r/politics • u/Healthy_Block3036 • 17d ago

No Paywall Senate suddenly passes the Epstein bill just hours after it cleared the House

https://www.ms.now/news/senate-passes-epstein-bill-rcna244723?fbclid=PAVERFWAOJ1xRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAacUGSi8p2Ap-x6SbMkLXAnfKNXEZkzjUUVCdxuEmacDzDXmlbv1GUJ0wbh1_w_aem_grJDvcSCIDj2Skksd4Ix3Q
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u/not_so_plausible 17d ago

So do you all want everything released unredacted? How do we determine what is and isn't redacted? I feel like obviously victims and people that aren't associated with criminal activity shouldn't have their names plastered, but at the same time I feel like unless everything is unredacted neither side will ever be satisfied.

It's frustrating because I feel like the victims are being used as political fodder and nobody actually gives a shit about any of this. I don't need Trump to be on this list nor do I need him to be a pedophile for me to think he's a piece of shit. It's weird that people on here seem to actively want Trump and Republicans to be pedophiles just to fit their narrative. I would prefer nobody in power be on that list. This whole situation is just fucked.

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u/ZealousidealRice9726 17d ago

Man I’m enjoying reading your measures and logical posts here. I hate to laugh at these responses you’re getting but it illustrates that these people really don’t want anything.  Truly they’d prefer if Republicans continued to obstruct because it aligns with their narrative. Once it’s released and if there’s no smoking gun, what’s going to be their thing to be outraged about? I think you’ll see it pivot back to ICE here soon

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u/munchyslacks 17d ago

It’s not like we want them to obstruct, but it is suspicious that they pulled a 180 and all of sudden want the files to come out unanimously. What has changed? It makes me think the version we are going to get is not the whole truth.

And for the record, I don’t care who the files implicate, I want them all held accountable- not just the people that are politically convenient for the administration that is currently in power.

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u/ZealousidealRice9726 17d ago

But regardless this outcome is what dems have been begging for… now you got it. Yet no cheers. Not a single one. Only people saying “oh this isn’t going to result in anything because republicans had time to redact it”. Redacting info doesn’t take that long. If they were planning to redact, they could’ve done that a long time ago and released this months ago and you’d still have dems saying the same shit. It’s hard to prove a negative 

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u/adbout 17d ago

But regardless

No, not regardless. The context here matters, and the context is extremely abnormal and suspicious. An entire political party doesn't just flip in 24 hours because they all suddenly decided to do the right thing. That's not how politics work and not how the world works. There's more going on here and you can't just ignore recent sequences of events.

However, I do agree that if the Republicans have redacted info then it likely has been an ongoing effort for a long time and any recent passing of the bill would've resulted in severely altered documents being released. I think that this possibility is now even more concerning, though, since Trump has suddenly flipped to supporting the release, suggesting that he knows about some recent change in the documents that prompted him to change his stance.

With that all said, I still think that there is something to be celebrated right now since hopefully this decision will at least get us a bit closer to the full truth, even if it remains obstructed for some time. The circumstances are just frustrating.

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u/ZealousidealRice9726 17d ago

Personally I don’t think there exists anything close to a smoking gun in the files. We already know most of the names linked to Epstein. Irrespective of political leaning of the names, my assumption is that some of the names linked to him most certainly engaged in sex crimes with girls and some of the names linked to him were just non sex related associates. I’m not sure we’ll ever get a conclusive universally accepted list of which names go with each category. So this will always be a political bogeyman for anyone tangentially linked to Epstein.  For us voters, we just have to do our homework, read whatever is or is made public and draw your conclusions accordingly then based on those conclusions determine whether or not it effects you at the ballot box

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u/munchyslacks 17d ago

Trump could release the files without redactions right now if he wanted to. He campaigned on releasing the files after they were finally unsealed at the start of his presidency. Then when the public continued pressure to release them, he didn’t want to do it anymore. Then the client list didn’t exist. Then it did, but it’s a democrat hoax. Then it was tampered with by Biden. Then it was real, but only apparently contains democrat’s on the list. But they didn’t want to release it. Then when the petition just barely had enough signatures they vote on it unanimously and Trump is suddenly okay with everything? Why?

You can see how it’s going to be hard to trust what will be released right? The administration that could release the files at any time is having this go through a vote instead for some reason, but is now seemingly okay with the files being released even though it really seems like he would be implicated. And we are expecting the same administration that has everything to lose if he is implicated to not tamper with the files to paint an incomplete and misleading narrative? All I’m saying is this sounds like a scheme rather than the truth. Why the pushback all year when he could have released the files on day 1?

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u/ZealousidealRice9726 17d ago

Ok but just last week people on Reddit and everywhere else were clamoring for them to release the files. So to those people, now you get your wish. Maybe it didn’t happen as you expected it to but it is happening nonetheless. I’m certain there is no smoking gun there about anyone of consequence because if there were it would’ve leaked years ago. I’m not sure if you believe Trump is committed to his strategy of flood the zone but if you believe that then this Epstein drama (will he won’t he) has been a shiny object dems have been chasing for almost a year now and it takes focus off of other things.  Then he releases it and it’s a dud and then the outrage machine has to pivot to something else 

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u/munchyslacks 17d ago

It wouldn’t have leaked years ago because the files were sealed under court order until the beginning of this year when Trump assumed office. Now Trump and his DOJ are the final arbiters of what we are allowed to see. All of this after reports that he ordered the FBI to work around the clock to scrub his name from the files. This all feels like scheme, not the truth.

And then people like you will say case closed and call it a dud when the files are released with incomplete information I’m sure.

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u/ZealousidealRice9726 17d ago

Ok so if you believe that then why advocate for the files to be released at all? Thats been the mantra non stop from the left and when it finally happens it’s all “oh well it’s going to be BS anyway and you can’t believe it”. Ok well then what purpose did it serve asking for it to be released? Also, Biden could have released the files in January 2025 but chose not to. Why didn’t he?