'Jailbreak time': CNN expert uses simple math lesson to explain overwhelming Trump crisis

President Donald Trump made a sudden reversal over the weekend and threw his support behind a procedural vote to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and CNN's Harry Enten found a simple explanation for his shift.

The president was unable to stop Republican lawmakers from voting on a House measure to compel the Justice Department to release evidence of Epstein's sex trafficking network, and the data analyst told to "CNN News Central" that polling shows why Trump was unable to make the scandal go away.

"You know, usually Donald Trump has his pulse on the Republican base, but he did noton this issue," Enten said. "We're used to seeing approvalof Trump among Republicans being85 [percent], 90 [percent], but when it came to theEpstein fuss, look at this: Just44 percent, south of 50 percent of Republicans,actually approved of Donald Trump when it came to the Epstein files. Compare that tothis: What was the percentage of Republicans that wanted all ofthe Epstein files released? Sixty-seven percent, so what we were dealing with issimple mathematics."

"The Republican base was against Donald Trump on the Epsteinfiles, they were with the ideaof releasing them," he added. "The Republicanrepresentatives saw that andtherefore were not afraid to goagainst Donald Trump, becausethis was the rare instance inwhich the Republican base wasnot with Donald Trump. They wereactually with the idea of beingagainst Donald Trump andreleasing the Epstein files."

There was a strong push to release the files back in July, after the Department of Justice and FBI announced that no new evidence about Epstein and his network would be forthcoming, but Enten said interest appears even stronger now.

"You know, back in July, therewas this idea, there was thispush, right, to release the Epstein files, and [House Speaker] Mike Johnsonsaid, you know what? I'm sendingthe house home – adios, amigos, goodbye. There was interest init, but not to the degree thatwe're seeing right now. Okay, Google searches for Jeffrey Epstein versus a week ago upnearly 1,200 percent. That we have seenmore searches over the last five-day period for Jeffrey Epsteinthan any five-day period thisentire year – much more so thanwe saw even in July, and morethan that, the top associatedsearch topic with Jeffrey Epstein was Donald Trump."

"Thisproblem, simply put, was notgoing away," Enten added. "So what you weredealing with was many Republicans unhappy with how Trump was dealing with Epsteinfiles. Many Republicans wantingthose Epstein files released,and more than that, it wasclimbing in the interest levels,so it wasn't going away. So allof a sudden, the Republicanrepresentatives are sayingjailbreak time – adios, amigos, we're going to leave Donald Trump. We are going to vote torelease those files long before Donald Trump even said, you knowwhat? You should release themall."

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