Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey there, folks, it is Tuesday, November the eighth, and
what do a Harvard professor, survivors of sex abuse, and
members of Congress all have in common? Jeffrey Epstein and
welcome everybody to this episode of Amy and TJ. What
(00:31):
a day we saw in DC. Robes. It is amazing.
This man has been dead for five plus years and
continues to have an impact in this country on our politics,
on our policy, and nr on our headlines. But the
headline today is the biggest one, no doubt, Robes. Congress.
(00:51):
The House representative just said, okay, release the files.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And there has been a dramatic change in just a
matter of hours because the President changed his tunes.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yes, and all of a.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Sudden we see all the Republicans changing their tunes because
it did take a few rogue, brave Republicans to break
rank and vote with the Democrats for them to realize, hey,
we might lose this thing. And so look, the President,
if nothing else, is a realist. He saw the numbers,
he saw where things were headed, and he decided to
be on the winning side of things.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
As we call it writing on the wall, we call
it that right. Yes, the back and forth for months
not wanting to release the files. And to think the
vote was not close, It wasn't competitive, Robes, this was
almost everybody in Congress, after all this voted to say
(01:48):
yes to releasing the files. After all, this what we're
fighting about for the past severe exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And so then you asked, Robes, why would anyone not
want to run to the files? Okay, we understand initially
the president said it was to protect the victims, and
yet they were the first people to say, oh, that
victim that you guys are pointing, Yeah, that was Virginia's euphray.
So they actually outed one of the redacted names almost
immediately from some of the released emails. And at that point, honestly,
(02:17):
when you've got the victims themselves, when you've got the
women whose names were redacted or whose names weren't included
because they were underage, standing there on Capitol Hill, while
this vote is about to happen, saying release the files,
and the only argument is on behalf of the victim's identities,
(02:40):
you gott a pr problem because if the victims who
you're claiming that you want to protect are saying that
they want you to release the files, that's a tough
argument to continue.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Then that's what they were dealing with today, folks in Washington, DC.
So it was another Epstein day in large part, so
your headlines today is that, yes, the House voted to
release all Epstein files. You have a big time Democrat
saying that he is ashamed of his relationship with Jeffrey
(03:14):
Epstein and saying he is going to step back from
his public roles. This is the former Harvard president Larry Summers.
And of course, as you heard Robot just mentioning there,
you had a press conference with the survivors. Let's start
what we saw late today ropes the back and forth
over months, the White House, the President has been fighting,
fighting to keep a vote from taking place for all
(03:37):
these Epstein files to be released. But sure enough they
forced the hand. They didn't have a choice. Let's be
clear today, the White House and the Speaker of the
House of Representative did not have a choice. They had
the votes at least the what they call it a
discharged position petition. We've learned a lot about how the
House of Representatives works.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Argument is that you're protecting the very people who are
claiming they want you to release it. It's hard to
continue with that line of argument. So yes, the vote
ended up being four hundred and twenty seven to one.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
What was the point of what to release all the
Fstein files? What are we fighting about for the past
several months? Then if everybody overwhelmingly now yep, let's that
was unanimous, damn near There was one guy.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Public political pressure from the victims themselves saying please, and
they have been saying this for months now, but it
was especially effective today for them to be on Capitol
Hill saying please release these files.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Let's be clear here, this was, as we said, the
Democrats had enough votes. They had enough votes to force
a vote. They did not have to leave it up
to Speaker Johnson, but they had enough votes to force
a vote. And that's why we are where we are today.
This was not the President or Speaker Johnson saying, you
(05:03):
know what, out the goodness of our hearts, public pressure, no, no, no, no,
they had no choice. There were enough votes to force
this vote. So sure now, as you said, Ropes, the
President got on board with this just in the past
twenty four to forty eight hours, correct saying sure, go ahead,
I don't care. And also as a part and added
bonus to this. He tried to flip the script and saying, hey,
(05:26):
this is bad for Democrats, not Republicans. Knock yourselves out,
release this stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Let's look at Bill Clinton, Let's look at Larry Summers,
let's look at JP Morgan, Chase. He starts throwing every
other name out there. My hunch is that perhaps maybe
some of the worst emails that he thought were going
to be the most damaging or damning emails got released
in this House committee. They were able to get some
(05:52):
of these emails twenty thousand plus emails from Jeffrey Epstein from.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That estate and release them trickle them out like day
after day.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
So he has been enduring day after day after day
of new headlines, new emails, new connections and ties between
him and Jeffrey Epstein. He's kind of suffered through the
worst of it. So at this point I maybe can
understand he's like, you know what, let's just release them
all because the worst of the worst perhaps has already
been released on him.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Maybe what he was fearing the most has already been released.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There's that possibility as well, that possibility, but I mean,
truth of the matter, the man didn't have he had
no choice there's nothing to do. So he is on board,
said he's going to sign this thing. So that freed
up a lot of people to say they don't feel
necessarily chained restricted in voting for it, because the President
(06:48):
himself has said he's on forward. So sure enough, they
did this, Robes. I'm looking at this as we are
sitting here. As of this recording, the Senate has now
moved forward with releasing these files. The Senate. Now, this
was a hold up. We didn't know as we started
this recording, folks, we didn't know what the Senate was
(07:09):
going to do. This bill has now been sent to
the Senate Robes, and there was a question of whether
or not they would take it up, when they would
take it up, and if they would change it at all.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
A lot of folks thought that this could happen immediately,
and I do think here is Look, this is such
a headline and such this is the empowerment of the
American public. When lawmakers, the president, congressmen and women realize
that public sentiment is squarely on one side of the fence,
they will come to us.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They will meet us where we are.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
They don't want to be on the wrong side of things.
When it comes to re election, etc.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So it's very clear now to all.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Lawmakers in the House, and now it appears in the
Senate that you don't want to be on the wrong
side of this one. You don't want to be on
the side of let's not release information to the American
public that clears up all all of this mystery that
has been surrounding this man and these victims for decades. Now,
(08:07):
let's clear who wouldn't be on the side of transparency.
That is hard to justify with American sentiment, where it
is not shocking that the Senate is saying, let's go
ahead and streamline this.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So, yes, folks, as of this recording, this is happening
as we are speaking. But the Senate has unanimously voted,
they've given unanimous consent now to move that bill ahead
when they receive it. So the only hold up right now,
Robes is just them getting the thing they've already voted to.
When we receive it, We're gonna go ahead to prove
(08:38):
this thing. It could be on President Trump's desk tonight, signed, sealed, delivered,
and before the day is out, we have got a bill,
a law that is now saying the Epstein files must
be released by the DJ and robes this has Is
this going to satisfy everybody? Find?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I think it will?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You think I will know as long as we actually
get all of the files.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yes, because that's always been the case.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
There's always be So I know, we just got twenty
thousand emails we didn't even know. I didn't know existing
that was from the estate, but didn't know that that
was even on the team.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
What else is out there?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So now if we now have an order to have
everything released, what else is there? Once you have everything
out in the open, there is nothing else. So I
do think this will put conspiracy theory theorists either they'll
either be.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Proven right or it'll be put to bed.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
But it is nice to at least have the information
that we've all been seeking for all these years and
for some of these victims decades trying to get out
in the open, trying to get people to give a
shit about. And so the cool thing is people care now,
and now when you've got American public sent they want
(10:01):
to know. Now, the pressure is on lawmakers and wow,
turns out when there is pressure, they actually can act,
and they can actually act unanimously.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm not gonna give it. I'm not gonna give them
too much credit. This is literally Grivalda representative, Grivalda from Arizona.
They delayed and delayed and delayed swearing her in that
gave and put over the top a number of votes
to where they were. Their hand was forced. This wasn't
(10:35):
even a matter that much of I just I hate
I get it, but they did. They had they were
forced to because of the number of votes. And that's fine.
And they've come around now. That's fine. And Dan the
president has done it. He's come around now, and he's
trying a new tact. Let me try this now. He
(10:55):
is trying to turn Epstein into a Democrats problem.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
He is the one who is named in the majority
of these emails, and it isn't good for him.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
The emails that we've seen are horrific. Yes, why is
not not even being discussed?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Well, it is, obviously, but he has not been accused
of anything criminal, no it related to Epstein. It just
all looks bad, it looks funky. Why not just get
this stuff out there? A lot of it's going to
be embarrassing, I am sure, and I think no one
can attest to that more than Larry Summers. Stay here, folks,
will tell you what the former Harvard president, current Harvard
(11:35):
tenured professor, and former Obama and Clinton administration officials says
now about his relationship with Epstein. What he's going to
do now now that so many emails have come out
about his relationship between him and Epstein. Also coming up,
We told you the vote was for what twenty seven
(11:57):
to one? Is that right, ropes? It's correct, twenty seven
to one in the House of Representative to release the files.
Who was a vote one? He was a dude from
Louisiana and he is standing by that vote. We'll let
you hear his statements. Stay here, all right, folks, welcome back.
(12:28):
We continue here. Four twenty seven to one robes they voted,
and it's got to be tough and lonely to be
that one guy right four hunch. Overwhelmingly, you never see
a vote like this, right on something so consequential.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I have never seen a vote like this with these
many eyes on this vote, so many people are looking
to see who voted what way and to be the lone,
the lone congressman who voted no when everyone else voted yes,
and we're The vote is for transparency.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
The vote is for the release of documents.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
The vote is for folks to understand what we're actually
dealing with when it comes to the Epstein fix. So
how could you possibly justify a no vote when the
President of the United States, who potentially has the most
to lose yes out of anybody, given him go ahead
release the file?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
He said? Transparency, isn't it? Cole? That is the official
name of the bill is the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yes, it's well named.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, So who is drum roll please? Who stood by
his guns? And no matter what, was not going to
vote for this.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
One, rogues Representative Clay Higgins, who a Republican from Louisiana.
All right, he said, I have been principled no on
this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the
bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons
two hundred and fifty years of criminal justice procedure in America.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
As written, this.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people, witnesses, people
who provided alibis, family members, et cetera. If enacted in
its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal
investigative files released to a rabid media will absolutely result
(14:29):
in innocent people being hurt, not.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
By my vote.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Okay, to stop theying. We're going to read the rest
of it here as well. Do you buy that so far?
How can four hundred and twenty seven people not see
what he sees? Right? Is he the only because if
you take him at his word, we'd all go, oh
my god, No, of course we shouldn't do We shouldn't
(14:53):
be doing that. So how is it? Is he standing
by his guns? He's trying to make a point? Is
he trying to get attention?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I think all of the three things you just said.
My counter to what he just said and wrote as
to his reasoning behind voting no is bs. Because when
you have the victims themselves, the women who he claims
to be protecting, standing there on Capitol Hill begging lawmakers,
(15:23):
begging the president to release the files, I call bs.
You can't possibly know what they know, and for you
to act like you know what's best for them is
condescending and for me, it doesn't it doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
That's fair. Wait, we still will take him at his
word as this being a principled one. But to your point,
and that you made me think of our stands when
it comes to the death penalty. If the victims family
doesn't want the person to be put to death, we
should listen to that person. This is kind of feel
like that to me. To your point, isn't that what
(16:02):
you're saying?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
No better, I know what's best for you, Yes, and
you know what's best for you. That's the only way
I can take this, because we've heard directly from the
women who were the victims in this situation. And so
for him to say he doesn't want the information release
to the American public on behalf of the victims who
(16:25):
are asking for the information.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
To be released, I call BS on that, Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So he continues on saying the Oversight Committee is conducting
a thorough investigation that has already released well over sixty
thousand paties of documents from the Epstein case. That effort
will continue in a manner that provides all due protections
for innocent Americans. If the Senate amends the bill to
properly address privacy of victims and other Americans who are
(16:51):
named but not criminally implicated, then I will vote for
that bill when it comes back to the House. He
does robes. I will say make a point because even
if the Senate votes and accepts the House build and say, hey, everybody,
the President signed a bill to release all the files,
(17:12):
there might be a while for law enforcement, you know,
FBI and others to go through this and make sure
no in current investigation is being hurt, to make sure
no victims' names or innocent witnesses or their names are
out there. Sir, this could take a while, which now
(17:33):
a public who is waiting for the files. It's been
approved that the files could go out, and now we
still got further weight.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
But is that enough to vote no?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
His argument is that he doesn't think it has proper
enough protections in the bill.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
For the very people who are asking for it to
be released.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And I'm sure there are some out there, aren't there.
Witness his his thing, people who have provided alibis, witnesses,
family members, those things need to be redacted. I would
assume they would be. But he's saying it doesn't have
proper protections. He's the only one out of all of
them he.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Doesn't take it. What's his motivation? I'm actually curious and fascinating.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
What if it's sincere and I know it's very lonely
to be the person who might be screaming and yelling
about something that nobody everybody else seems right. Maybe he
has a point, I don't know. I actually don't.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
You are a contrarian, so I can see you siding
with and feeling some sort of camaraderie with the contrarian.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I am not suggesting contrarian.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
At but he is though in this case.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
But I am saying, I know what it feels like
to be a lonely person when you might be right
and everybody else thinks they are because they're on the
same page. I am not. So I'm just trying to
lend or offer this man, Representative Higgins, a little opportunity
and a little grace for the possibility that he is
standing by what he truly believes and that his motivations.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Are just such rare.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
And I think that would be admirable if that were
in fact the case, because obviously he knows it's not
actually going to move the needle, it's not actually going
to change things, but he wants to be on the
record for whatever it is he believes. So yes, if
you are correct, that would be amazing. Forgive me if
I am slightly cynical when it comes to members of Congress.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Oh no, not me. I have faith in our system. Now.
The other point we had was on this It was
a big Epstein day, the Epstein survirus, as you mentioned
several of them. That's always powerful. Is it not to
have a woman standing there in her I guess they're
on forties and fifties at this point, are they not?
But to be standing there with pictures. They were holding
(19:47):
up pictures of themselves as teenagers and saying, this is
how old I was when I was abused by this man.
That's powerful stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It is.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I think that is such an important thing for all
of us to remember. We see these women and they
are women now, but when this was happening to them
decades ago, they were teenagers, and that You look.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
At women's stories and what they've been through.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Very differently based on how old they are, what the
experience is that they've had. And these were women who
were underage and clearly not in a position to be.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
To be put in the position.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Of transaction sex transactions. These were vulnerable women. They told
their stories. A lot of these women were not in
positions of power or education or had strong family ties,
or they didn't have the resources that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
They may seem to have now as grown women.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And so yes, it's important to remember them.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Where they were, who they were, what they looked like
when these atrocities were happening.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You know, we don't Children is a name. We don't
assign enough to teen.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Girl there little there.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Children, even my nineteen year old Ailes is a child.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Children. I think that. I think the thing with the
pictures today was very It was effective, powerful and impactful.
The other big headline today with Epstein is a name
I don't I don't think. Maybe it sounds familiar to
some people, but Larry Summers has been in democratic circles
and at the highest point of governance for decades in
this country, and including as a Harvard professor. But Ropes
(21:30):
I didn't even realize. I was familiar with stories and whatnot.
But this former Harvard president and current tenured Harvard professor,
this latest batch of emails wrote show some interactions between
him and Jeffrey Epstein that don't show anything criminal, don't
show anything suggesting criminality and anything in that relationship. But
(21:54):
god damn, this was all after Jeffrey Epstein was a
convict did sex offender, and they were as chummy and
broe as it gets.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And look, I'm gonna say this, they guess they were
chummy and broie. But it was look yes, after the
fact that he was a convicted.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Pedophile.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yes, and for several years leading up to just the
few months before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested once again and
then soon thereafter died by suicide. So, but the gross
thing about it was, here's a Harvard tenured professor with
tremendous power and sway and is talking to Jeffrey Epstein
(22:43):
about how to woo women.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
That was what was so gross about it. He was
leaning on Jeffrey.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Epstein, a known convicted pedophile, and getting tips from him
on how to converse with and send text messages two
women outside of his marriage to basically get them, like
to string them along or to keep them going. It
(23:09):
was gross. And the idea that you would be sending
your child to Harvard to learn under this man's tutelage, who, yes,
might be a remarkably gifted, intelligent economist.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Clearly you don't want your daughter in his classroom period.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
When you read and see these exchanges, I'm sorry that's
just me as a mom, but speaking, I don't want
my daughter in his class.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I don't think anyone would take necessarily issue with what
you're saying once you see the emails, and we want
to be clear, he folks, the emails are not suggesting anything.
I want to be clear. He is not at all
being accused of anything criminally and not being accused of
right robes being involved in going to the eye and
(24:00):
with the massages and the teenagers. He is not involved
to connected, But he's being.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
What the problem is he's being implicated is ignoring all
of that there.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
It is they're ignoring all of what was known and
still relying on him as a friend and a mentor
to help.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Him woo women.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think that's the issue. He didn't even consider. It
seems in these emails and text exchange that what he
was convicted of and what he was accused of, it
didn't bother him at all to be personally and intimately
connected with the man who was guiding him in extramarital
(24:43):
potential relationships.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
And what you're saying there is I think a lot
of the back and forth. You might, okay, fine, a
couple of guys doing that. I don't think everybody would
scratched the head or think that necessarily much of it.
But the emails in the back back and forth we're
talking about and robes. You said it right, this went
up how many like how close before his arrest months
(25:08):
within months, Larry Summers was still emailing and exchanging messages.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
In the spring of twenty nineteen, they were still emailing
each other back and forth about his This is Larry
Summers girl he was trying to.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Go after and get.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That was literally within months of Jeffrey Epstein actually dying
by suicide in his jail cell.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Okay, so we're going I'm just to give a quick
idea here of what we're talking about again, folks were
Jeffrey Epstein at one point in twenty eighteen wrote to
Larry Summers, She's doomed to be with you again. They're
back and forth talking about a woman another professor from
what we understand at Harvard, that Larry Summers was sweet
on and was trying to pursue. But he was a
(25:55):
mentor too. Is that all right?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Okay, Larry Summers responds, Think for now, I'm going nowhere
with her except economics mentor I think I'm right now
in the scene very warmly in rear view mirror category. Again,
not none of this suggests anything necessarily he's the worst
guy in the world, but it gives us some insight
into the relationship he had with Jeffrey Epstein. At another point,
(26:20):
Larry Summers writes to him, to Jeffrey Epstein game day
at conference, he was apparently at some event. She was
extremely good, smart, assertive and clear gorgeous. I'm fucked he was. Again.
Several of these in little back and force robes that
show that he was so close and chummy with the guy,
(26:43):
and the email exchanges I just read, We're in twenty
eighteen and twenty nineteen. There are a bunch more, and
again I'm not suggesting that any of these are smoking
gun type stuff related to what Jeffrey Epstein did. But
the reason Larry Summers robes has now come out and
said I'm step being back for my public roles is
that these are embarrassing. They're devastating. They knew, we've known
(27:07):
for years he had a close relationship, but to see
that it was so close, even after a conviction for.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yes, that he was relying on Jeffrey Epstein to help
guide him in pursuing women outside of his marriage, knowing
what he knew about him, knowing what the world knew
about him, and still given his role at Harvard within
the Democrat community, that he was still so chummy that
(27:41):
actually Epstein referred to himself as Larry Summer's wingman.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
That is not what you want to get out. And
that's certainly what has been revealed this week.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
And that's why Summers stepping back now but again wrote,
every single day, every single day, a guy has been
dead for six years. Yes, now almost is making headlines.
It's still changing lives, it's still bringing people down, it's
still number one in politics. It's still so much of
(28:14):
this may I have. This is incredible how much he touched.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
My mom used to always tell me who you're friends
with matters, Who you hang out with, matters, Who you're
seen going out and doing whatever with matters.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
This is exhibit A. It matters.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Even if you didn't commit a crime, even if you
didn't do anything technically wrong, just being associated with someone
who did matters. And this is what we're seeing unfold
right now. And transparency is everything, and it looks.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Like we are actually I'm shocked. I am shocked.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
We are actually potentially going to actually know what is
in the Jeffrey Epstein files in a matter of days
or weeks, depending on what it takes to redact what
they need to react to protect the privacy of whomever
they need to protect. But we are likely now going
(29:18):
to see what we have been waiting to see now
for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And that is worth a wow. Stay tuned again, folks.
Top right corner of your Apple podcast app screen on
our show page, little button says follow click that you
will always get our updates coming to you. And it
seems there are so many about so many things these days.
We always appreciate you spending some time with us. Folks
on TJ. Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robach.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
We'll talk to y'all real, real soon.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Two things