Cenk Uygur: GOP’s biggest midterm vulnerability isn’t Iran or the economy

EXCLUSIVE — Cenk Uygur, cofounder and host of The Young Turks, still thinks that the Epstein files will sink Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections.In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Uygur said that President Donald Trump has “taken all the energy and excitement” out of the Republican base ahead of November. He predicted that Democrats would easily flip the U.S. House of Representatives while conceding that the Senate was still too close to predict.However, Uygur argued that Trump’s handling of the Epstein files remained the biggest factor in suppressing Republican turnout, over both the Iran war and affordability. Uygur argued that the Epstein files themselves were a “proxy” or an “avatar” for Republicans’ “trust” in party leadership.“Trump said he was going to release the Epstein files and reveal the deep state,” he said. “And what people understood from that was he’s for the average guy, and he’s going to take down the elites and the powerful, and he’s going to serve the average American. Then he gets in office and he serves the elites. He protects the powerful, who have done outrageously disgusting things.”Uygur said that a substantial portion of the Epstein documents made public had only enflamed the issue.“We know what they did, and we know they should be prosecuted,” he continued, “and we know that Trump is saying, ‘No, I’m going to protect the pedophiles. I’m going to protect the elites. I am the elite, and I’m going to start the war I told you I wasn’t going to start, and I’m going to make inflation worse than it was.’ What’s there to like?”Uygur pointed to “podcasters,” including Joe Rogan, as evidence of his claim.TRUMP SAYS COMMUNITIES THAT DON’T BUILD DATA CENTERS WILL BE ‘BACKWARDS AND POOR’“All the podcasters turned on Trump because they’re not serving their corporate bosses on cable news,” he said. “They’re serving their audience, and their audience doesn’t want them to be frauds, doesn’t want them to be liars, so that puts pressure on them to be a little bit more honest. And if you’re a little bit more honest, you have to say, yeah, of course he’s not anti-war. He started a giant war in the Middle East. So the Republicans are in much bigger trouble than they realize.”