Political pundits in Washington, D.C. are eagerly following the ongoing drama between President Trump and the nationalist Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement that helped him to power. The crucial question is the future of all the documents related to convicted sex offender and now deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein: should they all be made public?
38-year-old Lauren Boebert represents a constituency in the state of Colorado, but she has also come to represent the soul of the Maga movement: Republican right-wing activist, gun enthusiast, abortion opponent and advocate of an American isolationist policy.
To the emergency room
So when Boebert was called to the White House crisis hub, the Situation Room, on Wednesday, the welcome would usually have been laudatory – but not now.
Opposite her sat Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche, CNN reports, among others.
The goal of the meeting is reported to have been one: Boebert must be forced to abstain from voting for the Epstein documents to be released. The vote is expected to take place on Tuesday, after being delayed for the longest time by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
She is part of what has come to be known as the Gang of Four, after the infamous group that de facto ruled during Mao Zedong's final years as leader of China. The four, who included Mao's wife Jiang Qin, were later convicted of high treason.
The Trump administration has strong opinions about Boebert, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Trump's former confidant Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who together make up the "gang of four."
Own experience
It only takes one of the four votes to change to thwart a congressional vote on the Epstein documents. But aside from Boebert, the opposition is compact.
The Epstein issue is deeply personal, Nancy Mace has said.
I was sexually molested when I was 14, sexually assaulted when I was 16. I dropped out of school when I was 17, I had nothing more to give.
The Trump administration's hope is therefore to persuade Congressman Boebert to change his mind. If not, the proposal will be passed by the House of Representatives. Then the Senate will wait. Then the proposal will end up on President Trump's desk.
He can certainly veto it – but then he risks his voter base within Maga.
