
<p>Former White House aide Steve Bannon suggested Friday that the GOP could lose dozens of House seats ;in the 2026 midterms over the Trump administration’s ;handling of files ;related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.</p>



<p>“You’re going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we ain’t gonna … we’re gonna lose 40 seats in ’26,” he told a live audience during his “War Room” podcast. “We’re gonna lose the president.”</p>



<p>If that happens, it would mean a major upset for Republican lawmakers who managed to obtain a majority in both chambers last November. Democrats have been plotting to retake House and Senate seats in the next election cycle after their sweeping 2024 losses. This new turmoil over the Epstein case and backlash from sweeping cuts in the GOP’s recently signed “big, beautiful” spending package could offer the left some fodder for their 2026 messaging.</p>



<p>“They don’t even have to steal it, which they’re gonna try to do in ’28, because they’re gonna sit there and they go … they’ve disheartened the hardest core populist nation that’s always been who governs us,” Bannon added.</p>



<p>His criticism comes after the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI released a memo on Monday concluding in its investigation that Epstein did not keep a client list and confirming that he died by suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019.</p>



<p>Attorney General Pam Bondi, who defended the findings during a recent Cabinet meeting, has faced backlash over the memo after she previously suggested she had a list of names “sitting on her desk.”</p>



<p>President Trump and others in the administration have come to her defense, despite some calls to remove the attorney general from office and after news outlets, including CNN and Semafor, reported FBI Director Dan Bongino was furious over the Epstein files controversy, considering resigning and did not show up to work on Friday.</p>



<p>“They fâââed up because they trusted her,” podcaster and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said of Bondi earlier this week.</p>



<p>Kelly added, “They were humiliated because she gave them all these binders that read ‘Epstein Files,’ you know, ‘Volume 1,’ and there was nothing new in there. Nothing. There was no scoop. Why would she do that?”</p>



<p>President Trump has yet to respond directly to Bannon’s dire prediction for the GOP, but he has brushed off questions about Epstein.</p>



<p>“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” he told a reporter who asked about the disgraced financier.</p>

Bannon Says GOP Risks Losing the House Big Time Over Epstein File Fiasco
