Congress

‘The powerful protecting the powerful’: Democrats see an opening on Epstein

Published

11 months ago

July 16, 2025

Democrats are stoking the online flames of the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. Internal memos and polling suggest the issue is breaking through to voters.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) accused President Donald Trump of “hiding the Epstein list” in a post on X. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries insisted at a press conference Americans “deserve to know the truth.” The Democratic National Committee last week launched an X bot that posts daily, “Has Trump released the Epstein files? No,” and House Majority PAC rolled out a “simp target list” of “complicit” GOP members. And on Tuesday, Democrats attempted to cast a procedural vote as a referendum to compel the release of more Epstein-related material.

It’s a trollish, conspiratorial-minded response to Republican infighting that Democrats haven’t traditionally engaged in, particularly around Epstein, the accused sex trafficker whose 2019 death in prison was ruled a suicide. Just six years ago, the DNC lambasted “baseless conspiracy theories.” But now, as the Trump administration has tied itself in knots over the Epstein case, Democratic leaders have stopped holding back as they work to capitalize on fissures threatening Trump’s relationship to his MAGA base.

“I just want to remind the American people that in February of this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged the existence of Jeffrey Epstein’s client list. In fact, she said that Jeffrey Epstein’s client list is ‘sitting on my desk right now.’ Where is that client list? What is Attorney General Bondi hiding?” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) told reporters on Tuesday. “This is the case of the powerful protecting the powerful. We need to have those files released.”

Interviews with a dozen Democratic elected officials, strategists and aides cast the controversy as helpful not only in dividing Trump’s base but also illustrating the president’s flip-flopping tendencies, even on his core campaign issues. Democrats argued they can tie the episode into a larger narrative about Trump’s other broken campaign promises, said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC that specializes in opposition research.

“It’s an interesting foot in the door to the overall case that he doesn’t have your back on Medicare, on health care, on veterans,” Dennis said. “It’s a way to get into, ‘maybe this guy doesn’t have your back,’ and that’s been one of the hardest things for Democrats to do.”

Trump told Fox News in a June 2024 interview “I guess I would” release the Epstein files.

But the opening may be short-lived. Democratic strategists said they do not expect Epstein-related conspiracies to show up in their TV ads or dominate the party’s midterm messaging, with the GOP megabill likely to take center stage.

“I’m focused on the damage that the one big bad bill is doing, and I’m going to stay focused on that,” said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition. “And if the president’s covering up something, I’ll let him deal with that.”

There’s internal evidence that the very online dustup may still have legs for now.

Internal Democratic polling, obtained first by Blue Light News, found that 70 percent of voters said law enforcement is withholding information about powerful people connected to Epstein, including 61 percent of Trump voters, according to an online survey of more than 10,000 people conducted by Blue Rose Research from July 8 to 11. A majority believe that the “authorities are keeping secret” Epstein’s client list to “protect powerful people like Donald Trump,” including a third of Trump voters.

Two-thirds of voters said the case is important because it’s about “government transparency and holding powerful people accountable.” When asked if Trump was or may be involved in the cover up, 58 percent of voters said he maybe was or definitely was.

Another memo from Future Forward, the biggest Democratic super PAC in 2024, outlined the Epstein case’s broad, if shallow, reach among voters. The memo, shared on Thursday with party insiders and obtained by Blue Light News, highlighted several viral videos on the scandal, including a Jon Stewart segment that attracted 1.4 million views on TikTok and creator Philip DeFranco’s video calling Trump “not a happy boy” when being questioned about Epstein, racking up 1.6 million views on TikTok.

Even so, the memo warned that it’s “too early to say whether this will be of meaningful political consequence to Trump.”

“This subject is not as effective at moving Trump disapproval (or 2026 vote choice) as some of the more direct criticisms of” Trump’s megabill, the memo continued. “However, a moderately persuasive message that gets lots of views because it is timely and addresses the conversation people are having anyway is impactful.”

Republican operatives insist they’re not sweating it and believe the Epstein story will quiet within weeks. Like Democrats, they don’t think it will resonate much in next year’s midterms.

A Republican campaign strategist, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, echoed it “will not be a driving issue for voters the way the economy, taxes and immigration will be.” But they advised that the “administration can address these concerns by putting out more information, explaining it more, providing more answers — all of those are very fixable solutions.”

“In the short term, Democrats might score points for hitting it, but Democrats don’t have any credibility on this issue,” this person added.

There are signs the fury among Republicans has quieted, though the issue is still simmering below the surface. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) backed an ultimately doomed Democratic-led amendment in the Rules Committee to compel the release of more Epstein-related files. Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk said he was “done talking about Epstein” and he is going “to trust my friends in [the] Trump administration to handle Epstein files.” Other Republicans derided it as a distraction.

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his support for Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has come under the greatest scrutiny for her handling of the case, and suggested the controversy was manufactured by Democrats.

Democrats have their own vulnerabilities on this subject. Former President Bill Clinton has acknowledged associating with Epstein, though he has vigorously denied any knowledge of his crimes.

But on Capitol Hill, Democrats made clear they’re going to try to yolk their GOP rivals to Epstein.

“They said they were going to do something after stoking up all of this conspiracy themselves … [now], they’re in the position where they can be transparent and share with all the inquiring minds, and they won’t do it,” said Lori Trahan (D-Mass.). “And so it just begs the question, you know what, why not?”

Democrats are looking to pump that narrative back into the digital ecosystem. Dennis confirmed that American Bridge is working with influencers “to make sure that everybody in our ecosystem has the background info they need to hit these folks as hard as possible.”

Still, not all of the hits might land. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) attracted some eye rolls on social media for posting a song about releasing the “Epstein files.”

Mia McCarthy and Brakkton Booker contributed to this report

Congress

Mamdani-backed socialist ousts Espaillat in NY-13

Published

2 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — Darializa Avila Chevalier has ousted five-term House member Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a massive victory for the Democratic Socialists of America.

Her win marks another rebuke of the Democratic establishment in New York following Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral election last year, cementing the DSA as one of the city’s most potent political forces. The upset reflects a political climate in which voters have become increasingly willing to cast aside longtime incumbents in favor of outsiders promising change.

Avila Chevalier focused much of her campaign on attacking Espaillat for accepting donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and real estate interests during his career.

“I really feel that this is a fight to make sure that we are representing working-class New Yorkers who have been left behind by a politics that only serves the interests of corporations, of corporate landlords, of special interest groups that are making life in New York deeply unaffordable for so many,” Avila Chevalier said last month, during an appearance with Mamdani on MS NOW where the mayor endorsed her campaign.

Espaillat, who is the first formerly undocumented person to serve in Congress, came up short despite having the support of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin.

Avila Chevalier, 32, was a leading organizer in the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University in 2024 and is a sociology Ph.D. student at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has served as an investigator for a public defender’s office and is originally from South Florida.

For most of the race, Espaillat was widely viewed as the favorite, but Mamdani’s late May endorsement of Avila Chevalier jolted a contest that began to show signs it was tightening. An April poll from Avila Chevalier’s campaign showed her down 14 points.

Her victory came despite intense outside spending in support of Espaillat, including from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ campaign arm.

Avila Chevalier’s election to New York’s 13th district also shows a changing of the guard in Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. Espaillat has served at the helm of a political alliance, known as the “Squadriano,” that has ruled over those areas of the city, home to large Dominican American and African American populations.

At times during the race, Espaillat and his supporters sought to frame the primary battle as a contest between gentrifiers and long-term residents.

“Those that choose or want to parachute in, after the men and women of this city, the working men and women of the city, have built our neighborhood, we’re gonna send them back home packing wherever they came from,” the 71-year-old member of Congress said last month.

The story of his political ascendance and reign in Upper Manhattan has also been characterized by an intense rivalry with Manhattan Democratic Party Chair Keith Wright, an ally of the late Rep. Charles Rangel, whom Espaillat challenged for Congress in 2012 and 2014.

But this year’s primary seems to have calmed the bitter rivalry between Espaillat and Wright amid the encroachment of the Democratic Socialists of America on disputed turf. Earlier this month, Espaillat endorsed Wright’s son , state Assemblymember Jordan Wright, who was also facing a DSA-backed challenger.

The peace pact wasn’t enough to fend off the challenge from Avila Chevalier, who seized on a progressive swing in the district ever since Mamdani handily beat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral primary there.

“We have come a long way from where we used to be as a party,” Mamdani said in the interview where he announced his endorsement of Avila Chevalier. “It’s time we have a new generation that not only takes us back to that ambition, but takes us forward to the tomorrow that so many New Yorkers are waiting for.”

Congress

Former Utah Rep. Ben McAdams is on track to return to Congress

Published

2 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Rep. Ben McAdams won his primary Tuesday, paving the way for his return to Congress.

McAdams, a moderate, staved off a roster of progressive challengers in Utah’s newly redrawn 1st District, a rare deep-blue Salt Lake City district in a deep-red state that came as a result of a messy, decadelong redistricting saga.

McAdams will enter November as the heavy favorite in a district former Vice President Kamala Harris won by nearly 24 points in 2024.

McAdams won a GOP-leaning seat in the 2018 Democratic wave and governed as a centrist, Blue Dog Democrat who pushed for a balanced budget amendment — but he lost his reelection bid in 2020. He was one of the first Democrats to signal interest in running in the new 1st District and quickly garnered support from Utah elected officials and national centrist Democrats.

His progressive opponents attempted to paint him as too conservative, pointing to his previous mixed record on abortion. One opponent, state Sen. Nate Blouin, called on the other candidates to consolidate their support behind one person to avoid splitting the progressive vote. None agreed, and McAdams — who raised more money than the three other Democrats combined — prevailed.

Congress

Trump’s preferred candidate wins primary to succeed Elise Stefanik

Published

2 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

ALBANY, New York — President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik cruised to victory in his Republican primary Tuesday evening.

Anthony Constantino, the CEO of custom sticker company Sticker Mule, defeated Assemblymember Robert Smullen, a retired Marine colonel, for the nomination in a deep red upstate New York House district.

Trump, along with MAGA figures Roger Stone and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, backed Constantino’s bid, casting aside Smullen’s endorsement from the New York Republican Committee.

Constantino’s victory underscores the power of Trump’s endorsement in a district he has won during each of his three presidential campaigns. His win also highlights how a candidate who’s fashioned himself in a MAGA mold can continue to resonate in a largely rural and predominantly white district that has struggled economically for decades.

A former boxer, Constantino has dabbled in music, producing songs that praise Trump. He initially drew Stone’s attention after erecting a large “Vote for Trump” sign on a building in Amsterdam, N.Y., a city less than an hour west of Albany. Constantino also gifted Trump a bronze statue in the president’s likeness.

The circus-like primary became a bruising battle between a first-time candidate who channeled Trump-style promotion and attacks against an establishment favorite with a long, accomplished resume.

Constantino referred to Smullen as “Slime Bob” and called him “evil” in a text message to his rival. Smullen, in turn, called Constantino “unfit” and knocked his prior enrollment as a Democrat.

The race became so bitter that Smullen refused to shake Constantino’s hand at the conclusion of their only televised debate.

Constantino poured $10 million of his own money into the race and spent more than $3.8 million on TV ads, saturating upstate media market airwaves. Smullen’s campaign spent a fraction of that amount, more than $500,000 in ad spending, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.

The sticker impresario also displayed a marketing flare, printing t-shirts that touted his Trump endorsement.

Smullen leaned heavily on his biography and background as a combat Marine. But he often found himself responding — sometimes angrily — to Constantino’s barrage of attacks.

Constantino will now have to make peace with some New York power brokers as he pivots to the general election. Smullen is set to remain on the November ballot with the backing of the state Conservative Party’s ballot line. Constantino is being sued for defamation by that party’s leader, Jerry Kassar.

The House seat opened after Stefanik, who has represented the area for more than a decade, announced she would leave Congress after scuttling her gubernatorial campaign. Stefanik was previously Trump’s nominee for United Nations ambassador, but that was yanked amid concerns her vacancy would complicate the House Republicans’ narrow majority.

Stefanik did not endorse in the race to replace her.