September 29, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of One Thing Trump Did, we look at the potential movement in Congress on the Epstein files involving the late convicted pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump has urged his supporters to move on, but there is growing bipartisan support to release the files to the public. There is a question as to whether Trump and other powerful people might be named in the files. Jeremy is joined by Politico Congress reporter Mia McCarthy. #Epstein #Trump #Congress #House #Senate #EpsteinFiles #MarjorieTaylorGreene #KashPatel
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to One Thing Trump did, available exclusively on The
Middle Podcast feed. I'm Jeremy Hobson, and as you know,
every week on this show, we pick just one thing
that's coming out of the Trump White House and break
it down in a non partisan way with someone who
knows what they're talking about. And our one thing this
week is a big one. It's the Epstein files. But
we are just going to bite off a tiny little
(00:36):
piece of the story, which is what might happen in
Congress with regards to the Epstein files now that there
is growing bipartisan support to release the files to the public. Now,
if you haven't been following this, the backstory is this
President Trump promised more transparency on this issue and that
the files related to the late convicted pedophile financier Jeffrey
(00:58):
Epstein would be declassified. But after the Trump Justice Department
released what it called the first phase of the declassified
files earlier this year, the President told his supporters to
move on and called the whole thing a hoax.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I know it's a hoax. It's started by Democrats. It's
been run by the Democrats for four years. You had
Christopher Ray and these characters and call me before him,
and it's a bad group. It started to actually look
at the Steele dossier that turned out to be a
total hoax. The fifty one agency intelligence so called intelligence agents,
(01:32):
was a hoax. It's all been a big hoax. It's
perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish
Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and
do the Democrats work.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein for years, and there
are questions about whether the President's name might be in
the files or on a client list, which the government
says does not exist. So a lot to unpack here.
Let's bring in our guest in this episode, mea McCarthy,
congressional reporter for Politico.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Me.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
It's great to have you here.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So before the President was calling this a hoax, this
was a big story, especially on the political right. Why
what were people looking for here?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I think especially you know, within a lot of the
Republican party. You know, there was an interest in the
Epstein files as a whole separate political class, you know
that had this whole underground network of conspiracies, you know,
of these different things that are happening, and I think
a lot of Trump's base really resonated with that kind
of that QAnon conspiracy, theorious aspect of it. And you know,
(02:33):
so for them, the fact that the files were not
getting released this was something that was really important to them.
And I think we saw Trump really hone in on
that within the twenty twenty four campaign, and now we're
kind of seeing a big shift in that.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
And these people that were convinced that there was something here,
they thought that what there would be a lot of
Democrats or people on the left who were involved in
whatever Jeffrey Epstein was doing.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, and I don't even necessarily think they were going
at this just in the way of exposing democrats. I
think a lot of them did believe that democrats were
a big part of this and that you know a
lot of these other people like Bill Clinton were friends
with him, and that this would expose that aspect of it.
But I think on a deeper level, you know, for
a lot of these people, this represented the kind of
(03:18):
political class that they wanted to tear down, and you know,
something that made Trump really attractive to them, right, because
he was so different than the typical politician, so I
think finding the typical politician quote unquote, you know, attached
to a lot of the things in Epstein's files would
break through a lot of what they had seen as
a lot from these political people.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And so the Attorney General under President Trump, Pambondi, said
she had a client list on her desk. She said
that earlier this year, like a list of the people
that would have been you know, paying for I guess
sex with minors via Jeffrey Epstein. A client list. Now
she says there's no client list. What do we know
about that?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, obviously there's been a lot of confusion back and forth.
I cover Capitol Hill, and this issue is something that
has resonated with a lot of Republicans. But we see
that on Capitol Hill with a lot of these Republicans
who you know, are telling people privately that they are
confused and concerned by this right. So I think you
know that that obviously was a confusing move and I
(04:19):
think definitely heightened a lot of concern for some of
these Republicans, you know, especially people like Thomas Massey, who's
leading this discharge petition to try to try to get
more transparency on these Epstein files. That were apparently on
Pambondi's desk.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So what about the files that have already been released?
A lot of members of Congress were very upset that
they weren't really very new, They didn't have anything new,
and then that wasn't already out there. Did those files
have anything important in them at all?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
The majority of what's been released so far has been
stuff that had kind of already been known obviously early on.
There were some of the things like the birthday letter
from Trump in Epstein's birthday book, and there were some
other things that we had heard about, but now we're
seeing actual pictures of But the majority of the content
in here, a lot of it was not new. And
a lot of Republicans on the Hill and Democrats now too,
(05:11):
who see this as a politically beneficial topic for them,
For a lot of them, they were a little underwhelmed
by what was released.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
What do we know about the files that have not
been released? When we talk about the Epstein files, who
has them right now?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
And I think that's a big question, right, and it
leaves a lot of room for people to, you know,
imagine what else could be out there, because they're releasing
these documents but it's what's already been released, and you know,
people have talked about their possibly being more, but it's
hard to say. We don't have we don't know exactly
what's out there versus what's not a lot of information
obviously is retracted, and some of that is to protect
(05:47):
the victims, of course, but there are people on the
Capitol Hill who are really pushing to have, you know,
all of the files that are related to this to
be just completely sent out because that has not been
required yet.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And one of the people that wants everything to be
released is one of the president's strongest supporters. That's Georgia
Republican Marjorie Taylor Green, who had a press conference with
some of Epstein's victims and said this earlier this month.
Speaker 6 (06:13):
I think it's important to put yourself in these women's
shoes as you're questioning, why can't they just name the names.
These are some of the richest, most powerful people in
the world that could sue these women into poverty and homelessness. Yeah,
it's a scary thing to name names, but I will
tell you I'm not afraid to name names, and so
(06:37):
if they want to give me a list, I will
walk in that capital on the House floor, and I'll
say every damn name that abuse these women. I can
do that for them.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Mia. How is the White House handling this? I guess
you would call it an uprising on the right from
Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert, Thomas Massey, and Nancy Mays.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
It's safe to say that there's been a pretty serious
pressure campaign behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Thomas Massey at least has said that he has heard
from the people who have signed on to his discharge
petition that they've heard from senior White House officials early on,
and in the past week we've heard that that has
kind of ramped up again after things focused a little
bit more on the government shutdown. But as Congress prepares
to come back, hopefully to avoid a shutdown, but as
(07:25):
they prepare for when they're going to be back for
legislative sessions, there is this question of they're going to
reach to eighteen and I think a lot of White
House officials and a lot of senior House Republican officials
are also, you know, really trying to pressure these people
to take their names off of these three women. Nancy Mace,
Lauren Bobert, and Marjorie Taylor Green to take their names
off of this discharge petition.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, stay with us, because a moment we're going to
talk about what some members of Congress are trying to
do to get these files released in that vote that
you just mentioned one thing Trump did with Politico Congression
reporter Mia McCarthy will be right back. Welcome back to
(08:21):
one thing Trump did exclusively on the Middle podcast feed.
I'm Jeremy Hobson. We're talking about the Epstein files, and
I'm joined by Politico Congress reporter Mia McCarthy. Mia, take
us back to earlier in this summer when the members
wanted a vote on releasing the Epstein files, and then
rather than give it to them, Speaker Mike Johnson, a
very close ally of the president, adjourned to the House
(08:43):
of Representatives.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Why Yeah, I was definitely a tense moment. I was
up there on the hill. They had left I want
to say about a week and a half early. Basically,
there was language that was killing this effort to try
to force a vote on the Epstein files within this
procedural vote that basically sets the time of debate for
all the other bills in the week. Now a bunch
of Republicans, even those who weren't necessarily supporting Thomas Massey's effort,
(09:07):
didn't like the idea that you know, that was being
tampered with in here. So basically the rule was not
They did not end up passing this rule. That set
up the rest of the week's schedule, and as they
kind of stood at a stand still to figure out
how to go forward, there was a I believe four
week recess coming right up before then, so they he
basically just sent the house home. I think the thought
(09:29):
process here was they were hoping that this issue, a
lot of the pressure on this issue, you know, a
lot of tension around it, would die down a little
bit by the time they got back in September. But
you know, we're back and obviously we're still seeing it
pretty much in focus.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, if you were to rate it, like in terms
of how how hot this issue is, how hot it
was then and how hot it was now between one
and ten, where would you put it before the break
for the for August and.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Then now, Yeah, I'd say right before the break was
the highest. There's no doubt about that. Being said, it
doesn't mean that it's gone down, per se. I think
it definitely has gotten some momentum, But the peak of it,
i'd say was definitely right before they had left, you know. Granted,
it was right around when Trump was posting a lot
about this, posting a lot about it being a hoax
(10:15):
and stuff, and so I think that was really building
a lot of the momentum onto this issue. Now, when
they came back, it was still a big issue that
they had to deal with, and the discharge petition is
still there. It is one vote right now away from
forcing a vote. And so especially when the House comes back,
obviously there's been other issues honestly that they've had to
(10:35):
deal with, such as government funding, that it's detracted away
a little bit. Right that's sorted out, I think it's
really going to come right back into focus.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well yeah, and I will say, like, as somebody who's
covered the news for decades now, there's always a sex
scandal going on in Washington of some kind and it
doesn't really interest me that much, but this one, because
I think it's really because Trump is calling it a
hoax and he clearly doesn't want anybody to talk about it.
It almost is like, oh, well, maybe there is something
there that we should be paying attention to here if
(11:05):
he's really that adamant that nobody focused on this now,
the discharge petition, this is where members can force a
vote on something over the objection of the leadership, like
Mike Johnson. And as you say, with some of these
special elections, they're probably now going to have enough votes
to do that. So you think that that vote on
releasing the Epstein files could happen by the end of
(11:27):
this month, well.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Not this month, most likely mid October, i'd say at
the earliest. So basically, again, this is a tactic that's
used most of the time, rare though more frequently in
recent years to kind of go around leadership to force
a vote on an issue. And to do that you
have to have two hundred and eighteen people or the
majority sign on. Right so right now they're at two seventeen.
(11:52):
There have been two special elections in deep blue districts
that were happening throughout September. So Thomas Massew, who the
Republican leading this effort, he had kind of known that
he was going to get to two eighteen one way
or another. Once he had three other Republicans sign on
because this special election that happened Atlita Grihalva. She is
expected to be sworn in whenever the House comes back,
(12:14):
and once she signs on, then it will have I believe,
a seven day period to ripen and then that that
will force a vote. So we're looking with that timeline.
If the House doesn't come back until October seventh, probably
roughly around to mid October.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And then even if it passes the House, then there's
the Senate. And I want you to listen here to
Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy pressing the FBI director Cash
Battel for answers about this in a hearing just earlier
this month.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
This issue is not going to go away. And I
think the central question for the American people was this.
They know Epstein trafficked young women for sex to himself.
They want to know who, if anyone else he trafficked
these young women too. And that's a very fair question.
(13:06):
I want to know that answered, and I think you're
going to have to do more to satisfy the American
people understandable curiosity in that regard.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I am not saying that others were not traffic and
others were not involved. What I am telling you is
that based on the information we have, and we have
continuously publicly asked for the public to come forward with
more information. If there is, we'll look at it. But
based on credible information, we have released all credible information.
And the information that the Department of Justice and the
(13:37):
FABI never releases is information on investigations that are not credible,
and we don't release the names of victims who weren't credible.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Mia.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
What is happening in the Senate or what might happen
in the Senate with this?
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yeah, I think it's interesting in some regards because the
Senate has kind of seen less interested overall in this. Obviously,
there are members like Senator John Kennedy who are concerned
about this and want more to be released. You know,
there's always been kind of a joke of the different
vibes between the two chambers. The House, you know, is
sometimes because you have such a smaller group of people
you represent, and you know, you often some of these Republicans,
(14:13):
their main constituency, are people who really care about this
versus Senators who represent a whole state. They may not
be as in tune to some of these types of
issues that being said, there is definitely some interests and
I think Democrats are willing to try to capitalize on
this on this issue, so we'll see. You know, they've
been mostly focused on government funding. They've mostly kind of
(14:34):
brushed this issue aside as they say, like you know,
focus more on the actual legislation, and this is not
the type of issue that they would typically get worked
up about.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
What's the mood about this just among the Republicans, especially
that you're talking to on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, for sure, I'd say, you know, a lot of
Republicans are really antsy about this. They're really anxious because
this is something that you know, they've campaigned on, that
they've heard from their own constituents, heard their own concerns
about it, especially back in July, right before they left
for I believe a six week recess. You know, there
were plenty of Republicans who are privately telling me and
privately telling others that you know, they were just getting
(15:10):
calls not stop about this issue, that they were hearing
about this from their constituents, and we're really concerned about
going back home and hearing about this from their constituents.
You know, when they were back campaigning or back just
working in their districts. Now that we're in September, I mean, again,
the focus has shifted a little bit towards government funding,
but a lot of these conservative hardliners are definitely concerned
(15:32):
about it. They've also told me, though, upfront, you know
that they, especially you know, some who are planning to
run for higher office and are maybe looking for a
Trump endorsement, that they're not planning to sign this discharge
petition that Trump has heavily campaigned against. However, this discharge
petition just forces a vote. So once it forces the
(15:52):
vote on the Act, the actual vote on releasing the files,
these Republicans have told me they plan to vote in
favor of that. So we're going to see plenty of
Republicans who didn't sign on to the discharge petition eventually
support this overall effort.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Is it possible, I guess the answer is yes. But
I'm just going to ask you this question anyway. Is
it possible that the files are a big nothing burger,
that they release the files and there's just nothing interesting
in them? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Absolutely, I mean, but and you know, the question is
what does come out of this? Obviously there's a lot
of attension on this plane log book. You know you
had that recording from Congresswoman Green. You know that's she
plans to if she can, you know, read that list
out on the House floor. Thomas Massey has told me
he wants to do the same after hearing that from
Congresswoman Green. So that's like the thing I think people
(16:37):
are really looking for. We'll see if this discharge petition
goes through, if this effort does end up forcing the
DOJ to release more files, if that actually is something
that will come about.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
That is Mia McCarthy, who covers Congress for Politico. Mia,
thanks so much for talking with us about this.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, and.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thanks to you for listening to One Thing Trump did.
It was produced by Harris and Patino. Our next middle
episode will be in your podcast feed later this week.
We're gonna be asking how you feel about Trump's use
of the National Guard in cities. And of course you
can rate this podcast and write a nice review wherever
you listen to podcasts. Our theme music was composed by
Noah Haid. I'm Jeremy Hobson. Thanks for listening. Talk to
(17:17):
you soon.
Welcome to One Thing Trump did, available exclusively on The
Middle Podcast feed. I'm Jeremy Hobson, and as you know,
every week on this show, we pick just one thing
that's coming out of the Trump White House and break
it down in a non partisan way with someone who
knows what they're talking about. And our one thing this
week is a big one. It's the Epstein files. But
we are just going to bite off a tiny little
(00:36):
piece of the story, which is what might happen in
Congress with regards to the Epstein files now that there
is growing bipartisan support to release the files to the public. Now,
if you haven't been following this, the backstory is this
President Trump promised more transparency on this issue and that
the files related to the late convicted pedophile financier Jeffrey
(00:58):
Epstein would be declassified. But after the Trump Justice Department
released what it called the first phase of the declassified
files earlier this year, the President told his supporters to
move on and called the whole thing a hoax.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I know it's a hoax. It's started by Democrats. It's
been run by the Democrats for four years. You had
Christopher Ray and these characters and call me before him,
and it's a bad group. It started to actually look
at the Steele dossier that turned out to be a
total hoax. The fifty one agency intelligence so called intelligence agents,
(01:32):
was a hoax. It's all been a big hoax. It's
perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish
Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and
do the Democrats work.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein for years, and there
are questions about whether the President's name might be in
the files or on a client list, which the government
says does not exist. So a lot to unpack here.
Let's bring in our guest in this episode, mea McCarthy,
congressional reporter for Politico.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Me.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
It's great to have you here.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So before the President was calling this a hoax, this
was a big story, especially on the political right. Why
what were people looking for here?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I think especially you know, within a lot of the
Republican party. You know, there was an interest in the
Epstein files as a whole separate political class, you know
that had this whole underground network of conspiracies, you know,
of these different things that are happening, and I think
a lot of Trump's base really resonated with that kind
of that QAnon conspiracy, theorious aspect of it. And you know,
(02:33):
so for them, the fact that the files were not
getting released this was something that was really important to them.
And I think we saw Trump really hone in on
that within the twenty twenty four campaign, and now we're
kind of seeing a big shift in that.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
And these people that were convinced that there was something here,
they thought that what there would be a lot of
Democrats or people on the left who were involved in
whatever Jeffrey Epstein was doing.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, and I don't even necessarily think they were going
at this just in the way of exposing democrats. I
think a lot of them did believe that democrats were
a big part of this and that you know a
lot of these other people like Bill Clinton were friends
with him, and that this would expose that aspect of it.
But I think on a deeper level, you know, for
a lot of these people, this represented the kind of
(03:18):
political class that they wanted to tear down, and you know,
something that made Trump really attractive to them, right, because
he was so different than the typical politician, so I
think finding the typical politician quote unquote, you know, attached
to a lot of the things in Epstein's files would
break through a lot of what they had seen as
a lot from these political people.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And so the Attorney General under President Trump, Pambondi, said
she had a client list on her desk. She said
that earlier this year, like a list of the people
that would have been you know, paying for I guess
sex with minors via Jeffrey Epstein. A client list. Now
she says there's no client list. What do we know
about that?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, obviously there's been a lot of confusion back and forth.
I cover Capitol Hill, and this issue is something that
has resonated with a lot of Republicans. But we see
that on Capitol Hill with a lot of these Republicans
who you know, are telling people privately that they are
confused and concerned by this right. So I think you
know that that obviously was a confusing move and I
(04:19):
think definitely heightened a lot of concern for some of
these Republicans, you know, especially people like Thomas Massey, who's
leading this discharge petition to try to try to get
more transparency on these Epstein files. That were apparently on
Pambondi's desk.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So what about the files that have already been released?
A lot of members of Congress were very upset that
they weren't really very new, They didn't have anything new,
and then that wasn't already out there. Did those files
have anything important in them at all?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
The majority of what's been released so far has been
stuff that had kind of already been known obviously early on.
There were some of the things like the birthday letter
from Trump in Epstein's birthday book, and there were some
other things that we had heard about, but now we're
seeing actual pictures of But the majority of the content
in here, a lot of it was not new. And
a lot of Republicans on the Hill and Democrats now too,
(05:11):
who see this as a politically beneficial topic for them,
For a lot of them, they were a little underwhelmed
by what was released.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
What do we know about the files that have not
been released? When we talk about the Epstein files, who
has them right now?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
And I think that's a big question, right, and it
leaves a lot of room for people to, you know,
imagine what else could be out there, because they're releasing
these documents but it's what's already been released, and you know,
people have talked about their possibly being more, but it's
hard to say. We don't have we don't know exactly
what's out there versus what's not a lot of information
obviously is retracted, and some of that is to protect
(05:47):
the victims, of course, but there are people on the
Capitol Hill who are really pushing to have, you know,
all of the files that are related to this to
be just completely sent out because that has not been
required yet.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And one of the people that wants everything to be
released is one of the president's strongest supporters. That's Georgia
Republican Marjorie Taylor Green, who had a press conference with
some of Epstein's victims and said this earlier this month.
Speaker 6 (06:13):
I think it's important to put yourself in these women's
shoes as you're questioning, why can't they just name the names.
These are some of the richest, most powerful people in
the world that could sue these women into poverty and homelessness. Yeah,
it's a scary thing to name names, but I will
tell you I'm not afraid to name names, and so
(06:37):
if they want to give me a list, I will
walk in that capital on the House floor, and I'll
say every damn name that abuse these women. I can
do that for them.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Mia. How is the White House handling this? I guess
you would call it an uprising on the right from
Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert, Thomas Massey, and Nancy Mays.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
It's safe to say that there's been a pretty serious
pressure campaign behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Thomas Massey at least has said that he has heard
from the people who have signed on to his discharge
petition that they've heard from senior White House officials early on,
and in the past week we've heard that that has
kind of ramped up again after things focused a little
bit more on the government shutdown. But as Congress prepares
to come back, hopefully to avoid a shutdown, but as
(07:25):
they prepare for when they're going to be back for
legislative sessions, there is this question of they're going to
reach to eighteen and I think a lot of White
House officials and a lot of senior House Republican officials
are also, you know, really trying to pressure these people
to take their names off of these three women. Nancy Mace,
Lauren Bobert, and Marjorie Taylor Green to take their names
off of this discharge petition.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, stay with us, because a moment we're going to
talk about what some members of Congress are trying to
do to get these files released in that vote that
you just mentioned one thing Trump did with Politico Congression
reporter Mia McCarthy will be right back. Welcome back to
(08:21):
one thing Trump did exclusively on the Middle podcast feed.
I'm Jeremy Hobson. We're talking about the Epstein files, and
I'm joined by Politico Congress reporter Mia McCarthy. Mia, take
us back to earlier in this summer when the members
wanted a vote on releasing the Epstein files, and then
rather than give it to them, Speaker Mike Johnson, a
very close ally of the president, adjourned to the House
(08:43):
of Representatives.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Why Yeah, I was definitely a tense moment. I was
up there on the hill. They had left I want
to say about a week and a half early. Basically,
there was language that was killing this effort to try
to force a vote on the Epstein files within this
procedural vote that basically sets the time of debate for
all the other bills in the week. Now a bunch
of Republicans, even those who weren't necessarily supporting Thomas Massey's effort,
(09:07):
didn't like the idea that you know, that was being
tampered with in here. So basically the rule was not
They did not end up passing this rule. That set
up the rest of the week's schedule, and as they
kind of stood at a stand still to figure out
how to go forward, there was a I believe four
week recess coming right up before then, so they he
basically just sent the house home. I think the thought
(09:29):
process here was they were hoping that this issue, a
lot of the pressure on this issue, you know, a
lot of tension around it, would die down a little
bit by the time they got back in September. But
you know, we're back and obviously we're still seeing it
pretty much in focus.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, if you were to rate it, like in terms
of how how hot this issue is, how hot it
was then and how hot it was now between one
and ten, where would you put it before the break
for the for August and.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Then now, Yeah, I'd say right before the break was
the highest. There's no doubt about that. Being said, it
doesn't mean that it's gone down, per se. I think
it definitely has gotten some momentum, But the peak of it,
i'd say was definitely right before they had left, you know. Granted,
it was right around when Trump was posting a lot
about this, posting a lot about it being a hoax
(10:15):
and stuff, and so I think that was really building
a lot of the momentum onto this issue. Now, when
they came back, it was still a big issue that
they had to deal with, and the discharge petition is
still there. It is one vote right now away from
forcing a vote. And so especially when the House comes back,
obviously there's been other issues honestly that they've had to
(10:35):
deal with, such as government funding, that it's detracted away
a little bit. Right that's sorted out, I think it's
really going to come right back into focus.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well yeah, and I will say, like, as somebody who's
covered the news for decades now, there's always a sex
scandal going on in Washington of some kind and it
doesn't really interest me that much, but this one, because
I think it's really because Trump is calling it a
hoax and he clearly doesn't want anybody to talk about it.
It almost is like, oh, well, maybe there is something
there that we should be paying attention to here if
(11:05):
he's really that adamant that nobody focused on this now,
the discharge petition, this is where members can force a
vote on something over the objection of the leadership, like
Mike Johnson. And as you say, with some of these
special elections, they're probably now going to have enough votes
to do that. So you think that that vote on
releasing the Epstein files could happen by the end of
(11:27):
this month, well.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Not this month, most likely mid October, i'd say at
the earliest. So basically, again, this is a tactic that's
used most of the time, rare though more frequently in
recent years to kind of go around leadership to force
a vote on an issue. And to do that you
have to have two hundred and eighteen people or the
majority sign on. Right so right now they're at two seventeen.
(11:52):
There have been two special elections in deep blue districts
that were happening throughout September. So Thomas Massew, who the
Republican leading this effort, he had kind of known that
he was going to get to two eighteen one way
or another. Once he had three other Republicans sign on
because this special election that happened Atlita Grihalva. She is
expected to be sworn in whenever the House comes back,
(12:14):
and once she signs on, then it will have I believe,
a seven day period to ripen and then that that
will force a vote. So we're looking with that timeline.
If the House doesn't come back until October seventh, probably
roughly around to mid October.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And then even if it passes the House, then there's
the Senate. And I want you to listen here to
Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy pressing the FBI director Cash
Battel for answers about this in a hearing just earlier
this month.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
This issue is not going to go away. And I
think the central question for the American people was this.
They know Epstein trafficked young women for sex to himself.
They want to know who, if anyone else he trafficked
these young women too. And that's a very fair question.
(13:06):
I want to know that answered, and I think you're
going to have to do more to satisfy the American
people understandable curiosity in that regard.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I am not saying that others were not traffic and
others were not involved. What I am telling you is
that based on the information we have, and we have
continuously publicly asked for the public to come forward with
more information. If there is, we'll look at it. But
based on credible information, we have released all credible information.
And the information that the Department of Justice and the
(13:37):
FABI never releases is information on investigations that are not credible,
and we don't release the names of victims who weren't credible.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Mia.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
What is happening in the Senate or what might happen
in the Senate with this?
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yeah, I think it's interesting in some regards because the
Senate has kind of seen less interested overall in this. Obviously,
there are members like Senator John Kennedy who are concerned
about this and want more to be released. You know,
there's always been kind of a joke of the different
vibes between the two chambers. The House, you know, is
sometimes because you have such a smaller group of people
you represent, and you know, you often some of these Republicans,
(14:13):
their main constituency, are people who really care about this
versus Senators who represent a whole state. They may not
be as in tune to some of these types of
issues that being said, there is definitely some interests and
I think Democrats are willing to try to capitalize on
this on this issue, so we'll see. You know, they've
been mostly focused on government funding. They've mostly kind of
(14:34):
brushed this issue aside as they say, like you know,
focus more on the actual legislation, and this is not
the type of issue that they would typically get worked
up about.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
What's the mood about this just among the Republicans, especially
that you're talking to on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, for sure, I'd say, you know, a lot of
Republicans are really antsy about this. They're really anxious because
this is something that you know, they've campaigned on, that
they've heard from their own constituents, heard their own concerns
about it, especially back in July, right before they left
for I believe a six week recess. You know, there
were plenty of Republicans who are privately telling me and
privately telling others that you know, they were just getting
(15:10):
calls not stop about this issue, that they were hearing
about this from their constituents, and we're really concerned about
going back home and hearing about this from their constituents.
You know, when they were back campaigning or back just
working in their districts. Now that we're in September, I mean, again,
the focus has shifted a little bit towards government funding,
but a lot of these conservative hardliners are definitely concerned
(15:32):
about it. They've also told me, though, upfront, you know
that they, especially you know, some who are planning to
run for higher office and are maybe looking for a
Trump endorsement, that they're not planning to sign this discharge
petition that Trump has heavily campaigned against. However, this discharge
petition just forces a vote. So once it forces the
(15:52):
vote on the Act, the actual vote on releasing the files,
these Republicans have told me they plan to vote in
favor of that. So we're going to see plenty of
Republicans who didn't sign on to the discharge petition eventually
support this overall effort.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Is it possible, I guess the answer is yes. But
I'm just going to ask you this question anyway. Is
it possible that the files are a big nothing burger,
that they release the files and there's just nothing interesting
in them? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Absolutely, I mean, but and you know, the question is
what does come out of this? Obviously there's a lot
of attension on this plane log book. You know you
had that recording from Congresswoman Green. You know that's she
plans to if she can, you know, read that list
out on the House floor. Thomas Massey has told me
he wants to do the same after hearing that from
Congresswoman Green. So that's like the thing I think people
(16:37):
are really looking for. We'll see if this discharge petition
goes through, if this effort does end up forcing the
DOJ to release more files, if that actually is something
that will come about.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
That is Mia McCarthy, who covers Congress for Politico. Mia,
thanks so much for talking with us about this.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, and.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thanks to you for listening to One Thing Trump did.
It was produced by Harris and Patino. Our next middle
episode will be in your podcast feed later this week.
We're gonna be asking how you feel about Trump's use
of the National Guard in cities. And of course you
can rate this podcast and write a nice review wherever
you listen to podcasts. Our theme music was composed by
Noah Haid. I'm Jeremy Hobson. Thanks for listening. Talk to
(17:17):
you soon.
Host
Jeremy Hobson
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