Lone GOP lawmaker cements party's brand as 'pedophile protectors' with wild act: analysis

Progressive political commentator, author and podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen fumed Tuesday night over a tense moment in a House Appropriations Committee hearing in which a GOP lawmaker shut down their Democratic colleague’s line of questioning regarding files on Jeffrey Epstein, a display, he argued, that had cemented the GOP’s legacy.

“Does the entire f------ party seriously want their reputations to be that they helped prevent accountability for Epstein's victims?” Cohen asked in an episode of his commentary show uploaded Tuesday night.

Earlier that day, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was testifying before the House Appropriations Committee and was being questioned by Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) about his agency’s ongoing refusal to release around 3 million files on Epstein in its possession. In the middle of her questioning, she was unexpectedly cut off by the committee chair, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), who said her time had expired, and to much protest from Dean.

“This Republican chairman, Hal Rogers, decided to try and swoop in and rescue him by pretending – straight up playing make-believe – that Rep. Dean's time had expired just two minutes into her questioning,” Cohen said.

“I mean, my god, are there no lengths the Republican Party won't go to protect pedophiles? Seriously, is there anyone in the GOP other than Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) – who was voted out – who doesn't want to align themselves with the child molesters over the victims?”

Cohen then turned his frustration to Blanche, who he accused of being accountable not to “the law,” the "Constitution" or “Americans,” but to President Donald Trump alone.

“His performance isn't fooling anyone. And in fact, it's simply putting on full display the fact that there is nothing, no amount of humiliation, no amount of hypocrisy, no amount of shame that will make him act differently,” Cohen said.

"And frankly, just like Chairman Rogers showed us, there is no act too small to help Trump, Blanche and the pedophiles evade accountability. If that means shutting up Democratic lawmakers who are rightfully questioning Blanche, then clearly that's a step that they are more than happy to take.”