Footage of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-a-Lago in the 1990s (Image: Screengrab via NBC News)
CNN host and podcaster S.E. Cupp says that President Donald Trump's "mess" involving deceased convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is only getting worse as the walls are closing in on him.
"Donald Trump’s 180-degree turn on Epstein over the years has been a saga of self-preservation, useful distraction and false appeasement as the base he conditioned to demand answers has refused to let it go," Cupp, host of CNN's "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered," writes.
With the government now reopened and Congress back to work, she says, "the rubber finally meets the road" and it's a rocky one for the president.
Following Trump's signing of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has until December 19 to publicly release its internal files on Epstein.
And though Republicans have begrudgingly voted to release the files, Cupp says they're going to have a lot more to answer to in the future.
"Republicans are going to have to answer for countless acts of cowardice, from acquitting Trump of impeachable offenses to defending Jan. 6. History, I have faith, will judge them correctly and harshly," she says.
"If it were just a meaningless hoax, Trump wouldn’t care if the files were released. He wouldn’t have spent years stoking dark conspiracy theories about the files, only to suddenly conclude there was nothing in them," Cupp says.
She also says that Trump's behavior surrounding the scandal speaks volumes.
"He wouldn’t have switched from backing a 'full investigation' to impeding one. He wouldn’t have had Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved to a lower-security prison after 'testifying' to one of Trump’s favorite lawyers that Trump did nothing wrong," she notes.
"He wouldn’t need to call lawmakers to change their votes. He wouldn’t need to fire off threatening social media posts," she adds.
Despite some people doubting Trump will face any consequences from his alleged involvement with Epstein, Cupp says he may not be able to evade them.
"And now it feels like the walls are closing in. It’s not just Democrats pushing for transparency, but Republicans, too. And his MAGA base is in fact demanding it. How much longer can Teflon Don withstand the calls coming from inside the house?" she asks.