‘Full transparency’: Pennsylvania members of Congress field questions over the Epstein files in telephone town halls

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The battle over the Epstein files has become a topic at recent telephone town halls hosted by Pennsylvania Republicans last week. U.S. Reps. Scott Perry and Ryan Mackenzie both fielded questions about their positions.

A participant on Mackenzie’s call asked the congressman if he thinks “Trump is in the Epstein client list and should it be released?”

Mackenzie, who represents a swing district that includes Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties, said he wants the Department of Justice to release the files.

“I’m in support of full transparency,” he said. “It is a topic of such national interest and speculation, going back to its original days.”

Mackenzie added that then-President Joe Biden should have released them, but now he hopes President Donald Trump will.

“And if not, then Congress should potentially step in and compel them to do that because again, the American people deserve to have full transparency and information about what is in those files and ultimately we’re going to get there,” he said.

During his own telephone town hall, Perry told a constituent he personally requested their release.

“I have requested that the DOJ … release the files,” he said. “Not only that, they also provide a special prosecutor … as well as other things. I’ve been very clear and I’ve been out front on it.”

Many Democrats have been pushing the issue, which appears to be dividing Trump supporters. A recent Quinnipiac polls shows that 63% of Americans do not approve of how the president is handling the issue, including 36% of Republicans, a population that includes MAGA and QAnon supporters who continue to believe Epstein was part of a large sex trafficking conspiracy that involves politicians and members of an elite class. Even Trump himself has sometimes promoted this conspiracy.

Some Democrats appear to be taking advantage of the wedge forming between those factions and those still loyal to Donald Trump. Rep. Summer Lee, a Democrat who represents the Pittsburgh area, introduced a motion to subpoena the Epstein files, which a House Oversight Committee approved with the support of three Republicans, including Perry, who voted with the Democrats.

Both Perry and Mackenzie represent swing districts and are on a list of a few dozen members of the House who represent districts Democrats believe they can win in the upcoming midterms.

Lee rejected the notion that her effort had anything to do with the elections next year, saying “the impetus here is that the American people have been calling for this for so long.”

“So many people around the country were really in one kind of voice demanding this, so we saw an opportunity to actually move on this and to actually spur some action,” she said. “I’m happy that we took the opportunity. I’m happy that the Republicans joined us and the opportunity to prove that they are willing to have some level of transparency too.”

However, Democrats appear to be looking to keep questions about Epstein going and have begun to run ads about Epstein in swing House districts over the summer recess, including in that of Brian Fitzpatrick, another Republican whom Democrats see as vulnerable.

Political strategist Sam Chen, who has run congressional campaigns and worked for former Senator Pat Toomey and Representative Charlie Dent, says that there is a danger for any Republicans not named Trump.

“We call him ‘Teflon Don’ for a reason,” Chen said. “It doesn’t seem like anything really sticks to him, [but] the Trump-light candidates don’t have his kind of Teflonness when they campaign, and so a lot of them lose.”

Chen said the responses Mackenzie and others are giving suggest coordinated messaging designed to help give vulnerable members cover as they engage voters during their recesses back in their home districts. However, he said it wasn’t likely to be effective.

“Full transparency sounds like a cop out,” he said. “They want to know exactly what that means. Constituents want you to spell out what it is you are going to do, and it’s not these kind of nice quips of full transparency. They want these files released … you want your member of Congress to commit to that specific language and say, ‘Yes, I will vote to release the files.’”

However, he added it’s too early to know if Democrats will have any success pushing the narrative, and the impact will depend on other issues.

“This is a long time to keep an issue alive,” he said.  Also, “if the economy is doing really well and jobs are booming and gas prices are low, then [Epstein will] take center stage. But if the economy is bad, that’s an issue that affects every single person. And so that’s going to still be the dominant issue. And issues like the Epstein list are going to take a back seat to it.”

Lee agreed that, when it comes to the midterms, there are other concerns for voters to focus on, such as “historic cuts to Medicaid and Social Security and college financing and environmental justice.”

“We’re all living in this attention economy when so many things are being thrown on Americans,” she said. “We’ve seen the Republican party, particularly led by this administration, throw everything they can at the wall – cuts to departments that they maybe don’t even have the legal authority to do, to mask disappearances and deportation of legal status holders and citizens alike.”