'Give me a straight answer': Swing state voters not buying Trump's Epstein deflections

25 July

CNN host Manu Raju on July 25, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)

The public is aware of President Donald Trump’s scandals, but a Nevada focus group suggests that’s only the start of his midterm problems.

Every member of the 12-person group (who switched from Biden to Trump in 2024) knows who convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is, and six of them say “Trump is covering up Epstein to protect his own reputation,” CNN host Manu Raju reported Friday.

“It just feels like typical Trump deflection, right?” said one group member. “Like, give me a straight answer about Jeff Epstein and let's move forward. But instead, I'm going to talk about all my successes. I'm going to get you thinking ‘oh, this is a minor topic.’”

“I feel that he has fear about if this gets turned out, what would happen to him, so he is trying to … deflect,” said another.

Raju said what may signal an even bigger issue for Trump in the midterms, however, is the fact that six of those six said inflation matters more than the Epstein scandal—only inflation is not currently a winning issue with the White House.

“The economy is not great news at the moment for Trump, either,” Punchbowl News Co-founder John Bresnahan said. “His poll numbers on the economy have softened a lot. … Gallup showed real bad numbers. He's losing independents. His economic numbers are not great, talking about inflation. It's not Epstein—so he'd [prefer] to talk about that—but it's still not necessarily going from strength to strength with Trump. It's going from a disaster to a problem area."

Raju also reported seven of the 12 Trump voters saying they “disapprove of Trump more generally,” and he suspected the Epstein issue was chipping away at Trump’s positive perception even though people were rating the economy as higher importance.

NPR White House Correspondent Tamara Keith compared the Epstein scandal to the moment when Biden’s perception also began to tumble with voters.

“Biden’s people had come in saying ‘we're going to be the competent ones. We're going to handle everything competently’, and then Afghanistan changed the focus,” Keith said, referring to Biden’s abrupt decision to pull out. “Trump comes in saying ‘I'm going to be the truth teller' … and then, what? You're hiding something? But you were supposed to be the one that was going to blow up the establishment.”

Regardless, if the U.S. public remains sour on the economy, Keith said it will ultimately be on the heads of Trump and his fellow Republicans.

“The president owns this economy,” Keith said. “He is doing so much with tariffs and everything else. This is his economy. And … Republicans will win or lose on how it's doing.”

Watch the video below, or by clicking this link.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

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