https://x.com/i/status/1948211079001051267
The GOP chair was caught off guard and scrambled—first delaying the vote, then trying to sabotage it by adding amendments to include Biden administration communications. Democrats called their bluff and agreed.
Then the GOP chair, Rep. Higgins, lied, claiming the motion FAILED until Rep. Robert Garcia forced a full roll call vote.
Ultimately, the vote passed 8-2 after 3 Republicans DEFIED their leadership and joined all 5 Democrats to pass the motion.
I suspect a lot of the GOP also want rid of Trump now he’s won for the second time.
They’ve put in their time. They’re political lifers. They know they don’t really need him any more, and frankly his health will take care of that sooner rather than later.
If he follows the rules, he can’t run again anyway. If he doesn’t then they don’t need him to win elections for them, because there won’t be any more. They’re just stuffing their pockets while waiting for any opportunity to try and get in a bigger chair. Their only worry is that someday, lobbyists might not want to bribe them any more to do their jobs.
I suspect the list is being withheld for reasons other than Donald, who we all know is on it anyway. Plenty of more important shadowy figures who still have something to lose.
They’re still terrified of his rabid base and none of them have spines.
They’ll still obey the whip (because people that don’t get deselected come election time), but they’ll all be planning their next move once Trump is done.
The only loyalty among the rank and file is the fear of losing their jobs.
I think you’re right. They wanted the $3T tax cut, and that’s exactly what they got. Trump is now unnecessary risk for the oligarchs, I wouldn’t be surprised if they pin all of Epstein on him to dumpster his ass now. Then we’ll have 2.5 terms of President Vance to look forward to, as he works with Silicon Valley elites to replace the treasury with shitcoins.
They want him to make it to Jan 21, 2027, then he can keel over. That way Vance can still qualify for two full terms afterward.
Vance doesn’t even seem popular in his own family, let alone with the public at large.
Musk isn’t allowed to run so they’re all out of demagogues at this point, and their entire political strategy hinges on that. At some point they know they’ve got to shift back to pretending to be normal again. Their next candidate is going to be someone like Romney. They’re going to lose all the crazies when they do, but chances are they’ll just go back to not voting while hoarding bump stocks.
“You won’t need to vote”
I broadly agree, but not sure I see a short term way back to winning as “normal again”, the “crazies” induced the vast majority of the party to be sycophants to the crazy, and this hopefully alienated some moderates. Not sure who they might break out for 2028 if they do have an actual free election, but I could see them in a tough strategic spot trying to claim being moderate with the behavior of the party since 2016 and particularly since Trump’s loss in 2020.
So they have a lack of a good fit for the Trump crazy but also the liability of having tried to be close with the crazy…
I think the GOP media machine will continue to push more extreme candidates who are more akin to ramaswamy or some other techno-crat.
I, among other people I know who voted for DT have absolutely zero interest in voting for JD. He’s a Petey T puppet with the charisma of wet bread.
Except Vance is a charisma vacuum.
I mean yeah. That said, if the GOP seems to start shining that turd a bit later than this time next year, know that the plan is for Trump to learn the meaning of planned obsolescence.
I suspect they don’t actually care at all except the companies lobbying these particular representatives are being hurt by the tariffs.
They’re republicans, no need to elaborate how awful they are.
There isn’t a list of abusers. The only person the files have evidence of abuse is Epstein himself. Per multiple sources interviewed by the NY Times, the only lists in the files are victims and witnesses, and releasing the files would just victimize them again to doxxing. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/us/politics/epstein-files-trump-bondi-justice-department-fbi.html
Dems are jumping on the bandwagon because it distracts the Republicans from their rampage of destroying the foundations of our country, but the files themselves are a nothingburger as far any actual evidence of crimes.
The DOJ literally said Trump was named in the files.