Republican House members who were sent on vacation early by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) are lost in the wilderness as they try to grapple with how to approach Donald Trump's Jeffrey Epstein firestorm that has engulfed the White House.
And Johnson is being of little to no help.
That is the opinion of GOP strategist Annalyse Keller, who appeared on MSNBC on Saturday morning.
Speaking with the hosts of MSNBC's "The Weekend," Keller was asked what GOP lawmakers are thinking as they head home for their summer break.
"I think Republicans are tying themselves in knots right now," she admitted. "They're really struggling both from MAGA world and the congressional Republicans here, who, as you saw, Speaker Johnson had to sort of dismiss everyone and send everyone home because they really couldn't come to any type of resolution on whether they were going to move forward and vote for something that would release some of these files. So I think Republicans are trying to buy Trump some time and allow him to, I don't know, maybe try to figure out some way to get around this, to move past it."
That led co-host Jonathan Capehart to interject, "But Speaker Johnson is messing things up because he sent them away so they wouldn't have to deal with Epstein. But then he goes on television after the president said this is, quote, a hoax. The speaker of the House goes on and says, this is. quote, not a hoax."
"So what is Speaker Johnson doing?" he exclaimed.
"You know, that's a good question," she replied. "I mean, I think it's a difficult position to be in because he knows his conference wants to get answers. They, a lot of them, have been on the record on this, but then they're put in this tricky position of being against Donald Trump, which they really, it's a really uncomfortable place for Republicans to be."
"And this is one of the real issues that has divided Republicans," Keller admitted. "I mean, we're six months into the presidency. There was a little around the Iran nuclear strikes. I think there was a little bit of some division between the Republican ranks, but this is the first thing that I've seen that has really tied Republicans in knots."
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