Podcasts

Frederica Freyberg:
So another issue out there making major headlines are these Epstein documents — how do you think that will land politically?

Charles Franklin:
Well, it’s been a real problem for the president, and we saw him backtrack in the last week to switch to supporting the release of the documents. In our poll, it’s well over 70% disapprove of how the president’s handled the Epstein documents. But we have a lot of uncertainty about what exactly will be released, when will it be released, and will it satisfy people that all of the information is out now? So it’s been an issue that has dogged the president ever since the, well, since the beginning of this term, and the initial promise to release the documents, then not to release them, now to release them again. So I think it’s a burden. Probably the most important thing is it hurts him within the Republican Party. It’s not surprising that Democrats don’t approve of anything that he does with the documents, but within the party, there’s been a lot of dissatisfaction with how he’s handled it.