Original air date: July 15, 2025

The MAGA movement has been in full meltdown ever since President Trump’s Department of Justice concluded they have no evidence that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a client list or was murdered in jail. This contradicted a major MAGA conspiracy theory, and MAGA influencers are screaming cover-up. Tucker Carlson just ratcheted this all up by attacking Trump: He faulted Trump’s government for failing to take questions about the matter seriously. In another heresy, Carlson even criticized Trump himself for brushing off MAGA’s anger over it. Carlson’s broadside has some Republicans quietly grappling with why he is so successfully capturing MAGA anger about the Epstein fiasco. We talked to historian Nicole Hemmer, author of several major books about the right and its media networks. She expertly decodes the MAGA pathologies animating the Epstein drama, digs into their deeper sources on the right, and explains what it all says about today’s Trumpified political world.

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