Ads accusing Republican candidates of protecting Epstein fill airwaves in final midterm push

With the midterm elections days away, Democratic candidates and their allies are flooding television with spots portraying Republicans as shielding Jeffrey Epstein, citing votes against forcing release of the government's files on him. CNN counted more than $35 million spent on such ads by candidates and outside groups, while the Washington Post found Democrats put over $40 million into them across six key Senate races, according to The Guardian.

Targets include Jeff Crank in Colorado, Ashley Hinson in Iowa, Mike Collins in Georgia and Jimmy Patronis in Florida. Republicans reply that the ads skip over what happened later: after Donald Trump dropped his opposition, nearly every House Republican backed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The spots instead focus on earlier resistance to a discharge petition meant to push the bill to the floor. Hinson, who backed the final bill but skipped the petition, calls her opponent Josh Turek a liar. Patronis never described the inquiry as a waste of time, though he did call it a drain on energy and time. Crank's campaign says he wanted victim information properly redacted first.

Republicans and their supporters are hitting back.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →