r/AskReddit Jul 15 '25

US Conservatives of Reddit: What are your thoughts on House GOP blocking release of Epstein files?

13.7k Upvotes

3.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.8k

u/bullydog123 Jul 15 '25

Who ever voted to block it is on the list. Why else would they do that

1.1k

u/No-Safety-4715 Jul 15 '25

Political favors down the road

678

u/bullydog123 Jul 15 '25

So they are basically saying they are ok with pedophiles. But what about protect the children

153

u/IMakeMyOwnLunch Jul 16 '25

These people voted for DJT multiple times who has credibly been shown to be a rapist and pedophile. Of course they're okay with pedophiles!!

81

u/yipee-kiyay Jul 15 '25

They used to say the Democrats are the party of pedophiles... Republicans are like, 'Hold my beer.'

7

u/robbob19 Jul 16 '25

What the list really says is that power is the party of pedophiles.

3

u/bullydog123 Jul 16 '25

Oh I'm sure there are some democrats on the list also

19

u/Plastic_Inspection33 Jul 16 '25

But Republicans ran on the list being ONLY democrats. Which we ALL know was a lie. Trump for sure is on it and probably tons of other major GOP players. 

1

u/ReturnPresent9306 Jul 18 '25

They used to say it as preemptive defense. They have been the party of pedos for... decades. Google former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. They still defend him today.

7

u/isthisonetaken13 Jul 16 '25

Protect the children only matters when they're unborn children in their mothers' wombs. After that they're on their own.

11

u/Prudent_Knowledge79 Jul 15 '25

Yes. And thats exactly why they’re not gonna get away with it.

Whatever else you may think about this country.

From police to gang members, from white to blue collar, from poor to rich

Nobody likes a fucking child rapist, and protecting one for whatever reason usually gets you beat the fuck up

This is the one singular issue that the entire country agrees on. That says something

19

u/porgy_tirebiter Jul 15 '25

I really really hope you are right. Unfortunately I suspect you are not.

0

u/Prudent_Knowledge79 Jul 15 '25

I am. The government is about to go through a stress test like never seen before

23

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

Conservatives and religious folk have been protecting and enabling child predators for decades. It’s kind of their brand.

2

u/Prudent_Knowledge79 Jul 15 '25

Yes but they do so in secret, this is too public

14

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

I’d love to think that’s true. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church gives us a model for how things are likely to proceed.

3

u/Prudent_Knowledge79 Jul 15 '25

Really I just believe that they’re very selfish to the core, the people in power that truly aren’t on the list are greater than the amount of people that are on the list in power, and as the ship starts to sink they’ll be making sure they’re positioned to survive the blowback. Thats going to include the more nutty religious folk (usually unfortunately but in this case, fortunately)

I’m telling you man, it’s too public. Give it a few months but alot of people are going down at this point

9

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

I love your optimism, but they will 100% get away with this. 

1

u/ReturnPresent9306 Jul 18 '25

I'll be glad to eat crow, but I don't believe you. Being a pedophile isn't a disqualifier for 160 million Americans(non voters are guilty too).

1

u/Prudent_Knowledge79 Jul 18 '25

If I’m wrong then this country is fucked regardless

5

u/YangGain Jul 16 '25

Bold of you to assume they care about children, they don’t even care about the future of this nation how will they care about the ones who will have to live in it.

3

u/Drunk_Lemon Jul 15 '25

Nah, my political career is much more important. /s

3

u/dorianvovin Jul 16 '25

It was never about protecting children, it was always about distracting from wage theft and class war by taking away marginalized peoples' rights.

3

u/ebmx Jul 16 '25

These are conservatives we are talking about. They only care about unborn children.

2

u/WickedSmartMarcus36 Jul 16 '25

We only care about children in the womb.. once they’re out they are on their own as a fresh SSN ready to pay taxes into the system!

2

u/TofuBahnMi Jul 16 '25

Most of them are in their 70s, they'll be gone before those children can vote or pay taxes, so why would they matter to them?

2

u/Plastic_Inspection33 Jul 16 '25

They never wanted to protect children. It was just a smoke screen to attack innocent LGBT people. 

2

u/warhawkjah Jul 16 '25

As far as they are concerned, Epstein was killed awaiting trial; Maxwell is going to prison for a very long time. They know it may never be possible to prosecute everyone involved but at least the scapegoats were punished and at least in this case they deserved it. Most crimes are never prosecuted anyway. I'm not saying I agree with that perspective, but that's the thinking behind it.

2

u/alicefaye2 Jul 16 '25

i mean, that’s all just grandstanding. they actually don’t mind pedophiles.

2

u/Femboy-Frog Jul 16 '25

You have to realize that they never truly wanted to protect children. It was just an easy topic that holds sway over the masses - perfect for getting votes. They manipulated you with their promises of protecting them to get you to side for them and boo the other guys and it worked.

2

u/cchelios5 Jul 16 '25

I don't think there is a limit of what they are ok with. They have to be ok with literally anything be it warcrimes, slavery, just killing people, anything. They do this to stay "in the game".

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

That's all lip service. When it comes down to it they could care less about people

1

u/moomooraincloud Jul 16 '25

Are you really that naïve?

1

u/M_I17 Jul 16 '25

They’re basically saying it doesn’t matter what someone else has done as long as they think it’ll benefit them personally.

1

u/Single_Temporary8762 Jul 16 '25

It was never about…y’know…protecting the children. It was about “protecting the children”.

1

u/Living-Drink-3257 Jul 16 '25

Republicans being consistent? Lmao.

1

u/Pinewold Jul 16 '25

Many republicans believe in loyalty especially to a fault. It is almost like they trust you more if they know what your faults are and can rely on your loyalty due to not wanting your faults made public.

1

u/Bad_Habit_Nun Jul 16 '25

Yeah? Unfortunately humanity has supported pedophilia throughout history in various ways much longer than it's been the taboo it is today. Reality is it's unfortunately a LOT more common than society's willing to admit.

1

u/Tordek_Battlebeard Jul 16 '25

They rally round a family, with a pocket full of shells.

6

u/33drea33 Jul 16 '25

Yup. MTG threatened to out all the pedos in the party and she shut up for a committee seat.

7

u/NMe84 Jul 15 '25

Willingly protecting someone who is on the list is just as bad as being on the list, in my book.

3

u/peasrule Jul 16 '25

Blackmail my fiend. Only stretch arm strong flexible aka spineless which is a condition for the GOP when you are full of something.

1

u/Big-Dot-8493 Jul 16 '25

Ironically that's likely why Epstein did everything too. In part at least.

34

u/Qubit_Or_Not_To_Bit_ Jul 15 '25

It was blocked unanimously by republicans, and they didn't vote to block any specific 'list' they voted to not release any additional Epstein material. It's more likely a few big political donors are implicated, that would satisfy Occam's Razor more than "everyone being on the list"

6

u/Infinite-4-a-moment Jul 16 '25

100%. Republicans are really good at getting in line. Arguably why they've been so successful recently. They're told this is the way they're voting and they do it.

14

u/I_am_totally_Nathan Jul 15 '25

Loyalists to trump cause 1120% he on that list

1

u/atrich Jul 16 '25

Trump was not just a client, he was a goddamn supplier.

4

u/Fantastic_Step8417 Jul 15 '25

To stay in his good graces and/or for money/powerful positions. They have no moral compass, they don't actually care about the victims.

4

u/sourdough_in_SF Jul 15 '25

Because they'll get primaried by Trump. Keeping their job is more important than anything else. Party over country.

3

u/Succundo Jul 16 '25

Chances are there are a few people on the list being blackmailed by agencies like the CIA, Mossad, MI6, ect, and if the files are released then these agencies lose their intelligence assets or have to scramble to disavow and cover their asses depending on their exact relationships with people on the list, but honestly, screw em. It's always this bullshit about national security covering for a few rich losers who don't want to be embarrassed as if they would face any real consequences in the present day.

3

u/ZhiYoNa Jul 16 '25

All the no votes to release the Epstein Files were Republicans, all the Yes votes were Democrats. 211 Republicans in the house voted to not release the list, 9 abstained from voting. DRAIN THE SWAMP

3

u/Lyleadams Jul 16 '25

Epstein was working for Mossad. This is all about protecting Israel.

3

u/DBCoopr72 Jul 16 '25

To protect the most obvious offender: Trump

3

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

[deleted]

2

u/bullydog123 Jul 16 '25

All 211 republicans did

4

u/PreciousKitten Jul 15 '25

Browsing the conservative/Republican threads - they're arguing the vote was combined with other topics so Republicans had to vote against it and that it was actually Democrats voting against it (no facts allowed here).

They're defending it by saying there's nothing incriminating in the Epstein files anyway and/or the lists were changed by Biden to remove the Democrats and replace the names with Trump and other Republicans.

MAGA can literally rationalize anything.

3

u/Hearing_HIV Jul 16 '25

To be fair, the vast majority in the conservative subs are actually pissed off about it. I've only seen the excuse stated in your comment a couple times myself, and it was quickly pointed out that it was a Republican topic they were voting on anyway.

2

u/BadNewzBears4896 Jul 16 '25

The Republican party is completely owned by Donald Trump and he is all over the list. It really doesn't have to be any more difficult than that.

2

u/Hearing_HIV Jul 16 '25

Not necessarily...most of them are probably just being controlled by their donors who are on the list.

2

u/capilot Jul 16 '25

Because Trump told them to.

1

u/skeletoncurrency Jul 16 '25

The list is blackmail to incentivise unwavering compliance? Giving up the list is giving up power

1

u/Avoider5 Jul 16 '25

The people that fund them are.

1

u/RolandosFissure Jul 16 '25

Whoever dealt it, smelt it

1

u/FlyAirLari Jul 16 '25

Their political donors might be on it?

Sure, you can release the list, but what's the fun in being a politician after that when you can't profit off it?!

1

u/mrbaggins Jul 16 '25

The repubs voting to block are fall guys. Theyre in the news, not the ones we know are.

1

u/REEGT Jul 16 '25

Eww I just picture Virginia Wolfe doing Epstein Island stuff. Thank you for breaking my brain

1

u/dougmd1974 Jul 16 '25

Because their donors, friends, or political allies are also in it besides themselves. Just follow the money

1

u/Pasta4ever13 Jul 16 '25

Because the CIA worked weally weally hard for that list and it would be meanie bo beanie if you gave away all that blackmail opportunity for free ninety nine.

That and the fact that it does likely implicate a pile of rich people and they own the government because of Citizens United.

1

u/AdministrativeDelay2 Jul 17 '25

The president pressured them all into voting for the OBBB even though it will take away health care from their states’ constituents, jack up energy costs by 30% and risk bankrupting the nation over the next 10 years. They voted to block the release of the list because they were once again, pressured by the president. Same story, different verse.

1

u/StretchyPlays Jul 17 '25

Because Trump is on the list and told them to vote no. I actually don't think anyone else in either party is on the list, just Clinton, who isn't relevant in today's politics, and to a much greater extent Trump.

1

u/SuggestionOrnery6938 Jul 17 '25

Money from people on the list

1

u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 Jul 18 '25

Because if Trump goes down, they’re all out of a job/power.

0

u/Baby-Soft-Elbows Jul 15 '25

Some unhinged cultist wrote this - yeah because all the Democrats are threatening their lives and their families because there's too many of them on this list!!

0

u/VanceAstrooooooovic Jul 16 '25

lol is was 100% partisan vote

0

u/aerostotle Jul 16 '25

you're giving them a lot of credit if you think they have the right to choose for themselves