MSNBC host Joe Scarborough (image via screengrab)
“Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough and Puck Partner and Chief Political Columnist John Heilemann predicted Republicans up for reelection would quickly vote against President Donald Trump’s wishes and release the government’s entire file on convicted Jeffrey Epstein.
The U.S. Senate requires only four Republican senators to join Democrats in a petition to release the files, but Heilemann doubted this was going to be “an uphill fight” despite Trump actively pressuring Republican senators to vote against the release.
“Are there four of the 13 sitting Republican senators who are up for reelection, who are not going to get on the side of the of this issue, where 75 percent of the American public is and where the MAGA base increasingly is? I don't really see it,” Heilemann said.
Scarborough agreed, largely on the argument of self-preservation.
“You've got Republican senators that are going to be running [for reelection] … But you never know what [issue] is going to break through to voters. This is one of those things that breaks through. And, so, if you're a Republican senator and you're sitting fairly comfortably, maybe you think you're going to win easily, you know, or by three or 4 or 5 points — you just saw what happened last week, the massive wave elections coast to coast,” Scarborough warned, citing an election in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County where Democrats swept all GOP rivals out of office.
“And even Bucks county — the swingiest swing county in America, practically — you’d have to be pretty stupid to say, ‘oh, you know what? I'm going to be on the side of covering up the Epstein files.’ I think as this gets through the House and goes to the Senate, there'll be a lot of Republican senators who said ‘no’ to Donald Trump on the filibuster that are probably going to say no to him on covering up the Epstein files.”