On The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses the pressure Trump is facing from his fringe media allies over the Epstein files

SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND (CO-HOST): It sounds to me, Angelo, that the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee understand the assignment, as the streets would say.

ANGELO CARUSONE (GUEST): I think so, but I think the one thing, and I hate to always seem like the critic and I’m not, but I think they get — they know what the topic is and they knew what last month’s assignment is. But I’m going to give you a for instance here. If I was writing that letter today, it would be about the Southern District of New York and the disclosures that the DOJ has already made. Two thirds of the office that is currently responsible for prosecuting Maduro is on the Epstein files right now on these redactions. So, if I was going to write this letter, let’s make it newsworthy. What is the effect? You’ve already delayed. You’re already in violation of the law. They called it a flagrant violation. What is the effect of you putting Maduro now through the Southern District of New York going to have on these redactions, and you’re already behind on and the overwhelming majority of the office is currently assigned to it. Is this going to delay it even further? 

And it’s not just to score cheap points. The Democrats’ biggest ally in this is not these other Republicans in Congress. It’s members of the right-wing media, the QAnon crowd that want this information more than anybody else and are the only ones that have the ability to put political pressure on the very people that they’re drafting these letters to. So, this is good. They understand the assignment, they get the topic, they’re going to keep pushing it. They’re going to keep giving us new developments to talk about. And that’s important. And that’s how you build pressure. But we also have to not become conspiratorial ourselves. They don’t have to do that. But they have to connect the dots here a little bit. I mean, there is — no matter what, there’s going to be a delay now, presumably on the Epstein files getting unredacted, because of this Maduro stuff. They should be focusing on that.