Bannon warns GOP could lose 40 House seats over Epstein files
Former White House aide Steve Bannon suggested Friday that the GOP could lose dozens of House seats in the 2026 midterms over the Trump administration’s handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. "You're going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now,...
Former White House aide Steve Bannon suggested Friday that the GOP could lose dozens of House seats in the 2026 midterms over the Trump administration’s handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
"You're going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we ain’t gonna ... we’re gonna lose 40 seats in ’26," he told a live audience during his "War Room" podcast. "We’re gonna lose the president."
That shift could trigger an upset for Republican lawmakers who managed to obtain a majority in both chambers last November. Democrats have been plotting to retake House and Senate seats in the next election cycle after their sweeping 2024 losses — and turmoil over the Epstein case and backlash from sweeping cuts in the GOP's recently-signed "big, beautiful" spending package could offer the left some fodder for their 2026 messaging.
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“They don’t even have to steal it, which they’re gonna try to do in ’28, because they’re gonna sit there and they go ... they’ve disheartened the hardest core populist nation that’s always been who governs us,” Bannon added.
His criticism comes after the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI released a memo on Monday concluding in its investigation that Epstein did not keep a client list and confirming that he died by suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who defended the findings during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, has faced backlash over the memo after she previously suggested she had a list of names "sitting on her desk."
Still, conspiracy theories have swirled around Epstein's death, including some who have suggested he was murdered. A missing minute of footage in a video shared by the DOJ to back up its memo has also raised eyebrows.
President Trump and others in the administration have come to her defense, despite some calls to remove the attorney general from office and after news outlets, including CNN and Semafor, reported FBI Director Dan Bongino was furious over the Epstein files controversy, considering resigning and did not show up to work on Friday.
“They f‑‑‑ed up because they trusted her,” podcaster and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said of Bondi earlier this week.
Kelly added, “They were humiliated because she gave them all these binders that read ‘Epstein Files,’ you know, ‘Volume 1,’ and there was nothing new in there. Nothing. There was no scoop. Why would she do that?”
Trump also brushed off questions regarding Epstein during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” he told a reporter who asked about the disgraced financier.
“You’re asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable," he added.
Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to sexual misconduct chargers, was federally indicted in 2019 over allegedly leading a sex trafficking operation involving underage girls from 2002 to 2005.
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