Epstein Scandal Rocks Trump White House

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1:31I'm Ari Melber. And we have continuing coverage on this damage control that is coming out of the White House. So they are now trying to explain some things that they've done, haven't done, and that they've leaked. Trump White House scrambling now late in the day to quell another Epstein-related uproar. Now, there are reports that they're going to have this high-level meeting tonight, you might have heard about this, at the vice president's residence, which itself is a bit unusual, although you could have meetings in any number of places in the evening with top staff. What's different, though, is that the vice president now is trying to tamp down any expectations that this meeting is about Epstein or will lead to more Epstein action.

2:12He's denying that. Now, the reports called it a kind of an obscene strategy dinner for the scandal that won't go away and to discuss if there is anything that they can release, including perhaps more information about the suspicious interviews conducted with Jelaine Maxwell. This is what Vance just said. Gathering the top advisors this evening to talk about how to respond to the obscene situation. I don't know. I could ask you that question. I don't know of it, but I think here's the man right here. I saw a reporter today, and it's completely fake news. We're not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation.

2:53And I think the reporter reported it needs to get better sources. Look, the whole thing is a hoax. Donald Trump doing something very rare there, ceding the microphone, of course, because this is looking bad. So if by a bit of pre-planned theater, they have hung more of it on Vance, and then he says, oh, hey, why don't you answer? And then they both say fake news, and then you heard Trump at the end say this whole thing is a hoax. Well, this is a MAGA story from the start. This is something Trump promised to do, release Epstein information, which he's not doing. So just like the way he used to badmouth crypto as a scam and now sells crypto, we are reminded of the inconsistencies.

3:34If it's a hoax, it's his hoax. But the underlying case is no hoax. Real people, real lives were ruined. Real victims of sex trafficking have been speaking out because of the secrecy and the mistakes clearly made by the Trump administration now, even before you get to the history. And I've told you in this story, while there is politics involved and there is a whole saga in Washington about it, we will continue to make sure that we are covering the victims' families and the victims if and when they choose to speak out. And they're speaking out again today, saying we understand the vice president, again, based on that reporting, which you just heard him deny, but we understand he'll hold a strategy session with administration officials.

4:17Missing from this group is, of course, any survivor of the various crimes of convicted perjurer and sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Their voices must be heard above all. They go on to say, Maxwell should have remained in a maximum security prison and does not deserve the luxuries currently afforded her. a reference to one of the great hypocrisies about the so-called MAGA-Epstein justice movement, which is, if it has done one tangible thing, it's not get more information or transparency or get to the bottom of what was a suspicious death in the custody of the Trump DOJ. No, the one actual real-world change is better treatment and leniency for an Epstein sex-trafficking conspirator.

4:56Washington Post reports as for that leniency, that prison has comparatively comfortable accommodations. It's more like a campus, it's been described, than a typical federal prison. Indeed, one report said it's, quote, the nation's most lenient lockup. Another warden said, quote, someone gave preference, special preference to Maxwell. No other inmate currently in BOP has received, and it's a country club. Inmates, they have a sex offense, are not going to a place like that, period. It's truly unheard of. Now there's overnight reports that Maxwell in those interviews And with all reporting sometimes you ask, huh, who would leak this?

5:36Who would have the reason to leak this? And who's in control of her and those interviews? Well, according to ABC News reporting, she told DOJ Trump never did anything concerning around her Now I'll put the ABC piece to the side and add another point here what is going on when in a closed case where she's been convicted and her co-conspirator is dead why is she being interviewed about Donald Trump in the first place why is his name even coming up the whole thing itself is suspicious and back before Trump was trying to get out from under this scandal remember there was an actual investigation they already got all the information they could out of her.

6:18There is no legal or substantive reason we would expect new information to come out. The line of questioning and now the leaking is suspicious. Some say there could be a deal here. Now, I can only report for you what happened. I can tell you what's suspicious. I can tell you they already got information out of her before they convicted her. And I can tell you she's getting special treatment. Whether those were exchanged in a deal, we don't have the reporting on that yet. Trump, meanwhile, has dangled a pardon for her. Would you consider a pardon or a commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell? It's something I haven't thought about.

6:52It's really something I'm allowed to do, but it's something I have not thought about. I want to bring in our guests on something that Trump hasn't thought about, but apparently can't rule out. We are joined by the Reverend Al Sharpton, host of Politics Nation on MSNBC, founder of the National Action Network, and Vandy Fares, Molly Jong-Fast, an MSNBC analyst. Molly, it sounds critical to just go in and list the sordid and unusual facts of what has occurred. No one in reporting has yet nailed a deal. Right. But we are seeing suspicious bricks in a wall that looks like Maxwell gave them stuff and now they're giving her stuff.

7:34Whether that was arranged, we can't say yet, but it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good. And remember, this whole thing is it's sort of it doesn't look good. Like every part of it doesn't look good. And every time Trump does more, he makes it worse. Right. Like he talks about it. He brings attention to it. There every piece of reporting. Remember the reporting that the FBI had people go through and adapt the names, including Trump's name. Like these are just very suspect. These are things that seem very suspicious. And we haven't, you know, we haven't been able to thread the needle. But in a case like this, where there's so much attention and there's so much interest to release more and more bits of it, we'll just continue.

8:19And remember, I think what's important about this case is that it is something that gets the MAGA base is super interested in. It's not necessarily a mainstream media obsession the way that other things Trump has been involved in have been. Yeah. Reverend Sharpton, I really want to go to the politics with you. You're known for more than one thing. You care a lot about civil rights. I want to ask you about that coming up. But you know politics. I've seen you maneuver with people in both parties. I've seen you counsel people who have scandals that look like a lot less than this. How do you rate the way they're handling this?

8:57And what do you think of what we just heard, the president and the vice president responding to their own sort of leaks? Only they know where they're meeting and who they're meeting with and dragging out what has been their secretive approach to this sex trafficking scandal. I think that at best, I'd rank them as amateurs because they're making very big mistakes. One, to have the number two man in justice go down and talk to a woman convicted. And then all of a sudden she magically leaves a jail and goes to what some have said is like a club. It just amateurs do that. To talk about a pardon and leave it open.

9:43Well, you're the lawyer, but pardon based on what? she's already been sentenced. She's been sentenced before you were there. So what would be the basis of you saying she's been sentenced too long when she's been already doing the 20 years? What would be the basis of a pot other than some quid pro quo for whatever reasons we don't know? I think that they have brought more suspicion on themselves because of the amateurist way they've handled this. So I'm not minimizing the issues and we've been covering and I've had experts on about the victims, but I will make a Looney Tunes analogy, which is on other scandals, Donald Trump has been Wiley Coyote.

10:27We have seen his critics and Democrats say they think they got him and he always gets away. Why do you think on this one, he suddenly is sitting in this for weeks on end with his base up in uproar? Because this time it's not his critics getting him or his opposition getting him. He's getting himself. He's, you know, uh, uh, there is a friend of mine that always says a fish wouldn't get caught if he kept his mouth shut. And he keeps talking himself back into this. And if he had just, if I may, another friend of yours used to say, say that some people talk a lot, but say nothing. Quote was saying loud, talking loud and saying nothing, talking loud and saying nothing.

11:09See, this is the thing. Sometimes people just listen to the lyrics. Rev says, no, I knew James Brown. Let me fix it. Go ahead, sir. No, but my point is he has talked himself back into it. If they had not had to move with the deputy attorney general, if they had not had to move with Trump talking about this on a daily basis and denying it, it would have died that week. He keeps bringing it back, which also makes a lot of people feel that he can't let it go for a reason. Now, I don't know what he did. We don't know, but it looks bad. But it looks bad. Yeah, it looks bad. Because you're complaining too much.

11:50You're spending too much. And now, you're going to have a meeting at the vice president's house, and it's the attorney general, head of FBI, everybody that would be involved, but you're not talking about that. But then why did somebody leak that you have in the media? What are you meeting about? I mean, it's just amateur moves. All right. Molly, maybe I'll do another James Brown. Yes. And maybe you can get involved. You ready? Yes. Okay. Don't give it away. All right. I don't know karate. This is... I'm prepared for this. But I know Carreza. I'm sorry. There it is. I apologize. Classic. Don't apologize.

12:30He's just an expert. The polling. I'm going to show you polling. It's funny you said that. We're on the same page. UMass poll. People are talking about this around the country. It's summer. A lot of things going on. People are talking about this. And there's a clear view when you say who's hiding the info. It's not federal bureaucrats. It's not the speaker, although some think that. It's not the Trump officials who've been blamed, although Bondi does catch 59 percent. But far and away, this means, to be clear, Molly, 81 percent is over half of the people who voted for Trump statistically also think he's hiding it.

13:05And if you pull the pardon, if you pull him pardoning Ghislaine, it's like, it's very hard to get Americans to agree on things, but they all agree that he should not pardon her. So he has really backed himself into a sticky wicket here, right? Because Ghislaine now has this sort of spotlight. She can talk more. If he pardons her, it's bad for him. I mean, you just see. And the other thing that I think is so interesting that reminds me of Trump 1.0 is that you have leakers. You're starting to have a lot of leakers. And that was the thing that really unhinged Trump 1.0. Yeah, and you could see that with Trump and Vance.

13:43Maybe, as I've told viewers, we're watching this sort of what Rev called an amateur attempt to parcel out coming information. Oh, we're going to have a big meeting and we're hearing about it. And then, oh, you're going to get some transcripts. And oh, lo and behold, some of them, according to ABC, might say things that involve Trump not being guilty of sex crimes. That's all Maxwell can tell you. Were you involved in a sex crime ring or not? The answer is no. Good. Fine. Hopefully that is where you are. That's not a win. But is it that, or as you say, are there other people leaking because they're so concerned about this?

14:15And you, go ahead. And the more attention this gets, the more he loses. So even if her just saying he did nothing wrong and then moving to a better prison is kind of a lose for him. Yeah. I mentioned to viewers that we're covering this and it's a huge deal, but there's a lot of other important stuff. You're coming back for something really interesting later. Rev is here in 90 seconds. We're going to get into these fundamental rights issues that I know you wanted to spotlight. So Rev sticks around for that. By the end of the hour, acclaimed director James Cameron on how Donald Trump in this era, I'm going to ask him about environmental regulations under fire.

14:48What do we do as a country when we look at these climate problems and what he says about Titanic as a political message? All that's coming up. But first, the Rev back with me in 90 seconds. insurance isn't one size fits all that's why drivers have trusted progressives name your price tool for years just tell progressive what you want to pay and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget visit progressive.com to find a car insurance rate that works for you progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law all of us strands are in real danger and whatever it is it's closing in it started with just a few lost hairs here and there, but now more and more of us are disappearing every day.

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16:09For when you're stuck in meetings or need a post-workout recovery. Available in chocolate, vanilla cream, cookies and cream, and strawberries and cream. Try the new great-tasting Muscle Milk today. Available in stores nationwide. Muscle Milk. Protein for all. Just say that blacks are three-fifths. You're like, what do you mean? Are gays and lesbians human or not? Of course they're human. Why can't they have to say human? Reverend Al Sharpton, are they human or not? One of the many lines we remember from his time directly in politics there on the debate stage. We look at that because you're writing here in a new piece.

16:4460 years after the Voting Rights Act, you say, our voices are eroded looking at the attacks on democracy around the country. Tell us about this. When we look at the fact that everything that was fought for out of the 60s, from the voting rights bill, which is the anniversary today of when Lyndon Johnson as president signed it, to where there's been not only a retrenchment, but hostility of LGBTQ rights, which I talked about there in that presidential Democratic primary debate. When we look at women's rights and looking at where we've been talking about banning books, I mean, we could not have imagined as much as we were fighting 20 years ago that any of this was possible.

17:26And it's not only possible, it's happening. And in the middle of this all, as we should be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act today, we have legislators from Texas having to leave home and their families to stop a quorum to redraw the district lines that would deny black and brown representation in the Congress. Right. You're putting your finger right on that. Now, look, some people might just be full of hate, might be bigots. Other people, though, were just incorrect. There were people like Chief Justice Roberts, who said, we used to need these rules because politicians were playing games with voting.

18:09And we don't need these rules anymore because that's not happening. That was the logic, as you know, in Shelby v. Holder. We all lived through it and covered it. Well, what does Texas show us about not whether John Roberts has any discrimination in his heart? I don't have any reason to think from his record that he does, but that the premise of that ruling has been proven wrong, no? Absolutely. And if Judge Roberts, if this comes back to them with the Louisiana case now that they are going to deal with Section 2 of having to deal with whether race can even be a factor, he'd have to say the data shows that I was wrong.

18:46He's as fair as we all are giving him the opportunity to show because the data shows what it is. And if you look at it across the board, But this is what this administration has shown. They came in saying we're going after diversity, equity and inclusion. Look at the data. Just last week's jobs report, black unemployment went up to 7.2 percent. Well, I thought if you deported people, they were taking out black jobs. It should have gone down. What happened to my black job? So, I mean, I think that in any way you want to cut it, there's been a retrenching of black and other women, gays, other rights, which is why people need to be organizing as they have been and as we are doing now to fight back.

19:35I think there's no other way because I think Donald Trump has shown exactly the kind of America that he wants to try to bring back. Right. And we have never had a great experience trusting politicians to regulate themselves. That's a nonpartisan point. So as you say, it puts a lot of pressure back on the courts. If they're honest about, OK, you tried you tried pulling up the rules in the South. How's that going? Reverend Sharpton, on more than one topic. Good to see you, sir. Good to be with you. Appreciate it. And be sure to check out Politics Nation, of course, weekends, 5 p.m. Eastern on MSNBC.

20:08By the end of the hour tonight, the Oscar winning director, James Cameron is here and the Epstein uproar is threatening to Trump in ways that you've heard about, but we're going to show you why there's a meltdown. Plus this look at that meltdown. We're all on stage demanding the release of the Epstein client list. Trump has put his tariffs all over the place. I've been trying to understand him. I don't. It's very upsetting. It's extremely upsetting.

20:39Welcome back. Donald Trump is having by far the worst month of his second term. And also when it comes to what Reverend Sharpton was just talking about, the way that his own base's anger at him has dragged down his agenda in a fundamentally different way than years past, it's also one of the worst months we've seen since he's ever been president, both terms. We can measure that. And that's what makes this a more politically dangerous moment. And I'm going to show you exactly why. We have these prominent MAGA voices. Some are in the Republican Party, some are on Fox News, but more than ever before and the first term, which was many light years ago in terms of technology, we have more independent voices online, which means they're less beholden to some of these other things.

21:21That's true regardless of ideology. And so it goes beyond Epstein. In the past weeks and months, some of those voices who are MAGA and voted for Trump and have audiences that they've said are very Trumpified are not just criticizing this or that policy. They're using that same smashing rhetoric that Trump and MAGA folks tend to use against him. He doesn't like how the medicine tastes, but this could be something that's a fundamentally different dynamic than the first term. And I know it's summer and some people say, hey, we're just going through the motions of politics here and it all blends together or it feels the same.

21:59but if you care about the facts as we do, we have to understand what's going on. That's what journalists and authors and political scientists try to do. Something different is happening and I'm going to show you in this report right now why it's bigger than Epstein, why it includes tariffs and even some of the overreach on immigration according to libertarians who do want to lower immigration but say Trump is already doing it the wrong way. This is, from the beat, the special look at that accumulated bile from these MAGA voices. Make some noise if you care about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. We're all on stage demanding the release of the Epstein client list.

22:39It is Trump and it is his advisors that have gone with this narrative of them just saying, forget about it, move along. It's the way they've handled the scandal has been so bad, you know, leading everybody up to the water's edge and then not giving anyone a drink. Completely agree. This is self-inflicted. Trump has put his tariffs all over the place. I've been trying to understand him. I don't. His giant terror policy that he just dropped on the market unilaterally, probably unconstitutionally. We're getting flooded with thousands, hundreds of thousands of comments that are very unhappy about this.

23:13President Trump was elected primarily to go after the deep state. We want to go after the deep state. It seems like you think your base is stupid. That's how I feel. I feel like Trump thinks his base is stupid. And they're kicking students out that like write articles they don't like. Yeah, that's nuts. F*** crazy. Yeah. Isn't a university supposed to be a place where someone's allowed to express themselves and have opinions? Non-violently. Yeah. Deporting people because you don't like who they're criticizing? Like, that gets kind of shifty. You got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported.

23:49It's horrific. I don't know how many of you guys are invested in crypto or stocks. What the f*** is going on with our country? Guys, why am I poor? Everything's in the s**ter because of it. I'm down 7 million bucks in stocks and crypto. Maybe don't be on the golf course. Three times I voted for this man. This is by far the biggest fumble of the administration they've had thus far. It's indefensible. It's indefensible that the answers aren't there when so much was promised. The current DOJ under Pam Bondi is covering up crimes. Very serious crimes. Her days are numbered as a member of the Trump administration.

24:22Pam Bondi needs to go at a minimum. Pam Bondi needs to be fired. Who is rolling this out? The little rascals? It's very upsetting. It's extremely upsetting. There is something there. And it's being covered up. And the president blessed it. We have flight logs. We have information names that will come out. Don't tell us all this stuff's coming out. And the investigation's massive. And Trump wants it released. And then say, oh, there's nothing there. This stinks. This just reeks. So I'm going to go throw up, actually. That is so crazy. This is honestly one of the craziest things I've ever seen in my entire life.

24:58This seems like unforgivable behavior. It's something like this. I don't want a revolution, but if you wanted a revolution, this is how you would act.

25:13That was two and a half minutes taken from hours and hours, and not all of it was at that pitch. Our beat producers work hard to show you the crisp, key moments, but that's what's happening in conservative media. We watch what's happening in our country, and there's the government and the politics of it. There's people, but then there's this middle space of media. I know, yes, I'm also in the media, what they sometimes call the traditional journalism media, but this matters, and this has shifted a lot over the last four years, let alone eight, if you go back to when Trump was first inaugurated.