Rep. Ro Khanna cracks the MAGA coalition over the Epstein files

WASHINGTON — Thanks to a near-unanimous vote in Congress to pass his bill requiring the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s records, Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, can claim a victory no other Democratic presidential candidate has achieved: breaking up the MAGA coalition.

Early polls suggest he would be a big underdog if he runs. But the California Democrat has been traveling to swing states and early contests to test the waters for a possible White House bid.

Khanna, 49, joined forces with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act in July. The bill requires the Justice Department to release within 30 days its records relating to Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who had ties to a number of influential figures.

Khanna and Massie attracted Republican co-sponsors and just enough signatures to shut down House Republican leadership and force a vote, with MAGA luminaries such as Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado supporting the measure.

It’s a rare bipartisan feat, made even more difficult by President Donald Trump, who has lobbied for months to dissuade Republicans from joining the effort. But in the final days, Trump bowed to what seemed increasingly inevitable, changing his position and sustaining it. The party leaders followed him. All but one Republican joined unanimous Democrats Tuesday in voting for the measure in the House, sending it to the Senate, which passed it unanimously.

In an interview in the Speaker’s Lobby moments before the House voted on his bill, Khanna told NBC News that his plan contained the building blocks of a national vision.

“Whatever role I play, I hope it helps shape the national future of the Democratic Party and the country,” he said. “We need to build a lasting coalition around a vision of a new economic patriotism that can unite the left and the right. And the elements of that are to denounce an elite ruling class that has created a system that doesn’t work for ordinary Americans. And then to offer a concrete vision of how we are going to prioritize the economic independence and success of these forgotten Americans, as opposed to just this billionaire elite class.”

He incorporated this new effort into his broader message from left to right, attacking “the Epstein class who have amassed power, don’t play by the rules, and enjoy impunity at the expense of ordinary Americans.”

Khanna’s approach is unique among Democrats. He doesn’t have quite the fiery rhetoric of other White House contenders, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, nor does he have the iconic progressive image of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Simply put, his willingness to associate with MAGA figures who are hated by liberals may not be a selling point to an angry and inflamed Democratic base.

“That’s a criticism I get sometimes,” Khanna joked.

Yet the California Democrat sometimes shows his sharp elbows against Republicans, notably positioning himself as a foil to Vice President JD Vance, who is seen as a potential Republican frontrunner in 2028. He often goes after him on social media. During an April speech at Yale Law School, where Vance and Khanna earned their degrees, Khanna drew a comparison between the vice president and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Vance’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Khanna lacks the national recognition of other Democrats, including Pete Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate and transportation secretary in the Biden administration, who has also been considered a potential 2028 candidate.

Since the 1800s, no member of the House has ascended directly to the presidency; and as an Indian-American, Khanna would seek to make history in many ways.

But what he built was a level of trust among Republicans that other Democrats wouldn’t work with. He said he did so by “being courteous to his colleagues” — including some far-right Republicans — and building trust and partnerships with them, giving them credit, taking his message to “Republican-leaning podcasts” and “treating MAGA voters with respect.”

“I didn’t get into Twitter wars with Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert. I have a real friendship with Thomas Massie,” he said. “They trusted me enough not to talk about Donald Trump. From day one, in every press conference we did, everything we did, we talked about survivors and not politics.”

Khanna said his insistence on seeing the humanity in these Republican lawmakers, who are Democrats’ chief enemies, was the key to success.

“It was all that,” he added. “If I had engaged in these kinds of meme wars and others, Massie would never have worked with me.”

The White House has downplayed the Khanna-Massie effort, although the president has opposed it for months, saying Trump has already “called for transparency” on the Epstein files “and is now doing so with thousands of pages of documents as part of the ongoing surveillance investigation.”

Khanna has a different view of bipartisanship than other Democrats, including former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, who sought to find the most moderate Republicans and work with them on noncontroversial goals. By contrast, Khanna tends to seek out Republican lawmakers to partner with on populist issues that both left and right can present as a rebuke to an entrenched establishment.

He joined with Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., to repeal Trump’s coffee tariffs, and with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, to propose term limits on Congress. He worked with Republicans to advocate for limiting the government’s warrantless surveillance powers under Section 702 of FISA and to prevent U.S. military intervention in Yemen.

Massie said Khanna’s approach was instrumental in the success of their Epstein measure. He said he saw an opening when Khanna proposed an amendment to Epstein in the Rules Committee and “got all the Democrats and one Republican to vote for it.”

“Ro gave me the idea whether he meant it or not,” Massie said. “He’s able to put aside partisan bomb-throwing to work across the aisle, and he’s really good on television.”

“He was a big part of all of this,” the Kentucky Republican said. “And it was really his idea to hold the survivors’ press conference. So I don’t know if it would have been successful with any other Democrat on the other side of the aisle.”

Others had nothing to say about Khanna, including Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, who responded “No comment” when asked about his role in the Epstein bill.

On the House floor before the vote, Khanna thanked his Republican partners for the bill.

“The Epstein class is going to disappear,” he said. “And the reason they’re going to leave is the progressive left and the MAGA right and everyone in between is finally waking up to this rotten system.”

In the NBC News interview, Khanna repeatedly invoked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a guide for his populist views and desire to prey on the interests of the wealthy, while admitting that his progressive ideals won’t completely upend the MAGA coalition. But he thinks he has a better theory on how to engage these voters than some recent — anonymous — Democratic presidential candidates.

“Do I think that somehow we’re going to win over all the Trump voters? No, I’m not naive,” he said. “But I think it has a better chance of winning than just doing Infrastructure 2.0.”