Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / The House passed the "Epstein Files Transparency Act" on Tuesday
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the news hour. The House of Representatives is
- 0:03Speaker 1: gearing up to vote on a bill that would force
- 0:05Speaker 1: the Department of Justice to release its files in the
- 0:08Speaker 1: case of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Following
- 0:12Speaker 1: an apparent shift from the White.
- 0:13Speaker 2: House, President Trump is now urging his party to move
- 0:17Speaker 2: forward with the vote after a few key Republicans join
- 0:20Speaker 2: Democrats in supporting the measure. Congressional correspondent Lisa Dejardin begins
- 0:24Speaker 2: our coverage.
- 0:27Speaker 3: Last night from President Trump conflicting reactions and news around
- 0:31Speaker 3: convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. I'm a tarmac a refusal
- 0:36Speaker 3: to answer fake news like you. They just keep bringing
- 0:39Speaker 3: that up to deflect from the tremendous success of the
- 0:42Speaker 3: Trump administration. But on social media a one point eighty
- 0:46Speaker 3: Trump wrote that House Republicans should vote to release the
- 0:49Speaker 3: Epstein files held by DOJ, declaring we have nothing to hide.
- 0:55Speaker 3: And then today he was asked would he sign the
- 0:58Speaker 3: Epstein file bill if it passed. Sure, I would let
- 1:02Speaker 3: the set up look at it, let anybody look at it,
- 1:05Speaker 3: but don't talk about it too much, because honestly, I
- 1:07Speaker 3: don't want to take it away from us. That stance
- 1:10Speaker 3: is a reversal following weeks of intense work by the
- 1:14Speaker 3: White House to twist arms to prevent the bill from passing.
- 1:18Speaker 3: This because four House Republicans joined with Democrats on what's
- 1:21Speaker 3: called a discharge petition to force that vote, and now
- 1:25Speaker 3: one of them, former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Green, is
- 1:29Speaker 3: a Trump target. The President withdrew his endorsement of her
- 1:33Speaker 3: in a truth social post late last week, saying she
- 1:36Speaker 3: complains too much. In recent weeks, Green has split with
- 1:39Speaker 3: Trump and GOP leaders on more issues, including healthcare subsidies
- 1:44Speaker 3: and handling of the government shutdown, which ended up being
- 1:48Speaker 3: the longest in American history. The Georgia congresswoman was once
- 1:53Speaker 3: one of the President's fiercest allies on the campaign trail.
- 1:57Speaker 4: We have once again nominated for president the founding father
- 2:02Speaker 4: of the America First Movement, Donald John Trump, and.
- 2:07Speaker 3: In the Capitol where she wore a Trump cap in
- 2:09Speaker 3: the House Chamber, and she famously had him on her
- 2:13Speaker 3: cell phone during the twenty twenty three GOP speaker fiasco.
- 2:17Speaker 3: But now Trump is sharply attacking her as he would
- 2:20Speaker 3: an enemy.
- 2:22Speaker 5: Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Etstein files.
- 2:25Speaker 3: Representative Green appeared on CNN yesterday. She reiterated her calls
- 2:29Speaker 3: for transparency, and she has posted and said that Trump's
- 2:33Speaker 3: words have sparked significant new threats against her.
- 2:36Speaker 5: The most hurtful thing he said, which is absolutely untrue,
- 2:40Speaker 5: is he called me a traitor. And that is so
- 2:45Speaker 5: extremely wrong. And those are the types of words used
- 2:50Speaker 5: that can radicalize people against me and put my life
- 2:53Speaker 5: in danger.
- 2:54Speaker 3: The President was asked about that last night. Her life
- 2:58Speaker 3: is in danger?
- 2:59Speaker 4: Who's that? Ye hard reed dealer Green?
- 3:01Speaker 3: He said, Marjorie Trader Green, I don't think your life
- 3:05Speaker 3: is in danger. I don't think frankly, I don't think
- 3:08Speaker 3: anybody cares about her. This as voices of those harmed
- 3:12Speaker 3: by Epstein have new reach.
- 3:14Speaker 2: It's time to bring the secrets out of the shadows.
- 3:16Speaker 2: It's time to shine a light into the darkness.
- 3:20Speaker 3: Over the weekend, several survivors of Epstein's abuse released a
- 3:23Speaker 3: public service announcement demanding that Congres's force release of all
- 3:27Speaker 3: the files. Adding to the headlines, a Congressional committee released
- 3:31Speaker 3: a trove of Epstein emails last week in which Trump
- 3:35Speaker 3: was mentioned as having known about the girls. The White
- 3:38Speaker 3: House insisted he did no wrong, and the President has
- 3:41Speaker 3: long dismissed the controversy as a smear campaign. But support
- 3:44Speaker 3: for releasing the files is growing, and the full House
- 3:47Speaker 3: could vote as soon as tomorrow. Just in the past
- 3:51Speaker 3: few minutes, Speaker Johnson confirmed and his office is confirmed
- 3:54Speaker 3: to me that the vote is expected now in the
- 3:57Speaker 3: House tomorrow. Also tomorrow, Epstein's vivers plan a press conference
- 4:01Speaker 3: on Capitol Hill.
- 4:02Speaker 2: I'm not Lisa, it was, as you said, a one
- 4:04Speaker 2: to eighty by the president. We don't often see that
- 4:06Speaker 2: from President Trump. How is that reversal going to impact
- 4:10Speaker 2: that expected House vote on releasing the files tomorrow.
- 4:12Speaker 3: Well, I think this is an admission of really the
- 4:14Speaker 3: state of play in the House. This was going to pass,
- 4:17Speaker 3: and Thomas Massey, the Republican sponsor of that discharge petition,
- 4:21Speaker 3: felt he could get two thirds vote to override the president.
- 4:25Speaker 3: So this is a kind of fat accompley that the
- 4:27Speaker 3: President is admitting to here. But now it becomes even
- 4:30Speaker 3: easier for Republicans to sign on board, and you wonder
- 4:33Speaker 3: if this might be even a near unanimous bill, which
- 4:36Speaker 3: was not at all what we expected in the House.
- 4:38Speaker 3: As it takes its vote.
- 4:39Speaker 2: The House is one thing. The Senate is different. As
- 4:41Speaker 2: you know, how does this look in the Senate?
- 4:42Speaker 3: Well, Working and talking with a Majority Leader John Thune's
- 4:46Speaker 3: office today, they said they were waiting for the House
- 4:48Speaker 3: to figure out their timing. But I have to tell
- 4:51Speaker 3: you talking to Republican senators, they were uncomfortable because they
- 4:54Speaker 3: also generally wanted to pass this. I think this is
- 4:56Speaker 3: also on a glide path there so an important factor.
- 5:00Speaker 3: Once the Senate votes it then goes to the President, who,
- 5:02Speaker 3: as you heard just today, said he will sign it. Now,
- 5:05Speaker 3: this bill means in fifteen days no longer will those
- 5:09Speaker 3: files be released. It demands in that timeline, within two
- 5:12Speaker 3: weeks the files be released.
- 5:13Speaker 2: Meantime, we saw the President has now forced an investigation
- 5:16Speaker 2: of Democrats related to Jeffrey Epstein, including former President Clinton.
- 5:21Speaker 2: What do we know about that and how does that
- 5:22Speaker 2: factor in this?
- 5:23Speaker 3: This is something prosecutors, in particular former prosecutors, are paying
- 5:26Speaker 3: attention to because there is a potential that the Justice
- 5:30Speaker 3: Department could say we can't release these files because there
- 5:33Speaker 3: is an ongoing investigation, and that is something that the
- 5:36Speaker 3: bill itself allows for. So we're watching to see if
- 5:40Speaker 3: this is what might happen here. But all of that aside.
- 5:43Speaker 3: At the same time, President Trump has the ability to
- 5:46Speaker 3: release these files. Now. We spoke to a former prosecutor,
- 5:49Speaker 3: Jessica Roth, about this.
- 5:52Speaker 6: Historically, presidents didn't involve themselves in such decisions by the
- 5:56Speaker 6: Department of Justice about what files to release. But given
- 6:00Speaker 6: that this president has involved himself in a very direct
- 6:03Speaker 6: way with decisions made by the Department of Justice, it
- 6:06Speaker 6: really begs the question why he has chosen not to
- 6:10Speaker 6: exercise that kind of direct control over the Department of
- 6:13Speaker 6: Justice decision making In this particular context.
- 6:16Speaker 3: Trump putting this on Congress, even though he has some
- 6:18Speaker 3: of this power himself.
- 6:19Speaker 2: We will I have to ask about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green.
- 6:22Speaker 2: You've covered her since she entered Congress. What should we
- 6:24Speaker 2: understand about her break with the president?
- 6:25Speaker 3: This is quite a wild break. I think it tells
- 6:28Speaker 3: us that defining MAGA is not something anyone other than
- 6:32Speaker 3: Trump can do. Right now, you know she has obviously
- 6:35Speaker 3: split from him, But I will tell you I've noticed
- 6:37Speaker 3: in the last day she has not posted anything on
- 6:39Speaker 3: social media for all of her open rebellion against him
- 6:43Speaker 3: in the last few days and weeks. Now she has
- 6:45Speaker 3: gone silent. At the same time, It's interesting how Democrats
- 6:48Speaker 3: view all of this. They think, in the end that
- 6:49Speaker 3: Epstein files show a vulnerability for Trump, and maybe that's
- 6:52Speaker 3: why he's resisted them so much. Whatever it says about him,
- 6:55Speaker 3: they think it shows that he has some kind of
- 6:57Speaker 3: corrupt tendencies. They might be able to bring that up
- 6:59Speaker 3: in the NEX campaign. However, I think everyone agrees the
- 7:02Speaker 3: economy is still going to be front and center next year.
- 7:04Speaker 2: It always is. Lisa dejar Dance with the very latest
- 7:07Speaker 2: Thank You, Welcome,