Republicans are making a mad dash to the "she was a teenager, so it isn't really pedophilia" phase of their defense of Trumpedo, Epstein, et al.

MEGYN KELLY: "I do know somebody very, very close to this case who is in a position to know virtually everything about this case; not everything but virtually everything. And this person has told me from the start, years and years ago, that Jeffrey Epstein, in this person's view, was not a pedophile. This was this person's view, and he was there for a lot of this, but that he was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls (and I realize this is disgusting and I'm definitely not trying to make an excuse for this, I'm just giving you facts. That he wasn't into like 8-year-olds; but that he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were but would look legal to a passerby. And that is what I believed and that is what I was reliably told for many years. And it wasn't until we heard from Pam Bondi that they had tens of thousands of videos of alleged, forgive me they used to call it kiddie porn, now they call it child sexual abuse material on his computer that for the first time I thought, oh no, he was an actual pedophile. ... We have yet to see anybody come forward and say 'I was under 10. I was under 14 when I cam into his purview.'"

Umm, creepy.

So Kelly is excusing Epstein's behavior while claiming she is not excusing his behavior by rationalizing that since there's a difference between a 15-year-old child and a 5-year-old child, that raping a 15-year-old is more acceptable than raping a 5-year-old.

Someone Photoshopped a Republican campaign lawn sign:

                 at least 
               she wasn't 8 
          MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
                   2026

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