By The Daily Blast,The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent

Copyright newrepublic

Hemmer: And there’s real righteous indignation there too. It’s like as soon as Swalwell says a thousand, Patel is just like, No, just like the idea that it was a thousand is unfathomable, that it’s 500 is unfathomable, that it’s 100 is unfathomable, and then suddenly you’re in the realm of the fathomable. And that’s where his both reflexive defense of Trump and his decisiveness with those earlier answers just doesn’t work as a convincing answer.

Sargent: It sure doesn’t. And here’s where this all breaks down for me. The MAGA ecosystem spent literally years demanding to know what’s in the Epstein files, and they screamed again for years that an elite cover-up was happening, that the deep state was behind it, yet here on video is Kash Patel, who is the FBI director, visibly covering up what he knows about what’s in them in real time. How can MAGA possibly overlook this?

Hemmer: Well, the truth is that they’re not entirely overlooking it. This is a new schism in the MAGA movement, and it has become one of those testing points for loyalty and fealty to Trump. So this is something that … Charlie Kirk, before his death, had become very adamant that Trump had no relationship to Epstein. Patel and Bondi have been demonstrating their loyalty by providing cover for Trump. And there are other members and people in the MAGA world who are going along with this. But then there are other parts of MAGA who are furious that they’re not able to see the Epstein files because they really have believed for years that this is part of a global pedophile ring, as you’ve mentioned, that the elites across America—across the world—have been involved in, and they want answers. They’ve been promised answers, and they’re not getting them. And so there is a division between: Do you want the Epstein files, or do you want to show your loyalty to Trump? And that’s where the dividing line is right now.