Democrats are finding new ways to make inroads with President Donald Trump's base by harping on his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files — even in staunchly pro-Trump areas.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) was consistently getting huge responses from crowds in deep-red South Carolina the more he talked about the lingering questions surrounding Trump and Epstein. Even when a top aide cautioned Khanna to not "go talking that Epstein down South," the California Democrat did anyway and hit pay dirt.
"The Epstein stuff really struck a nerve with folks," Khanna told the Journal, adding that it was a "concrete step at splitting the Trump coalition."
READ MORE: (Opinion) DOJ memo reveals Trump's dark plan for a new Red Scare — and it may be perfectly legal
Trump's blind spot on Epstein has proven to be potent with voters during the August recess, with Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) getting hammered on the issue by constituents during a rowdy town hall earlier this week. And some top Democrats are using that as a stepping stone to also critique the Trump administration on the president's massive tax and spending legislation he signed into law last month.
"The reality is that it’s all connected," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the outlet. The New York Democrat further argued that both Trump's continued refusal to publicly release all remaining Epstein evidence, along with the trillions of dollars in new tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthiest Americans, were the latest example of the GOP enabling "the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, even if that includes pedophiles."
Elsewhere in states Trump won last year, the Epstein issue continues to be salient with voters. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) harped on it during a rally at the Texas State Capitol building in front of a large crowd. And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) got an Arizona audience to boo Trump when he slammed the administration's cagey approach to Epstein, along with rising prices and his inability to solve foreign crises.
While a significant amount of evidence from Epstein's 2019 prosecution has been made public, the FBI continues to sit on a trove of materials that have been categorized and indexed. According to ABC News, this includes hundreds of gigabytes of data on computer hard drives, logs of visitors to his "Little Saint James" private island and a "document with names," which could be the rumored "client list" the Trump Department of Justice has said doesn't exist.
READ MORE: Did Congress' official Constitution site just delete references to parts of Article 1?
Click here to read the Journal's article in its entirety (subscription required).