‘This is just rotten’: Republican senator blasts Howard Lutnick’s credibility amidst fears that he has become a liability for midterms

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently admitted, after newly released emails provided hard evidence, that he visited convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in December 2012. His admission is making Republican senators worried that this could balloon into a political liability for them in the upcoming midterm elections.

Lutnick is generally viewed as one of Donald Trump’s most influential economic advisers, and GOP senators have been impressed by his ability to strike trade deals that have softened the economic impact of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs. However, Lutnick’s testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing contradicts his earlier claim that he had cut all contact with Epstein after meeting him back in 2005.

According to The Hill, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) focused on the fact that the lunch at the “notorious island” was well after Epstein’s initial 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. “Let’s just do the timeline,” he stressed. “He’s recorded as saying he eliminated all ties. What’s disturbing to me is that obviously been proven materially wrong or incorrect.” The senator concluded with a strong personal reaction: “This is just rotten.”

Lutnick tried to get away with a pretty big lie

Tillis is predicting that the “Democratic marketing machine” is going to jump all over these new disclosures to attack GOP candidates. He also warned that if the Democrats manage to win back the House majority in November, they’ll absolutely use their new control over committees as a springboard to scrutinize anyone connected to the president who had ties to Epstein. Other lawmakers have been concerned, too, with one already calling for Lutnick’s resignation.

It seems like transparency is the key demand from concerned Republicans right now. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who sits on the Appropriations subcommittee that grilled Lutnick, thinks the secretary needs to get ahead of this fast by holding a press conference and getting all the facts out in the open. “I think he just needs to answer up,” Tillis also urged. “Lay out the timeline and tell me why this looks like 180 degrees apart from the truth that you told in the past.”

This situation becomes even more complicated because documents suggest Epstein and Lutnick were in business together as recently as 2014. Financial records indicate that they signed documents on behalf of limited liability companies to acquire stakes in an advertising technology company called Adfin back in December 2012. This business deal coincided exactly with the time the Justice Department records show Lutnick visited the island.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) strongly defended the secretary, “Howard Lutnick is a great Commerce secretary. He’s done an extraordinary job for the country.” However, one Republican senator acknowledged the severity of the credibility issue, noting that it will give his opponents just what they need to “nag at him about: ‘Is he telling the truth now?’ So, it’s a problem.”