Democrats’ Epstein Gamble Explodes in Their Faces — Jennings Says the Attempt To Target President Trump May Be the Biggest Backfire of 2025
Democrats thought they had found their next political weapon: revive the scandal surrounding deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and try to smear current President Donald Trump by association. But according to Republican strategist Scott Jennings on Friday’s episode of the “PBD Podcast,” the plan collapsed spectacularly — and the blowback has hit Democrats harder than anyone expected.
Instead of implicating President Trump, newly released records have redirected scrutiny toward Democrat lawmakers and operatives who communicated with Epstein for years. As those revelations mounted, Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett made a frantic — and false — accusation Wednesday, claiming that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin received political donations from Epstein.
Jennings said on the podcast that Crockett’s baseless statement was a clear act of political panic following the House Oversight Committee’s release of documents tying multiple Democrats to Epstein.
“She’s the smartest person they could find. So they sent her to do this. And the reason is this, because they are desperate to make this a story about Trump and Epstein,” Jennings said. “And the only thing we found out in the last week is that it’s a story about Democrats and Epstein. You got [Clinton-era Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers asking for dating advice from Epstein.”
The released communications showed Larry Summers regularly exchanging emails with Epstein from 2013 to 2019 — including messages in which Summers appeared to seek Epstein’s romantic guidance regarding a woman at Harvard University, where Summers once served as president. Summers has since stepped away from public commitments following the exposure of the messages.
Jennings continued:
“You got [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries trying to raise money from Epstein. You got [Democratic Virgin Islands Del. Stacey] Plaskett being programmed by Epstein. They lost the narrative, so they sent out their smartest person, Jasmine Crockett, to try to reset the narrative, and it blew up in their face. They may regret going down this road.”
The mounting contradictions have left Democrats struggling to defend their own communications history with Epstein. On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer revealed that Democratic fundraisers circulated a 2013 email inviting Epstein to attend an event or offering him a private meeting. The next day, Jeffries called Comer a “stone cold liar.”
But according to records released by Comer’s committee and reported by ABC News, Epstein received a campaign fundraising email on May 7, 2013, that described Jeffries as “one of the rising stars in the New York Congressional delegation” and offered “an opportunity to get to know Hakeem better.”
Meanwhile, documents also show that Democratic Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett exchanged text messages with Epstein — including correspondence in which Epstein advised her on how to question former Trump attorney Michael Cohen during his 2019 testimony. Plaskett admitted during an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that she would not have asked certain questions without Epstein’s guidance.
Crockett has insisted she did nothing wrong. Appearing on CNN’s “The Source” on Wednesday, she attempted to justify her false allegation regarding Lee Zeldin:
“I never said that it was that Jeffrey Epstein. Just so that people understand, when you make a donation, your picture is not there. And because they decided to spring this on us in real time, I wanted the Republicans to think about what could potentially happen, because I knew that they didn’t even try to go through the FEC [Federal Election Commission],” Crockett said. “So my team, what they did is they googled, and that is specifically why I said ‘a Jeffrey Epstein.’ Unlike Republicans, I at least don’t go out and just tell lies.”
While Democrats attempt to deflect blame, President Donald Trump has taken a firm position: full transparency. On Sunday, the president urged Republicans to support legislation releasing the Epstein files. The bill sailed through the House with overwhelming bipartisan support — 427–1 — and passed the Senate through unanimous consent. President Trump signed the legislation into law on Wednesday.
The episode intended to damage the current president has instead raised serious questions about Democratic influence networks, donor relationships, and decision-making — and may produce more damaging revelations as the Epstein files become public.