Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Wednesday urged the Trump administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, warning that the White House’s handling of the issue could affect the GOP’s performance in the 2026 midterm elections.

In an interview with Axios’ Stef Knight, Tillis said the best thing the administration can do at the moment to address the Epstein controversy is “just release the damn files.”

“The promise to release the files during the campaign was either overplayed and we got a nothingburger if the files get released, or it’s something really disturbing, and that’s actually even a more compelling reason to release [them],” Tillis said.

A memo co-authored by the FBI and the Justice Department earlier this month alleging there was no evidence to suggest Epstein was killed or that he held a client list to blackmail people angered Trump’s base as it undercut claims made by members of his team, including Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi told Fox News in February Epstein’s client list was “sitting on [her] desk right now to review” under the direction of Trump.

The Republican senator warned his party’s leaders that trying to sweep the issue under the rug by resorting to tactics like House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (La.) call to adjourn the lower chamber earlier than planned to block a vote on a bipartisan effort forcing the release of the files will have the opposite effect.

“If anybody thinks that this is going to go away because the House left a day early or something, it’s going to be like those zombies in ‘The Walking Dead.’ Every time you think you’ve killed it, another one’s just going to come running out of the closet after you,” he said.

“This is going to be an issue all the way through next year’s election,” he added.

CNN on Tuesday released photos showing Epstein attending Trump’s wedding to Marla Maples in 1993 as well as footage from a Victoria’s Secret event in 1999 where the two men appeared together. This follows an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal detailing a sexually lewd letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein as part of a surprise for his 50th birthday in 2003. The president has denied he wrote the letter and has sued the Journal over that article.