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MAGA Candidate’s Vile Text to Epstein Victim Family Exposed

Virginia Giuffre’s grieving relatives expose a twisted insult, our must-read newsletter The Swamp reveals.

Welcome to Midterms Meltdown, a special pop-up newsletter from The Swamp—bringing you up to the minute with the secrets the politicians don’t want you to know about the race to November 3.

It is the most consequential election campaign since 2024, and the nooze will be oozing around the nation to shape D.C. for the next two years and beyond. Our Farrah Tomazin and Sarah Ewall-Wice are getting down and dirty with the inside stories from the battlefields every Monday and Friday.

Melting down in The Swamp today are: Michael Whatley, Roy Cooper, Ashley Moody, Angie Nixon, John Sununu, Michele Tafoya, Dan Sullivan, Vivek Ramaswamy, Amy Acton, Jeff Crank, Juan Cisomani, Pete Buttigieg, Victor Marx, Jeffrey Epstein and Nicolas Maduro.

MAGA Rep Is Haunted by Epstein Files

While Republicans skipped town without taking further action to release more files as Rep. Thomas Massie had been pushing, the issue has followed at least one MAGA rep back to his home state.

Colorado Republican Rep. Jeff Crank learned this week represents the home district of Sky and Amanda Roberts, whose sister Virginia Giuffre is the most tragic and high-profile of Jeffrey Epstein’s many, many victims.

The Roberts are now calling out Crank for refusing to meet with them as they fight for the release of the complete Epstein files. And so unhappy are they with Crank that they have cut a brutal ad for Crank’s Democratic opponent Jessica Killin. Crank won Colorado’s 5th congressional district by 15 points in 2024, which would normally be enough to guarantee a safe return to the Capitol.

But national polling has made Democrats wonder if such a seat is in their sights—and now they have more fuel for their campaign. The ad, which sees the two bereaved siblings accuse Crank of voting to cover up Epstein’s crimes “to protect Donald Trump” is scathing. “Virginia deserved better,” says her brother in the ad. “He has no business being in Congress.”

Amanda Roberts shared on Monday that they were told more than a year ago by a staffer they did meet with that they would get a response in 48 hours on their request for the congressman to sign the petition to release the files. Then nothing.

But she disclosed the worst part of was the heartless way that the staffer responded to their plea for a meeting: With a “ha ha” reaction from his iPhone.

“We did not get an answer from his office until this morning,” she said. “We were very shocked to see that thread pop, and it was an emoji that said ‘ha ha.’ And I’m not sure if that was an accident or not, but nothing about this is funny, and nothing about this situation deserves that type of negligence because that means he waited a year to go back to those message threads.”

Crank’s office told The Swamp the reaction was an accident on Monday, but it goes to show they circled back to the Roberts a year too late.

“It was hit unintentionally when taking screen shots to demonstrate Rep. Crank’s office set up a meeting with the Roberts family, clearly this tragedy and family grief are no laughing matters,” Crank’s spokesperson said in a statement.

The toxic ooze of proximity to Epstein has hit many of his associates—not least Britain’s ex-Prince Andrew—and has a blast zone far beyond those who knew the pedophile. So could Crank be next?

Well Oil Be! MAGA Candidates’ Slick Stock Holdings Exposed

Drill baby drill has become Republican orthodoxy for years. But then Donald Trump ordered the capture of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator president, and decided that to the victor goes the oil. Which seems to have worked out rather nicely for a series of very high-profile Republican candidates… who happened to be invested in companies which did nicely out of the Venezuelan adventure.

A review of candidate financial disclosures by The Swamp found that the candidates rushed to praise the kidnapping, then watched their portfolios go up in value.

Michael Whatley, running for Senate in North Carolina was quick off the mark. “I am proud to support a President who will stop at nothing to protect our people and hold those who traffic death into our country fully responsible,” Whatley wrote after the operation in January.

Whatley and his immediate family own between $320,000 and $875,000 in Chevron stock, financial disclosures filed in August show. The company’s stock value spiked immediately after Trump’s military action in Venezuela. Chevron started the year at $155.90 and is now sitting at $206.47.

He and his family also own between $118,000 and $295,000 in Exxon Mobil stock (up from $120.34 to $164) and between about $3,000 and $45,000 in ConocoPhillips stock (up from $90.61 to $128.40).

Chevron and Exxon Mobil are now working on new deals in Venezuela; Chevron announced a $7 billion investment deal earlier this month. ConocoPhillips is also evaluating opportunities in the country.

(Whatley’s opponent, Roy Cooper, has no direct investments in the oil companies nor has he praised Trump’s actions despite being deeply critical of Maduro.)

Senator Ashley Moody of Florida owns as much as $80,000 in stock in companies working on new oil deals. Her financial disclosures list between $15,000 and $50,000 in British Petroleum (BP) stock (up this year from $34.73 to $44.62) and between $2,000 and $30,000 in Exxon Mobil stock. Right after Trump’s military action, Moody, a former state attorney general, defended the legality of the capture of Maduro.

“Far too long the Venezuelan people have lived under a dictator, who is a criminal, a drug trafficker who went through position after position in Venezuela and used those positions for his own profit, for his cronies, and he hijacked that government,” she said and argued he should was brought to the U.S. “to face justice as he should have been a long time ago.”

But since then, she’s been tightlipped on his deputy Delcy Rodriguez taking over, who Trump has said is “doing a great job.”

Her opponent Angie Nixon has been deeply critical of the military operation, claiming it was not to benefit Venezuela and instead said they were “liberating the oil.”

New Hampshire Senate candidate John Sununu also holds between $15,000 and $50,000 in ExxonMobil stock, as well as between $16,000 and $65,000 in Shell stock (also up nicely this year from $75.03 to $96.52). Sununu said taking Maduro “makes America and the Western Hemisphere safer, and will allow him to be brought to justice for his crimes.”

In June, Shell signed a five-year agreement with Venezuela for oil and gas projects.

And in Minnesota, Senate candidate Michele Tafoya also owns between $50,001 and $100,000 in Exxon Mobil stock. She had been a fierce critic of Venezuela in the past but was largely quiet about the capture of Maduro, its relationship with the U.S. since, or oil companies expanding business, only briefly pushing back on others criticizing the president’s actions and early claims the U.S. would “run” the country.

Maine Senator Susan Collins did not personally list ownership of stocks in oil companies doing business there, but her husband, Tom Daffron, holds between $15,001 and $50,000 in ConocoPhillips stock as well as between $30,002 and $100,000 in Phillips 66 stock (up from $129.04 to $269.72). Unlike Moody, Collins supported a war powers resolution limiting unauthorized military action in Venezuela without congressional approval.

Still, what to they say in Caracas? Taladra, bebé! Taladra!

Marx’s Campaign Cash Crunch

Days after The Swamp exposed Victor Marx’s violent temperament and attitude towards women, the “Christian warrior’s” Colorado governor campaign has been hit with a record-setting fine over campaign finance violations. A state hearing officer has recommended a $57,647 fine against Marx’s campaign for 210 campaign-finance violations—believed to be the largest such fine in Colorado history. This came after the campaign accepted more than $83,000 in prohibited contributions, including donations above the $1,450 limit for individual donors.

Team Marx blamed inexperience and said the excessive donations were unintentionally accepted, while Marx himself previously dismissed the controversy as a “nothing burger.” But with the GOP candidate already scrambling to explain accounts of slamming his wife into a door, throwing his toddler across a room and claiming God gave him a “gift” for violence, the timing of a nearly $58,000 campaign-finance fine is not a good look for him.

Trump’s Comfort Blanket Tour Gets New Stop

Trump is taking his midterm campaign tour to Nebraska on Monday, where there is an extremely competitive district at play, but the president is sticking to a deep red part of the state. Trump will hold his latest rally in Grand Island, a two hour drive from the battleground 2nd congressional district where retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon, who at times has been a Trump critic, is giving Democrats a chance to flip the seat. Republican Brinker Harding is facing off against Democrat Denise Powell. But the president is instead stopping in Nebraska’s 3rd district, where he won by more than 53 points (yes, really—it was 72-22) less than two years ago. Doesn’t look like a good sign for Republican!

THE BIGGEST POLL LOSER: Dan Sullivan

Most of the polling has been tight, but the latest New York Times/Siena poll shows Democrat Mary Peltola beating Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by seven points, 50 percent to 43 percent. It was conducted around the same time that Trump praised Sullivan’s work as governor during an Oval Office appearance, a job Sullivan never held.

WHAT TRUMP IS SAYING:

“I know more about inflation, I know more about everything than anybody in this room, anybody anywhere in the world.”

WHAT REPUBLICAN JUAN CISOMANI IS SAYING:

“Independent groups once again rank me Arizona’s most collaborative and bipartisan lawmaker because I’m not a rubber stamp for anyone.” Laudable, if it wasn’t for the fact he got a Trump endorsement after voting with Trump 100 percent of the time.

WHAT DEMOCRAT PETE BUTTIGIEG IS SAYING:

“I have a lot of conviction that, actually, your economic message only has credibility if you have a reform message, too,” said the potential 2028 contender as he rallied in New Hampshire.

AND FINALLY…PLACE YOUR BETS:

Who will win the Ohio governor’s race

(After Trump rallied there, and candidate Vivek Ramaswamy almost dropped a child in front of the crowd)?

Play Video

What they’re saying on Kalshi;

Amy Acton 66%

Vivek Ramaswamy 35%

What they’re saying on Polymarket:

Amy Acton 64%

Vivek Ramaswamy 35%

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