- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Speaker Mike Johnson said he would send lawmakers home early for their summer recess in order to head off Democratic demands for votes on calling for the release of files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Johnson implied that his concerns about transparency had been alleviated, for now, by Mr. Trump’s move to authorize Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein. That is a far cry from the breadth of information the president’s supporters have demanded, yet it appeared to be enough to persuade the speaker.
Edit
This thread used to link to https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/22/us/trump-news/0d8c9050-dee0-5253-89b2-30e4737090c1, a live thread linked from NYT’s “Breaking news” newsletter, which headlined it “Johnson Shutting Down House Early to Block Epstein Vote”. Now that the NYT has made a standalone article, I’ve replaced this post’s link with that article’s gift link, courtesy of the relevant subcommag.
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Pedophiles covering for pedophiles. It’s the GOP way!
So turns out this is the real reason they’re against abortions. I always thought it was the labor they could exploit. I guess it’s both
Labor for the ugly kids, rape for the rest.
Government Efficiency
deleted by creator
Gamey Old Pedophiles
The look you get when you run cover for pedos.
Looks like a pedophile himself. Not doing any favors covering for them.
Everyone in the GOP looks guilty as fuck.
Tune in next week as we learn, yet again, that their supporters have literally no bottom they’re not willing to dig past to show the world they can go even lower.
personally i think johnson looks like an adorable teddy bear
with a dark underside
and he himself have been to conversion therapy, or participated in it for one reason or another, he projecting.
Republicans protecting pedophiles. Must be a day that ends in ‘Y’
What do we pay these people for?
We don’t pay these people, they do.
I mean we do too, but its chump change compared to the kickbacks they get from those who are “too big to fail.”
Talk about entitlement. “I simply can’t be exposed. How would society ever carry on without my generational wealth pulling the strings from the shadows?”
They still make a lot from us. And it increases yearly for inflation, and lifetime benefits for Healthcare… all those things they vote against for us.
Might want to specify which they, just so people don’t misinterpret it as (((they)))
oh dear b-but that’ll ruin my laconism
That’s a cool word! Thanks for introducing me to it XD
Nothing says “Nothing to see here” like shutting down a portion of the government.
I just wish the right-wing base held their representatives to a higher standard or at least to the standard they hold Dems.
You mean you wish they made up insane stories from absolute fantasy to make the standard of goodness fluctuate with their whims? I dunno…
I guess he figures that when they return, everybody will have forgotten about Epstein.
He’s probably right.
First thing Democrats should do when they get back is demand the files be released again. Not like Republicans will allow anything that actually benefits the public to be done, might as well just troll them.
And they should absolutely run on that - “I will release (or support the release of) the Epstein Files on Day One.”
Every Democratic candidate should say that over and over. Don’t dwell on it, don’t expand on it, just make that statement. Make the MAGAs blather about why it’s good to support child molesters.
And they should absolutely run on that - “I will release (or support the release of) the Epstein Files on Day One.”
They should have run on that in 2024. Made a big huge issue of it during the campaign.
Instead we got “Look! dick cheney likes me!”
It wouldn’t have been as effective back then. Now that they’ve finally come to the moment of release, they refused to do it, after making it one of the center points of the campaign. For many, it WAS the campaign. Now that they’ve finally balked at the finish line, there is no speculation about their position.
NOW, is when the Dems can finally take real advantage of this situation of the MAGAs making, and they should seize this opportunity and explore it mercilessly. The MAGAs certainly would.
unfortunately the BBB tax/medicaid cut time bombs will be in effect when that happens making the dumb magats suddenly forget about the epstein files.
Trying to imagine how my employer would feel if I left my job early without doing the work.
This is him doing their work.
Actually he is doing his job correctly. Protecting pedophiles is his job.
Gaslight. Obstruct. Project (and also pedophilia apparently)
Guardians Of Pedophiles
The most damning thing we’re learning from all of this is how unbelievably gullible and stupid Trump sycophants are.
The way Republicans are handling this is actually extremely unpopular with the MAGA crowd too, it’s basically the first time that Trump’s base has been in outright disagreement with him on an issue. Pretty much every political demographic in the country is in agreement re: Epstein disclosures. I think we need to show some critical support to the majority of Republicans who want the full files released, at least on this specific issue, in order to keep the pressure up until congress comes back from their big long vacation. Everybody is angry about this. They want it, we want it, let’s keep the energy up.
How do you even justify NOT releasing the files? Nobody has offered a single believable reason to hide them, other than to protect bad people from responsibility. It’s pretty hard to stand in the spotlight and claim you are doing the right thing.
The only possible justifications are “to protect victims” and “to protect people from baseless accusations” if there really is no proof of anything.
The first can be done with retractions. The latter is the issue for MAGA, as trump and his boosters have been claiming for years that the files are full of vile, evil shit that is being hidden and that they would expose everyone. They claimed this for half a decade, and were saying the truth was about to come out just months ago. They claimed they put 10,000 FBI agents on the case to verify the files, and gave MAGA influencers a “part 1” dossier to splash around.
Suddenly, a few months later there is nothing to see, even as more and more leaks about Trump being a pedophile hit the news.
Now they are playing games about releasing “credible” reports (i.e nothing with Trump in them or any republicans) and releasing everything but the files.
Once you have faith in a Sky Daddy, evidence doesn’t matter and Truth is whatever you “feel in your heart”
While I understand the sentiment, I don’t feel like that’s a particularly fresh revelation… If anything, I was surprised at the handful of dissenting voices on the right. Even before this latest wave of Epstein news, I was willing to bet Trump could just straight up admit to pedophilia and still wouldn’t lose much of his base.
I think the Trump regime is getting push back on Epstein because they made a big deal of it during the campaign. And a bunch of their talking heads piled on the Epstein will out a bunch of Dems fantasy.
He’s an absolutely disgusting excuse for a human being and coincidentally has a terrible poker face. The first thing I noticed is that he’ll have a shit eating grin on his face for the entire duration of an interview while talking about fucking people over (even while not talking) but on all the interviews about Epstein that shit eating grin is completely gone.
What a weak ass, pedophile protecting, pathetic little man, hiding behind self righteous claims of “family values” and a “strong patriarch.”
You know what Moses would do in this situation? “Lead his people” by protecting kids from the pedophiles Johnson is unwilling to expose.
All after going on with that whole BS about going against Trump on this one. Weyrich was right when he said there was no longer a “moral majority.” But not bc they lost a manufactured culture war. Bc the leaders of the movement were never motivated by morality. They were motivated by their desire for power and control.
This is exactly the outcome you would expect from a bunch of narcissists hell bent on forcing society to “return” to some idealised world that never actually existed, all in the name of “traditional values.”
Those with power demanding everyone conform to their demands and live their lives by the rules they make up, while using their position of power to manipulate the majority with claims of being “chosen by God to lead.” All while protecting the most evil, despicable scum of the earth. Satan himself couldn’t have come up with a better way to cosplay as an angel of light.
Why is it ok that he can do this? Before you respond glibly, IT IS NOT OK THAT HE CAN DO THIS. We need to fix this shit.
Why can’t he do this? He was elected Speaker of the House.
Why is it ok to let the speaker have that kind of power?
I don’t see why it isn’t. This is the norm everywhere else. For a slightly extreme example, Prime Ministers can do the same thing. You have to have someone decide when to recess. If representatives disagree, they just vacate 'em. To counterbalance, the Speaker does not usually participate in floor debates, and is mostly responsible for other procedural and administrative stuff as well.
That’s very different than what we have here.
What’s your alternative to having the representatives elect one member to exclude from debates and decide when to recess?
I would start with not taking such a reductionist view of the situation
What’s the holistic view, then?
Is it a norm for the government to just go on a paid vacation when an uncomfortable question arises?
Not the norm, but not unexpected at all either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Brackett_Reed#Spanish-American_War_and_resignation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_House_of_Representatives_sit-in#June_23:_Sit-in_ends
Gaslight Obstruction
ProjectionPedophiliaMorons And Genuine Assholes
as a master in parts of speech from the holy aatubey school of hypercorrection i demand you gerundify “gaslight” into “gaslighting”
Johnson gives dicks a bad name.
