Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett took the House floor this week and tried to score cheap political points by claiming Republicans had taken money from “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein,” name-checking figures like Lee Zeldin in the process. The stunt blew up almost immediately when Republicans and reporters pointed out the obvious: a name alone isn’t a smoking gun, and Crockett had not done the basic homework before making an accusation on live debate.
Federal Election Commission records show the donations Crockett pointed to were from different men who happen to share the same name — a doctor and another private citizen — not the convicted sex offender who terrorized young women. Lee Zeldin quickly called out the error and made the sensible point that being sloppy with names is not the same as exposing corruption, yet Democrats rushed to play the outrage machine anyway.
When challenged, Crockett’s defense was as weak as her research: she said she referred to “a Jeffrey Epstein” and blamed having only minutes to dig into FEC filings. That excuse doesn’t fly for someone who parades around as a prosecutor and a watchdog; if you’re going to toss around one of the most toxic names in American public life, you better be certain you’re not smearing an innocent man with a convicted predator’s reputation.
This isn’t just a gaffe — it’s a symptom of a broader problem on the left where theatrics and gotcha moments have replaced careful fact-finding. Republicans tried to hold Delegate Stacey Plaskett accountable in a separate vote over her Epstein-related texts, and that censure effort failed in a messy, controversial vote that exposed the swampy deal-making in both parties. Americans are tired of theater; they want lawmakers who do real oversight instead of headline-chasing.
Members of the GOP rightly smelled a cover-up and blasted leadership for backroom deals that protect the institution rather than the public interest, with House conservatives calling out the trade-offs that killed the censure. If both parties are willing to cut deals to avoid real accountability, then voters should remember these betrayals at the ballot box. The American people deserve better than partisan grandstanding and rank incompetence dressed up as moral outrage.
At the end of the day, this episode should be a wake-up call: smear campaigns fueled by lazy research damage lives and erode trust in Congress. Conservatives will keep demanding transparency, facts, and consequences — not theater — while urging Congress to focus on the bread-and-butter issues that actually affect hardworking Americans, like runaway costs, national security, and border chaos.
