July 16, 2025 • 7 mins
Sarah Isgur speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the DOJ withholding information in the Epstein case and the reaction that the MAGA crowd has had to that.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get to Sarah Isker, ABC News contributor in Washington
to talk more about this. Sarah, are you surprised at
the reaction, especially from arden Trumps supporters, about the Epstein list.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Sure, I mean I'm surprised at the staying power. We've
certainly seen examples in the past where President Trump has
bucked sort of what people thought was a core belief
of the Republican Party, and the Republican Party fell in
line pretty quickly. I think the difference between those examples
in this one, and I'm thinking specifically about the pro
(00:36):
life movement within the party, is that those were sort
of the older branches of the Republican Party that Trump
has very easily either cabined or dismissed entirely and basically
said like get on board or get off the train. Here,
it's actually his supporters, the people who were not already
sort of part of that Republican establishment who are saying,
(00:58):
wait a second, you know we were in the front
of the train with you, We're your core defenders. Were
that hard candy coating to protect you. Losing those people
can actually cause them real damage.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
No, and it continues. I thought it would last a
day or two. But it seems to actually be escalating
in some areas. I look to see what's trending all
the time in Maga world, and man, they're not letting
go of this. What is the way out of this
for Donald Trump?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, i'll tell you what doesn't seem to be a
particularly good way out of it is telling a bunch
of people who you know, you've been hyping up these
conspiracy theories with that they need to move on and
there's nothing to see here. Like, that's the whole way
conspiracy theories form, you know. I compared it to Santa's
elves telling all the children Santa doesn't exist and then
(01:51):
telling them to get over it.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, that's exactly what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Or we've been playing some sound from him where he's talking,
he's talking about I'm fascinated.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I can't believe this was happening. I don't even think.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I don't even know why people are talking about Jeffrey
Epstein anymore. Well, wasn't he the one that brought it
up in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Not only that, but you know he picked Pam Bondi
and Cash Patel and Dan Bongino to head up his
national security law enforcement apparatus, three people who had been
very clear that they had this as a top priority.
So even though I don't think Donald Trump talked about
(02:31):
it endlessly on the campaign trail, these guys did, and
then he put them in the position to do the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know, he's got to be careful with this because
it seems like he's leaning towards releasing something. And I
don't know if you've you heard the interview with Dershowitz
where he was talking about how he's seen the files
because of some cases he's involved in, and he says
it's problematic because there's some very powerful people on there
that have only been accused, they have not been doing anything,
(03:01):
and they're definitely going to fight back and they have
the resources to fight back. So he's in a tough
spot about releasing anything at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, yeah, welcome to being at the Department of Justice.
I mean, this is my old job. This is why
them promising all of their supporters that they were going
to release everything. You know, I was like sitting back
eating popcorn, like, let's say, because you know, a federal
court has sealed a bunch of this stuff to protect
the victims, for instance, you can't release the videos. You
(03:32):
can't release grand jury material. That's a crime. So like,
what's your plan here? And then of course they keep promising,
they keep promising, and then finally they're like forced to
answer and they're like, yeah, we can't release any of it. Well, yep,
I could have told you that two years.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Ago, right, since you are were in the Department of
Justice and you have a deep knowledge about this kind
of stuff. If you were an advisor to President Trump,
what would you be saying at this point, how does
he get out of.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
This, get a time machine and stop promising this nonsense?
Because look, it's not just that he was naive and
promising it. They knew that they were ginning this up,
and then they were just like living for another media day.
That's where you see Pambondi saying things like it's on
my desk. You know, she's just trying to like win
that interview and like make her supporters happy. It's their
(04:22):
entire approach to politics which has left them in this spot.
It's sort of their you know, Greek tragedy. They you know,
win by the conspiracy theories and now they die by
the conspiracy theories. Yeah, I don't know how you get
out of this while maintaining all of your other ones
that you're still going with, like you know, the Russia, Hope, JFK,
(04:46):
I don't know, the moon landing whatever.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
But Speaker Johnson is now pushing for everything to be released,
and Donald Trump said he's going to look through things
and try to release something, which shows he's giving in.
I mean, it seemed like at first he was just saying,
this is ridiculous. We don't have to I don't even
know why you're talking about this anymore. And now his
tone has changed, his tune has changed, and it sounds
(05:13):
like he's going to release something. You're in the Justice Department, now,
what can you release?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So this is what's so funny. He's reverting back to
what got them here in the first place, which is
when the media cycle of the day tell your people
what they want to hear. So now you're just going
back to where they were two weeks ago, which is, yeah, yeah,
we're definitely going to release stuff at some point. There's
nothing to release you that things are under court seals.
There's no list, there never was a list. There's no
(05:42):
evidence that there was ever a list that was made
up by people on Reddit. So what are they going
to release? Nothing?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So you think they're just not going to release the thing?
And how do they Now, let's put on your political
hat for a second, how did they get out of that?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I mean again, like you just keep putting it off,
like you tell people there's nothing and then you say, oh,
I'll go back and look. I mean, the exact same
playbook we've seen for the last week, right they got
they they finally said we don't have anything to release.
And now Trump's like, oh, we'll go back and look again.
I don't know they're going to run that for four years.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Eventually this is going to put some stain on Donald Trump.
It's amazing in Maga world as you read all of
the post, it's it's Bondie, they're going after, it's kash
Bettel they're going after. They really haven't gone after Trump
the way you would think they would go after Trump
on this, and they're they're steering clear of that. The
question is how long does that last?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
And certainly in the past we've seen that Trump remains
sort of teflon don and everyone else around him falls.
So I think if the heat does get turned up enough,
you will see people lose their jobs over it. But
I don't think you'll see any change in Donald Trump's
approval rating.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, I don't either, and it's and the last one
I saw was ninety six percent with Repubblic Pilkins. And
so this doesn't seem to hurt him. It hurts everybody
around him, but not him. Sarah Escar, thank you so much.
That was fascinating. Sarah Escer, ABC News contributor in Washington.
Talk to you again next week. Thanks Sarah,
Let's get to Sarah Isker, ABC News contributor in Washington
to talk more about this. Sarah, are you surprised at
the reaction, especially from arden Trumps supporters, about the Epstein list.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Sure, I mean I'm surprised at the staying power. We've
certainly seen examples in the past where President Trump has
bucked sort of what people thought was a core belief
of the Republican Party, and the Republican Party fell in
line pretty quickly. I think the difference between those examples
in this one, and I'm thinking specifically about the pro
(00:36):
life movement within the party, is that those were sort
of the older branches of the Republican Party that Trump
has very easily either cabined or dismissed entirely and basically
said like get on board or get off the train. Here,
it's actually his supporters, the people who were not already
sort of part of that Republican establishment who are saying,
(00:58):
wait a second, you know we were in the front
of the train with you, We're your core defenders. Were
that hard candy coating to protect you. Losing those people
can actually cause them real damage.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
No, and it continues. I thought it would last a
day or two. But it seems to actually be escalating
in some areas. I look to see what's trending all
the time in Maga world, and man, they're not letting
go of this. What is the way out of this
for Donald Trump?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, i'll tell you what doesn't seem to be a
particularly good way out of it is telling a bunch
of people who you know, you've been hyping up these
conspiracy theories with that they need to move on and
there's nothing to see here. Like, that's the whole way
conspiracy theories form, you know. I compared it to Santa's
elves telling all the children Santa doesn't exist and then
(01:51):
telling them to get over it.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, that's exactly what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Or we've been playing some sound from him where he's talking,
he's talking about I'm fascinated.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I can't believe this was happening. I don't even think.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I don't even know why people are talking about Jeffrey
Epstein anymore. Well, wasn't he the one that brought it
up in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Not only that, but you know he picked Pam Bondi
and Cash Patel and Dan Bongino to head up his
national security law enforcement apparatus, three people who had been
very clear that they had this as a top priority.
So even though I don't think Donald Trump talked about
(02:31):
it endlessly on the campaign trail, these guys did, and
then he put them in the position to do the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know, he's got to be careful with this because
it seems like he's leaning towards releasing something. And I
don't know if you've you heard the interview with Dershowitz
where he was talking about how he's seen the files
because of some cases he's involved in, and he says
it's problematic because there's some very powerful people on there
that have only been accused, they have not been doing anything,
(03:01):
and they're definitely going to fight back and they have
the resources to fight back. So he's in a tough
spot about releasing anything at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, yeah, welcome to being at the Department of Justice.
I mean, this is my old job. This is why
them promising all of their supporters that they were going
to release everything. You know, I was like sitting back
eating popcorn, like, let's say, because you know, a federal
court has sealed a bunch of this stuff to protect
the victims, for instance, you can't release the videos. You
(03:32):
can't release grand jury material. That's a crime. So like,
what's your plan here? And then of course they keep promising,
they keep promising, and then finally they're like forced to
answer and they're like, yeah, we can't release any of it. Well, yep,
I could have told you that two years.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Ago, right, since you are were in the Department of
Justice and you have a deep knowledge about this kind
of stuff. If you were an advisor to President Trump,
what would you be saying at this point, how does
he get out of.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
This, get a time machine and stop promising this nonsense?
Because look, it's not just that he was naive and
promising it. They knew that they were ginning this up,
and then they were just like living for another media day.
That's where you see Pambondi saying things like it's on
my desk. You know, she's just trying to like win
that interview and like make her supporters happy. It's their
(04:22):
entire approach to politics which has left them in this spot.
It's sort of their you know, Greek tragedy. They you know,
win by the conspiracy theories and now they die by
the conspiracy theories. Yeah, I don't know how you get
out of this while maintaining all of your other ones
that you're still going with, like you know, the Russia, Hope, JFK,
(04:46):
I don't know, the moon landing whatever.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
But Speaker Johnson is now pushing for everything to be released,
and Donald Trump said he's going to look through things
and try to release something, which shows he's giving in.
I mean, it seemed like at first he was just saying,
this is ridiculous. We don't have to I don't even
know why you're talking about this anymore. And now his
tone has changed, his tune has changed, and it sounds
(05:13):
like he's going to release something. You're in the Justice Department, now,
what can you release?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So this is what's so funny. He's reverting back to
what got them here in the first place, which is
when the media cycle of the day tell your people
what they want to hear. So now you're just going
back to where they were two weeks ago, which is, yeah, yeah,
we're definitely going to release stuff at some point. There's
nothing to release you that things are under court seals.
There's no list, there never was a list. There's no
(05:42):
evidence that there was ever a list that was made
up by people on Reddit. So what are they going
to release? Nothing?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So you think they're just not going to release the thing?
And how do they Now, let's put on your political
hat for a second, how did they get out of that?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I mean again, like you just keep putting it off,
like you tell people there's nothing and then you say, oh,
I'll go back and look. I mean, the exact same
playbook we've seen for the last week, right they got
they they finally said we don't have anything to release.
And now Trump's like, oh, we'll go back and look again.
I don't know they're going to run that for four years.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Eventually this is going to put some stain on Donald Trump.
It's amazing in Maga world as you read all of
the post, it's it's Bondie, they're going after, it's kash
Bettel they're going after. They really haven't gone after Trump
the way you would think they would go after Trump
on this, and they're they're steering clear of that. The
question is how long does that last?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
And certainly in the past we've seen that Trump remains
sort of teflon don and everyone else around him falls.
So I think if the heat does get turned up enough,
you will see people lose their jobs over it. But
I don't think you'll see any change in Donald Trump's
approval rating.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, I don't either, and it's and the last one
I saw was ninety six percent with Repubblic Pilkins. And
so this doesn't seem to hurt him. It hurts everybody
around him, but not him. Sarah Escar, thank you so much.
That was fascinating. Sarah Escer, ABC News contributor in Washington.
Talk to you again next week. Thanks Sarah,
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