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Melania: Desperate to Distance Herself From Epstein

For months the Felon has been trying desperately to change the news coverage and political conversations from the Epstein files.  Back in February he said it was "time to move on" to other topics.  Indeed cynics would argue that every time coverage trended back to the topic of Epstein, the Felon would invoke new tariffs or do other things to distract the media and change the narrative.  Thus, many were surprised, if not totally stunned, that yesterday Melania Trump did a press conference and sought to distance herself from both Epstein and his accomplice, Maxwell, and called for congressional hearings for the victims of Epstein and his wealthy friends. Shockingly - and probably disingenuously - when asked about Melania's press conference he at first said he knew nothing about it. Meanwhile, many are wondering if another shoe is about to drop and whether Melania was seeking to get ahead of whatever story could be coming.  A piece at the New Republic noted as follows:

On Thursday, Melania Trump tried to deny having any connections to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, but the internet quickly produced receipts. . . . .  Why would Melania Trump say all of this now, out of the blue? Some on social media are speculating that she is trying to get ahead of a major upcoming revelation connecting her to Epstein. . . . .Melania’s remarks will likely draw more attention to the Epstein files, which had been pushed out of the news cycle thanks to the war with Iran. One wonders what the president thinks about her remarks, and whether they are by design.

Perhaps the Felon has tired of hearing that we have witnessed another TACO incident with the supposed Iran  ceasefire, but it's hard to think of a topic he'd rather keep out of public attention more than the Epstein files. A piece in the New York Times reports on the surprising press conference:

Melania Trump summoned reporters to the White House Thursday afternoon to give a surprise statement about Jeffrey Epstein, saying she had no relationship with him, was not a victim of his and had no knowledge of his crimes.

In remarks that lasted just under six minutes, she said she wanted to clear “my good name.” She addressed rumors about the origin story of how she met her husband, the president of the United States. And she called on Congress to give a hearing to victims of Mr. Epstein’s crimes.

“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” Mrs. Trump said. She talked about “numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me” that “have been percolating on social media for years now.”

It was not clear why she chose to speak out now, or to what reports she was referring.

A spokesperson for Mrs. Trump said the president knew that the first lady planned to make a statement, but later said it was not clear if Mr. Trump was aware of the topic of her remarks. In a phone call with an MS Now reporter, Mr. Trump said he had no prior knowledge of what she had planned to say.

The first lady’s statement is sure to supercharge a narrative that the Trump administration has been struggling to make go away since last summer, when chunks of the MAGA base broke into open revolt against Mr. Trump over his handling of the Epstein investigation.

The scandal has burbled all year, the president’s supporters refusing to move on from it no matter how many times he instructs them to. Just last week, Pam Bondi lost her job as attorney general in part over her failure to contain the furor. She is still tangled up in it.

What Mrs. Trump said on Thursday may have been designed to clear her own name, but it certainly won’t help the West Wing escape its Epstein troubles.

The hydra-headed Epstein scandal has ensnared so many people who’ve walked the halls of the White House that the first lady seemed intent on setting herself apart.

“I was never on Epstein’s plane,” she insisted, “and never visited his private island.”

The same cannot be said for her husband, whose name appeared on the flight logs for Mr. Epstein’s plane several times, or for the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, who acknowledged in a Senate hearing earlier this year that he’d traveled to Mr. Epstein’s island.

And so there the first lady stood on Thursday, trying to distance herself from all things Epstein. She slammed those who would peddle “false smears” against her . . . .In recent months, Mr. Trump has tried to dismiss the Epstein controversy. He told the country it’s time to “move on” and snapped at a reporter who asked him what his message would be to Mr. Epstein’s victims.

On Thursday, his wife struck a different tone: “Every woman should have her day to tell her story in public, if she wishes.”

And then she turned on her stiletto heels and stalked out as the dazed reporters started shouting after her: “Why now!? Why now!?”

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Republicans Worry Iran May Cost Them The Mid-Terms

This morning the so-called cease fire in Iran is on the brink of collapsing, the Strait of Hormuz is closed and oil prices have crept up $20/barrel from yesterday's low.  Meanwhile, high diesel and jet fuel prices are driving up many consumer prices to further exacerbate voters' displeasure with the Felon's handling of the economy.  Affordability has been a winning issue for Democrats and as things stand, the Iran war and high gasoline are only making matters worse for Republicans. True, some in the GOP insist on wearing rose tinted glasses, but others believe the Felon's war of choice will take them to defeat come the November elections. Indeed, some believe Republicans may lose control of the Texas statehouse, a new poll shows a majority of Americans want Congress to impeach the Felon, and it has now come out that the Pentagon threatened Pope Leo because he spoke out against the Felon's horrible treatment of undocumented immigrants.  A piece at Politico looks at where the GOP finds itself thanks to the Felon's policies and the war against Iran.  Should the cease fire fall apart and oil prices soar again, the situation will only be that much worse. Here are highlights:  

Republicans are relieved over Trump’s steps toward reconciliation in Iran — but they worry the measures are too little, too late to save them from a brutal midterm election cycle.

Behind the public celebration by many Republicans of the temporary two-week ceasefire announcement, longtime party operatives continue to warn of a bleak political reality as the cost-of-living concerns around the war including spiking gas prices that are likely to continue for weeks if not longer even if the fragile ceasefire holds.

A person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, put it bluntly. “This war in Iran almost cements the fact that we lose the midterms in November — the Senate and House,” the person said.

The concerns are compounded by Republicans’ underperformances in a spate of recent elections, fueling fears that voters, concerned about pocketbook issues, are eager for change. The war, even if it ends now, will likely have lingering effects on gas and other commodity prices that Republicans will be forced to defend on the trail, as much as they might try to talk about tax cuts or border security.

“We will not turn on the proverbial dime to right this course,” said Barrett Marson, a longtime GOP strategist in Arizona. “Time is not on the president’s side when it comes to the November election.”

Trump and his top advisers have spent much of the last few months arguing that the country was on the verge of an economic turnaround — one that would become evident as policies from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill started to fully take effect.

Instead, the Iran war has put the president and his allies on the defensive, overshadowing their economic messaging while worsening many voters’ actual economic realities. Iran has used the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of global oil flows, as leverage over the U.S. in the war, sending gas prices spiking across the country.

Republicans’ more dismal outlook also comes as the party has continued to underperform Trump by wide margins in all manner of elections.

On Tuesday, that trend accelerated. Georgia Democrat Shawn Harris lost a special election for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old House seat by 12 points, but he slashed into Trump’s massive 37 point win in the district in 2024. And in Wisconsin, the Democratic-aligned state Supreme Court nominee won in a blowout, and did so by carrying GOP strongholds in the state.

Democrats have continued to hammer Trump for the war, and they’ve seized on the high gas prices it’s caused to elevate what was already their core campaign focus: affordability. Polling from the Democratic firm Navigator Research released Wednesday found that 65 percent of voters do not agree with how Trump is handling gas prices, which have jumped to over $4 per gallon on average; while 71 percent believed the war in Iran led to the increased prices.

Republicans acknowledge that Democrats’ affordability argument is landing. One Georgia Republican strategist pointed to the fact that the war — which has also split the MAGA base over foreign intervention broadly — “is also an affordability issue.” “Trump’s going to own that,” said the strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“I don’t think any Georgia Republican who understands the Georgia general electorate would want Trump coming here,” they said. “Particularly if [Trump’s favorability is] in the high 30s or mid 30s, if he’s in the mid 30s it’d be a fucking blood bath. Holy fuck.”

Still, some GOP strategists are optimistic that the president has time to turn the economy — and their election prospects — around. After Trump’s Tuesday night announcement, U.S. oil fell to about $94 dollars a barrel, down from a high of nearly $113, but still far higher than pre-war levels.

Another Georgia Republican operative said the midterms were always going to be tough even before Iran. The special election results have “only confirmed what Republicans already know, and that is we’re going to have to fight more than we’ve ever fought before.”

“I do think my Democratic friends and colleagues are probably reading too much into this,” they said. Plus, they added, “We lost special elections before we invaded Iran, right? So it’s just really hard to tell.”

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Democrats Make Big Gains in Key Battlegrounds

To everyone's short term relief the Felon - in another TACO episode - agreed to a two week cease fire with Iran shortly before his own announced deadline was to expire.  Where this ill-thought through war goes next is anyone's guess given that the Iranian regime is perhaps more extreme than the one before the war and the Felon's regime is demanding things that Iran would likely never accept.  Again, it's obvious that the Felon launched his war of choice with no real plan and most certainly no exit strategy. Even if the Strait of Hormuz is temporarily open during the cease fire,  Iran can easily close it again and the Felon may be right back where he found himself when he threated war crimes against Iranian civilians.  Meanwhile on the home front, several special elections yesterday showed Democrats significantly over performing (including expanding the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court) and sending a message that ought to have Republicans worried about the 2026 mid-terms despite their attempts at naysaying.  Yes, the Republican won the seat formerly held by Marjorie Taylor Green, but the margin of the Republican win was only one-third of the Felon's margin in 2024.  A piece at Politico looks at yesterday's election results:

Democrats just had one of their best election nights since [the Felon] President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Again.

In Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, the Democratic-backed candidate sailed to a nearly 20-point landslide victory Tuesday in a battleground Trump carried less than two years ago. Meanwhile, a Georgia Democrat slashed Trump’s margin of victory by two thirds in the state’s reddest district despite losing the election — the most significant overperformance the party has seen across all seven House special elections so far this cycle.

The results in the battleground states — home to key Senate, gubernatorial and House races — are the latest repudiation from voters of Trump and his agenda and flashing warning signs for the GOP heading into November.

“It’s a wow moment in Wisconsin politics,” said former Republican strategist Brandon Scholz, who left the party in 2021. “Republicans ought to be sitting down tonight and going, ‘Okay, we just screwed up another race. What are we going to do in November?’”

Chris Taylor, a liberal Wisconsin judge, led by 20 points with 90 percent of votes counted — nearly double the already-large margin another liberal candidate won by in 2025 — and she did it by making cuts into GOP strongholds.

In Georgia, Democrat Shawn Harris lost to Republican Clay Fuller, but the margin was only 12 points with nearly all votes counted, roughly one-third the 37-point margin Trump won by in 2024.

While Tuesday’s results are not a perfect parallel to November, the consistent Democratic overperformances in races large and small since Trump returned to the White House suggest the base is motivated to turn out for all manner of contests.

Democrats were elated with the results.  “Election after election continues to show what we have been saying over the last year and a half,” said CJ Warnke, the spokesperson for House Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC aligned with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “Americans are fed up with broken promises on no new wars and lower prices on day one from Trump and Republicans.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said on X that Harris’ overperformance was evidence that “enthusiasm for Democrats is growing everywhere.”

There were other signs of Democratic momentum, too: Taylor was leading in Ozaukee County, one of Wisconsin’s most reliably red areas. Her strong performance statewide also helped down ballot, where a Democrat won the Waukesha mayoral contest, which was open after an independent — who left the GOP and endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 — opted not to run for reelection.

Heather Williams, who leads Democrats’ legislative-focused campaign arm, called Taylor’s win in Wisconsin a “decisive victory” that “marks changing tides.”

Many Republicans were quick to dismiss the results in both contests. . . . One longtime Wisconsin Republican strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly, cast the blame on Maria Lazar, the GOP-backed state Supreme Court candidate who was massively outspent in the race.

Republicans in Georgia similarly said the margins in their state’s special election were nothing to worry about, pointing to Harris’ strong fundraising and name ID in the district after running against former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2024.

 

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