Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
Congressman Jim McGovern: I’m happy to be with you.
McGovern: Well, I think you just summed it up pretty accurately. We’re waiting to see whether we can get two more Republicans and then force a debate and a vote on this on the House floor. Look, Trump said during the campaign he wanted to release the Epstein files. And all of his supporters said that they wanted the Epstein files release. All of the sudden, he becomes president and they do a review of the files and now he doesn’t want to release them. So the question is: What’s he hiding? And I don’t normally ever agree with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert; we’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum. But I appreciate the fact that they are asking that not only the files be released but they’re asking their fellow Republicans to sign on to the discharge petition that the speaker of the House is preventing from coming to the floor. So if we get 218 signatures, then we can force a debate and a vote up or down on the resolution on the House floor to release the files.
McGovern: Well, the rules committee Republicans are scared shitless of Donald Trump, to put it bluntly. They don’t want to do anything to offend him, and so they’re part of the cover-up. They bring a rule before the committee in which there is a provision that would deem as passed—that means no debate and no amendments—a provision that would basically saying that the Oversight Committee in the House could continue doing what it’s already doing. It adds no new authority. It doesn’t do anything. It’s like a press release to be able to give these Republicans something to point to. It doesn’t have the power of a law. What Congressman Massie and Congressman Khanna are pushing is an actual bill that the House would have to pass, the Senate would pass, and then it would go to the president’s desk. And if he vetoed it, we would have to override the veto. But it would have the force of law and require the administration to release the files. Now Trump could do it on his own already. That’s the thing here. He could just release everything and we can move on. But for some reason he’s not doing it, which makes us all wonder, What the hell is he hiding?
McGovern: Yeah, it’s a fake bill, in other words. And there’s no timeline. So it doesn’t say that this has to be done in 15 days or 30 days or 100 days. It doesn’t say it has to be done in six years. Again, it is just cover for Republicans. The House leadership here, again, is afraid to be at odds with Donald Trump. They think they work for him. They don’t think they work for the American people. It’s pathetic and it’s sad. And it’s frustrating because it’s not just on Epstein files, it’s on a thousand other things that they’re doing Trump’s bidding. It really was sad. Every single Republican on the House Rules Committee voted not to release the files. And we brought the rule to the floor today and there was a procedural motion that if I had prevailed, we could have then forced a vote on the Massie-Khanna bill. That went down as well. So the Republican leadership is doing everything they can to block the files from being released and, at the same time, trying to give the Republican members a little bit of cover.
Haley Robson (audio voiceover): Mr. President Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican—not that that matters because this is not political. However, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax. We are real human beings. This is real trauma. I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us, to see us for who we are, and to hear us for what we have to say. There is no hoax. The abuse was real.
McGovern: Well, I watched the press conference and I brought up the powerful testimony of some of the survivors on the House floor. And previously Trump said this was a Democratic hoax supported by stupid Republicans. And then after the press conference, he repeated that line that this was a Democratic hoax designed to get people to focus on something that was irrelevant. Those are his words. It was “irrelevant.” You can’t listen to that press conference of these survivors and not be horrified and heartbroken and just disgusted by all that has happened. And to call what happened to them “irrelevant,” it’s disgusting and it’s pathetic. And again, what’s even more pathetic is that rank-and-file Republicans, during the debate on the rule on the floor today, never even raised concern about Trump’s language—just basically moved on. These survivors deserve better and we’re going to keep on fighting until they get the files released.
McGovern: Yeah, I’m hearing that they are, that the White House is making calls. I know the speaker’s office is weighed in with a lot of Republicans telling them to not sign the discharge petition. And again, the question is why? I heard the Republicans last night on the rules committee and on the House floor today say that they’re all for transparency, they all want the truth to get out. Well, what the hell’s the problem? Just release the files. Obviously, you can redact the names of individuals to protect the survivors and those who have been through hell, but that is in the Massie-Khanna legislation.
Sargent: Well, I should clarify that we don’t know what’s in the files about Trump. There’s been some stuff out there about how that has really confirmed that he had a real relationship with Epstein and so forth.
Sargent: Well, we should mention that House Oversight Chair James Comer, also a Republican, keeps saying that Republicans are investigating the Epstein mess and they’re supposedly going to release details. As far as I can tell, though, this is just a mechanism for the Justice Department to manage release of little dribs and drabs of the materials to Republicans in a way that doesn’t hurt Trump and gives Republicans a way to pretend to be for transparency. What’s your sense of what the Oversight Committee is doing and what’s the game there?
Republicans don’t keep their word. That’s been the M.O. of this Republican leadership since they took power. So I think the only way to guarantee that there is a full accounting here is again to compel the administration to release all the files that they have and let the chips fall where they may. The American people want to know. The longer they let this drag out, the more intense the phone calls we’re getting from not only in my district but from all around the country saying, Release the files. So they should just release the damn files. Let’s move on. Comer last night said that he wants transparency, and he said all Republicans want transparency. But he couldn’t answer a simple question about whether or not he supports the Massie-Khanna resolution, which would require there to be transparency. I asked him about five or six times, and he just couldn’t give me a straight answer. So he’s playing all kinds of games. He’s trying to look like he’s doing something—responding to all the public pressure—but at the same time, not offending Donald Trump. And I don’t think that that’s sustainable. I think we’re at the point now where this is not going to go away. And sooner or later, we will get those extra two Republicans that would force a vote on the Massie-Khanna bill.
McGovern: It technically should definitely get a vote. Now in all honesty here, the Republicans could play games and try to shut the clock off or to replace it with something else. It’s not that they can’t screw around with this—but if they do, I think it would be very difficult to explain to people. This is a simple bill that requires the Justice Department to release all the files, redact the names of those survivors and those people who were victims in this terrible, terrible crime. It’s very straightforward, but they can still fool around with it. Now, having said that, I had some Republicans on the rules committee saying, If you get the necessary signatures, then we can vote on this. So we’ll see how all this plays out.
Sargent: I just want to point out, Congressman, a funny thing about this. Well, if Ghislaine Maxwell actually exonerated Trump, then all the more reason to release the files and just confirm his exoneration, right?
Sargent: Well, you mentioned earlier that you think this is unsustainable and that you’ll get the two Republicans for the discharge petition. Are there a number of House Republicans who are in play? I assume you talked to Ro Khanna about this. Are there a number who are in play who haven’t come out yet? And what’s that number?
The administration could do it without Congress doing anything. I thought they were going to do that. Pam Bondi said the files were on her desk and she was going to release them. Then all of a sudden she did an about switch. And look, I get it that there may be names of people in there who are well-connected and well-off and powerful and rich and have connections all over the place. So what? What happened here was so horrific, there ought to be a full accounting. And so we’re going to continue to push for that.
McGovern: I think that they’re scared shitless of Trump—period. Every Republican is. One of the most disappointing realities that we’re dealing with here is that Republicans who we used to be able to work with in a bipartisan way, who always seem reasonable on stuff and could be dependent on to do the right thing occasionally, they’re no longer there. They’re all afraid of a primary challenge. They’re all afraid of being on the wrong side of this president’s favor. And so they’re terrified.
And I think the same thing here with the Epstein files. The crimes that were committed horrific, beyond description. They’re terrible, terrible, awful. And if you believe that—and I think there are a number of Republicans that do—but you’re afraid to demand accountability, you’re afraid to vote for accountability because you’re afraid that it won’t be politically expedient, that Trump might not like you, that he might end up supporting a primary opponent, then what the hell’s the point of being here? It’s not worth being here. I think and I believe that eventually we will get those extra Republicans. I give Thomas Massie enormous credit. I know he’s getting the shit kicked out of him by the Trump people. They’re investing millions and millions of dollars to try to defeat him in his primary. I don’t agree with him on 80 percent of the stuff he does, but I admire his guts and his conviction here to stand by what he believes and to do the right thing.
McGovern: All the best. Thanks.
Hence then, the article about transcript epstein survivor nukes trump in moving speech as wh panics was published today ( ) and is available on The New Republic ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Transcript: Epstein Survivor Nukes Trump in Moving Speech as WH Panics )
Also on site :