Trump’s Discharge Petition: A PR Disaster or a Political Shift?
New York State Judge Juan Merchan sentences U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as he appears remotely for a sentencing hearing in the criminal case in which he was convicted in 2024 on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star, at New York Criminal Court in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., January 10, 2025, in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has flipped the script on Democrats by backing the discharge petition, overcoming what Comer called an early “PR disaster” and turning the political fallout back on his opponents.
Speaking on “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Comer said Democrats tried to weaponize Trump’s past, minimal connection to the late Jeffrey Epstein, despite the president cutting ties with him long before the convicted sex offender’s crimes came to light. “President got real frustrated because people were trying to tie this around his neck,” Comer said. “His only liability in this is that he was an acquaintance of Epstein. But by all accounts, when he figured out he was a scumbag, he expelled him from Mar-a-Lago.”
Comer said the Trump team’s early response to the transparency push was “poorly handled,” allowing critics to frame the debate. “This has been a PR disaster,” he said. “But I’m glad the president is hearing from the base and from the American people. I think he wants to do the right thing.”
Comer emphasized that real pressure for transparency has come from the victims themselves, not from political operatives. “Two months ago when I met with the victims, they were screaming, ‘Please, please release the documents from the estate,'” Comer said. He noted that unlike the Democrat-led discharge petition, his committee used formal subpoena power to obtain files from the Epstein estate. “We got the documents from the estate, and there was nothing in there about Donald Trump that was damaging — nothing that hadn’t already been out there,” Comer said. “But it was damaging for the Democrats.”
Comer accused Democrats of pushing the release effort in hopes of generating negative headlines against Trump ahead of the election. “I do think that the Democrats are on a fishing expedition, just hoping and praying that there’s something in there to embarrass Donald Trump,” he said. Despite that motive, Comer said Republicans remain committed to full transparency and to securing justice for Epstein’s many victims. “I’m glad we’re getting closer and closer to transparency,” he told Newsmax. “And hopefully, we can get some accountability for the victims.”
