Suppose there is evidence and/or testimony that comes up in the Epstein case that implicates Trump in the rape of children. What would be the short and medium-term political fallout?
My guess – if the evidence is allegations from victims of Epstein that also implicate Trump, similar to the past allegations from victims against Trump, nothing will change. Supporters will continue to find ways to rationalize supporting him; Republican officials will change nothing; etc. Maybe the Democratic Congress would start a formal investigation into whether Trump raped children, but I doubt it.
If the evidence includes Epstein’s own testimony (or the testimony of other bigwigs who end up in big trouble), in an effort to get shorter sentences, most of the above would be the same but the Congress would almost certainly start a formal investigation. The DOJ still wouldn’t (even if federal crimes, like transport across state lines, were involved), I’m almost certain – Barr has shown clearly that he values defending Trump over the law and justice.
If the evidence includes audio or video of Trump discussing (or, og forbid, doing) the abuse of chidren, then I predict chaos – most Trump supporters would still support Trump and insist these are fake (as would Trump himself, I would presume), and Republicans in office would split down the middle (even as most would try to avoid talking about it at all). Congressional investigation and impeachment would be almost certain, but I have no idea if it would end with Trump’s removal from office.
There are probably other possibilities in between these, but this is what I think. These are mostly guesses, of course.
“You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and rape a child and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible.”
This seems like outlandish conjecture to me. Trump has never otherwise been accused of sexual misconduct with children, other than his behavior at Miss Teen pageants, right? Conjecture about him credibly being accused of “child rape” seems over the top.
I’m not predicting anything – I’m asking about a hypothetical scenario. But that’s an interesting “other than” up there… With most folks, we’d hope “…has never been accused of sexual misconduct with children” would end right there.
Unless it’s Trump, on video, raping a child, it won’t make any difference. Even then, maybe not. It could be the “Deep State” using “Deep Fake” or whatever that video editing software is (too lazy to look it up)
To be fair to Best Leader Trump, he was not accused of touching any Teen USA contestants, only walking in their dressing room while changing…
But then you have this-
In a New York magazine profile of Epstein before he went to prison, and long before Trump ran for president, Trump acknowledged that he knows Epstein. “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,’’ Trump says in the story. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it ― Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
But short of HD quality video of the incident, nothing would happen because his base wouldn’t care- you’d see video of middle aged redneck wimmin talking about how they had sex with older men at that age, Jerry Lee Lewis did it too!, etc.
The response from Republicans will be but…but…but… her emails! They’re a personality cult and nothing will ever convince them that Donald wasn’t sent by God to become dictator for life.
Suggest Trump is a sexual predator, and the only proof we have is him bragging about it himself. Make similar accusations against Democrats, and where is the evidence again?