wins and urging Republicans to dig in and raise money to defeat Democrats this fall. He received a standing ovation, the people in the room said.
Hudson said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will take the socialists’ wins as a sign he needs to navigate further to the left. There will be no cooperation with Republicans, he added.
Other Republicans publicly seized on the left-wing triumphs Wednesday, including Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio — who said “the lesson is clear: if Republicans don’t act now, we will lose this country as we know it.”
“We need to be clear about what we stand for,” he wrote on X. “Closed borders, secure elections, economic prosperity for all Americans, and, most of all, proudly protecting the American way of life against socialism.”
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a bill signing for major bipartisan legislation on housing affordability on Wednesday, saying he wouldn’t back the law until Congress passes his elections bill.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social.
Trump was scheduled to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing bill on Wednesday afternoon, which passed both chambers with wide bipartisan support.
Trump announced the cancellation as Speaker Mike Johnson and top House leaders held a news conference touting the bill.
President Donald Trump Wednesday will come face-to-face with Senate Republicans for the first time in months as the party struggles to set its priorities heading into the midterms.
After weeks of shadowboxing with each other, Trump is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill and press the conference to pass his signature election security bill that has languished for months. Senate Republicans — several of whom have openly agonized that Trump isn’t focused enough on helping their party keep its tenuous control of Congress — have their own agenda for talks.
Let’s be clear: Wednesday’s lunch isn’t going to change the fate of the GOP election bill. Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday that “people at some point have to come to grips” with the fact that there aren’t the votes to nix the filibuster or pass Trump’s No. 1 priority.
But Trump is showing no sign of being ready to accept that — and indicated he intends to make the case for doing whatever it takes during the lunch with Senate Republicans.
“We’re just going to talk about SAVE America. … We have to pass it so we’re going to have to talk about that and many other things,” Trump told reporters.
Asked about Thune saying the party lacks the votes for passage, he added: “That’s what being a leader is about. … John is a leader and hopefully he can get the votes.”
While Trump wants to focus on the SAVE America Act, GOP senators expect a wider-ranging conversation, including how both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue can turn their collective attention off of a string of recent intraparty fights and toward Democrats.
“My question is how do we get all on the same page and get unified rather than squabbling amongst ourselves,” Sen. John Cornyn said he’ll ask Trump. Cornyn told reporters it’ll be his first time speaking with the president since losing his primary against Trump-backed Ken Paxton.
That may mean Trump and senators Wednesday confront festering questions about the highly unpopular Iran war in the lead up to elections.
Senate Republicans openly criticized Trump’s agreement last week to end the Iran conflict, including a $300 billion reconstruction fund. And congressional Republicans are chafing at the idea Trump is asking for tens of billions of dollars in fresh military funding without briefing most of Congress on the plan.
As lawmakers prepare for a roughly $80 billion emergency Pentagon funding request to land as soon as this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also set to meet with the Republican Study Committee Wednesday. While the briefing is meant to focus on the funding requests, Speaker Mike Johnson suggested it could be lawmakers’ only chance for the time being to get questions answered about the administration’s Iran endgame.
“I’m sure he’ll provide a lot of information,” Johnson said when asked about further briefings beyond Hegseth’s. “I mean, we’ll see what the secretary does, and then evaluate after that.”
Also on our radar Wednesday: Democratic lawmakers are teeing up a host of amendments on the war against Iran at a House Appropriations markup of the fiscal 2027 Defense bill, where more funding talks are guaranteed to take place.
Read also: Republicans push to add billions in farm aid to Iran war package
What else we’re watching:
— DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY SPLIT SCREEN: A Zohran Mamdani-backed trio of progressives pulled off a string of upsets during New York’s primary elections Tuesday, dealing a blow to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership allies.
—- HOUSE GOP HUDDLES ON RECON 3.0: Johnson and key House Republicans will meet Wednesday to discuss the next steps for a possible third reconciliation bill as the clock ticks to get a budget resolution moving before the July 4 recess. The speaker said he will know more about the timing for any budget resolution to kick off another party-line bill afterwards. Still, several Budget Committee Republicans are still skeptical the effort will actually gain momentum.
Madison Fernandez and Nick Reisman contributed to this report.
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