Why Republicans are going to vote to open the Epstein files?

They went home on vacation for about 2 months when the government was shut down and they heard from their voters, is my guess.

They see Trump's polls at 36% favorable and they hear from their supporters back home about supporting child rapists and that was a little much for even them to carry.

So Trump has told them to go ahead and vote for the files and let him take care of it on his end.

He will get Pam to open an investigation on the Democrats and freeze the files in place while the investigation is going on.

That way, they can protect their butts and he can continue to cover-up the release of the files.

After all, he is not on the ballot.

Too clever by half.