The “Epstein files” has always been an obsession of elites—first on the Right because they thought it hurt the Left, then on the Left because they thought it hurt the Right.
Epstein’s crimes are horrifying—preying on scores of girls as young as 14—and certainly any powerful individuals who participated in those crimes or continued to associate with him after his true nature was revealed deserve to be exposed.
But what we’ve seen so far in the new documents I’ve seen is precious little by way of participating in crimes. Instead, the documents reveal lots of famous, powerful, and wealthy people with terrible judgment who continued to associate with Epstein when they should have known better, long after the truth about him was revealed.
Despite the release of millions of documents, an “Epstein list” exposing a “pedophile ring” has not materialized, as a few of us predicted.
This is no defense of the people who continued to associate with Epstein. I support chasing these people out of public life. But I’m not surprised there hasn’t been evidence of further criminality—(yet, anyway. Of course, more information may emerge, in which case I will happily admit I was wrong!).
But though the media is obsessed with the story—both the left-wing mainstream media and the right-wing independent media—most Americans really aren’t.
It’s true that polling consistently finds that Americans on both sides of the aisle think Trump has handled the Epstein files badly. But that doesn’t mean it’s an issue that matters to them. When you ask whether people are following the Epstein saga very closely, the number drops significantly—to just 18% of registered voters. Another 27% are following it “somewhat closely,” but the majority are following it barely or not at all.
Meanwhile, a CNN poll from August found that the number of respondents who said that the Epstein case was their top issue was a grand total of... zero. CNN also found that interest in Epstein fell off a cliff when it was no longer dominating headlines.
I joined the CNN Abby Phillip panel to discuss! Here’s a snippet.
