Trump Loses Monthslong Bid to Stop Epstein Vote

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0:4321 plus in present and select states. First online real money wager only. Minimum$5 wager required for seven consecutive days. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. You're watching The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNOW amid the countdown to Congress voting on releasing the Epstein files. The vote is expected tomorrow. Anything can happen, but that's the current congressional guidance. The plan is for the House to vote on a bipartisan measure to release the Epstein files that the Trump administration, the DOJ specifically, has been holding and refusing to release.

1:23Now, I'm going to walk through this with you because I've heard a lot of stuff about the Epstein files, frankly, for years, but especially today. And so let's start with the facts. The Trump administration has now had about 300 days in office and has refused to release any of the Epstein files in that time. Trump has also spent the better part of this year refusing to release the Epstein material. The issue has come up in many ways. He has been asked about it in public. He has been pressed about it by journalists, and he has, of course, watched as the Congress move towards wanting to do this. His DOJ can release these files within the law any time.

2:03There may be some technicalities, victims' names, grand jury material, certain things that are protected, but they have the material and they can release the bulk of it any time, and they haven't. So we know Donald Trump opposes actually releasing the files because he has not released the files. Sometimes this stuff gets pretty simple. There's also reporting that he specifically barred his attorney general from releasing the files per Axios, but even without those internal specifics, the buck stops with the president and he won't release the files. And that has been the state of play all year.

2:39And whether you follow the news all the time, daily news, watch TV, get it on your phone and internet, or just check in occasionally, you probably are aware of that baseline. So you say, okay, Ari, got a big vote tomorrow. What's the big deal? How did we get here? Well, just remember, because Trump is now in retreat, so there has been some spin and some other talk. But remember, the Trump secrecy, don't release the files, don't do it, whatever you do, was also backed by the co-equal branch of government where the Republicans control the House. and the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, didn't just oppose releasing the files, right?

3:15That's the position. He also opposed and refused to ever schedule any vote on whether to release the files. If you follow politics, you've seen a lot of issues like this. There are issues relating to, for example, taking on corporate power or dealing with cleaning up money and corruption in politics, things that a lot of people, well more than half the country wants, and you don't even get a vote on it because they don't want to admit to you that they oppose the thing that is actually pretty popular. And remember, many members of Congress had at least claimed to back Epstein transparency. On the Republican side, that was true last year during the campaign.

3:51A lot of the GOP was joining or sounded similar to Trump's claims that he was for the release. So refusing to hold the vote was unpopular, but that approach held for most of the year. It held until last week, which is why we're here now and why Trump is so rattled, because there was a initially slow but methodical bipartisan bid to override Trump and Johnson, the strategy I'm telling you about where they wouldn't allow the vote that we're now going to see tomorrow. And that bipartisan bid led mostly by Democrats, but to their credit as well, some Republicans built momentum. And then it gained even more support when a few House seats shifted.

4:27There was the coverage about when they were going to swear in a new member who was going to be the extra final vote. And Congress reached a rare feat. They toppled the Republican speaker's floor schedule. They forced tomorrow's vote through this rare special petition. And that is now looking like tomorrow. And Trump fought that all year. Last week, he was still having a kind of series of public meltdowns and social media posts, still opposing the release and saying it was all a hoax anyway, but then contradicting himself by telling his own DOJ to investigate his opponents, but only them for any ties to the Epstein case, which he also said was a hoax and a nothing burger.

5:03Now, Donald Trump has proved effective at times at messaging and PR. He was a reality show host. He's won some campaigns. But sometimes people kind of overdo it with, oh, Trump is so skilled at everything. For some reason, we don't know whether it was a type of panic or fatigue or running out of ideas. But the PR last week wasn't very good. Saying it's a hoax, but now go investigate it doesn't even make sense. The sentence collapses on itself. and saying that whatever there was in those files, he didn't want them out, did not exactly make him look very confident or innocent, a point that many comics and many internet memes has made.

5:41Tonight, we can tell Donald Trump is bracing for defeat tomorrow, that there will be a vote, which they never wanted, and that they will lose the vote because they already have 218, and it's looking like they could lose even worse with a lot more Republicans openly defying Trump on the Epstein issue of sex trafficking. So now Trump is retreating. And you don't always see a headline directly like that, but Trump is making a U-turn and he's surrendering rhetorically to those pushing the vote, which again is mostly Democrats. So even though Republicans control the White House and Congress, the Democrats pushed this to a point and recruited some Republican support where they've forced Trump to do a U-turn in public, to surrender, because the House Republicans are going to spurn him tomorrow and not on a minor or random issue, but on an issue that Trump and his base, MAGA podcasters and others said was the issue last year.

6:33So what's going on? I want to be very clear about this because there's a lot of spin on this topic. One, President Trump's retreat tonight shows the pressure works. He wants to get out of the unpopular position he holds. And the pressure, which came uniquely from both most of the Democratic caucus pushing this and some Republicans, including MTG and others that he has dealt with in the past and has said they're part of the MAGA movement, it has been too much for him. And he's folded on the words. But two, Trump's words contradict themselves because he's failing to act. The Trump administration has the Epstein files.

7:13They won't release the Epstein files. This vote is Congress using its power to make Trump release the Epstein files. but if now tonight he claims i just showed you the headline that he actually supports that then he could do that right now he doesn't need to wait for a vote from congress to force him to do the thing so that's a really important baseline and if you talk to people about this in the coming days we're going to hear i bet some back and forth on this but ever focused on pr trump wants the headlines that might just parrot his words without covering the real headline which i'm presenting to you, which is Trump, as of tonight, has not released the Epstein files, which means he's still opposed to releasing the Epstein files, even if he is so worried about tomorrow, a rejection, including from some of his party.

8:01We'll see. Can't predict. We'll see where they vote. But that's what he's worried about, that he wants to spin and say with words he supports something that he is not doing. That type of secrecy over a sex trafficking case with Trump, which Trump and his attorney general and FBI director had all claimed they would be the saviors and they turned out to be people hiding it. That kind of double talk has angered even Republicans. I stand with these women. I stand with rape victims. I believe the country deserves transparency in these files. And I don't believe that that rich, powerful people should be protected.

8:40Mr. President, Representative Massey says he's concerned that the Epstein Road you are calling for? Could be a smoke screen to lock the vehicle more miles? Is that okay? Well, I don't want to talk about it because fake news. That's the pressure on tomorrow's vote. There's also the human impact. Epstein survivors speaking out. Please remember that these are crimes that were committed against real humans, real individuals. This is not a political issue. This is not partisan. we're asking for you to stand with us now to release all of the files. It's never been political for us. Tomorrow's vote could lead to more evidence coming out.

9:18And if the Senate takes up and passes this measure, the pressure only builds on Republicans there. They've ducked this issue because the attention has been on the House. That's where that rare measure was to override the Speaker. But GOP Senate leaders like Thune could be the next focus. They've been able to sit out most of this year with everyone keeping an eye on the House. But there's no automatic reason for that. the House, as I say, is where some of the action was, but either body can, of course, hold its own votes. The Senate Republicans have not been eager to do transparency on this. Meanwhile, there's tons of information in the Epstein emails that were just released.

9:52Epstein wrote a note to himself months before his death in prison that laid out the money laundering accusations that he saw against Trump, saying that Donald didn't own very much. He represents his income as the gross receipts of his clubs. That means nothing at all. Zero. No income as we know it. He lists assets and their value, but not the corresponding loans against it. No net number, hence meaningless. Now Trump's accounting approach has drawn heat for years, including in court where he has appealed some of the past fraud cases against his businesses. Epstein wrote to Trump vet Bannon. Now you can understand why Trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends.

10:29He wrote that a week before Epstein's arrest in 2019 in a case overseen by then the Trump DOJ. That is just one more email. When you have 20 ,000 emails, the big ones, the big names come first and a lot more coming through. And as with any credible investigation, journalistic or governmental, you have to go through and sift through it. The fact that Epstein said something doesn't make it true. At times, he thought he was quietly commiserating, and that might be the type of evidence investigators want to look at and corroborate. At other times, he may have been making bluster threats and lies. He was not always, of course, an honest person.

11:09But what we see tomorrow, what's Barreling told us, is the release of the files that Trump not only has fought to hide up until this moment, but that he's hiding now, even as he claims he would welcome Congress forcing him to do what he won't do on the Epstein files. I have Maya Wiley and Gretchen Carlson here when we're back in 90 seconds.

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13:34A vote on the Epstein Files coming as soon as tomorrow. We're joined by Maya Wiley, CEO of the Leadership Conference in Civil and Human Rights, a former civil prosecutor at SDNY, which dealt with some of these cases later after her tenure. Gretchen Carlson, the veteran journalist, co-founder of Lift Our Voices, is also here. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. Maya, I really wanted people to understand, because there's so much noise, that Donald Trump opposes releasing the files. And we know this because he's not doing it. When you see, though, that something actually worked, the Democrats led, but some Republicans were in as well, getting this discharge petition.

14:10A lot of folks say there's going to be dozens of Republicans going against Trump tomorrow. Something seems to be working in a year where we've been told none of the checks work. I'm curious your view on just that sort of it. Well, yeah, I think there's something that's working is that there's a broad support in the American public, including from Donald Trump's own base that is saying we want to see these, too. Now, why people want to see them and what they think is in them and what they think those files will help them learn and do is not the same thing. And I think we should be very clear about that.

14:39The bipartisanship, though, does come from a place of a very broad base of Americans with very strong feelings about these being public. That's the important thing here. And whatever's in them, I think we're still going to have a few fights about soon. I think that this has huge implications politically. This is the first time I can remember seeing President Trump having to reverse course and actually kowtow to members of Congress. I mean, how many times have we seen him primary out people or threaten that he's going to do that if they don't agree with him? I think this is a major moment. I think it may give Republicans a spine.

15:17to stand up against him on other things that deep down and in secret they tell people they disagree with. I mean, this would be you're going to have a huge vote tomorrow. Republicans, it's going to be a landslide. And the Senate's also going to vote for it. And you don't want to say the emperor has no clothes because in a story like this, we want everyone to just stay clothed and get to the bottom of the information. But it is a moment where the president, the emperor, has no actual political bat to swing. As you say, he is retreating. He's also fighting openly with MTG and they can talk about primaries, but the House can only lose two Republicans and keep their majority.

15:54So it's not like alienating her to the she's a wild card to a degree that she doesn't want to vote for a Trump Johnson. Johnson axes is smart. I want to play a little bit of that exchange, which is a big deal all weekend. Here she was. The most hurtful thing he said, which is absolutely untrue, is he called me a traitor. And that is that is so extremely wrong. And those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger. I mean, she also apologized for the political rhetoric that she's used in the past that has been violent. I mean, this is a new Marjorie Taylor Greene.

16:36I'm not exactly sure why. But Donald Trump has been able to get away with calling people on his own side traitors. It's not working this time. And that's why I think that this is politically significant. Well, and I want to just underscore, because I think Gretchen's exactly right about it being politically significant. One part of the Marjorie Taylor Greene story is where she departed on subsidies for health premium, right? I mean, in other words, there was a there was a cracking that was starting because Republicans were also concerned about how hard their base, their constituents were going to be hit by some of the things that Democrats themselves were fighting for, including in the shutdown.

17:12It created a lot of nervousness. But that that issue, she was also being outspoken on before this. But I do think the point is where he has departed from his own base. He has a problem. She has represented that base, calling him names. Not so helpful when they've been very clear that they want this transparency. We've just been going through this over the few days since it all broke midweek. I want to read to more of the revelations that are in these emails. You have Trump ally Steve Bannon, who had this sort of link with Epstein, and they exchanged messages across 18 and 19 after, of course, Trump's first election.

17:46Bannon had left the White House in a 2018 exchange. Bannon shares a link to German media and says they are underestimating him and he's as dangerous as ever. Bannon writes, Germans get it, to which Epstein replies, love it. Bannon says, pretty powerful. Epstein says we should lay down a strategy plan. And they would go back and forth like this, Maya. And what you see is that whether Epstein is bluffing because he was sometimes a bit of a con man and would insinuate himself in things, or whether they really relied on him. Either way, you have someone who was at that point already convicted for a sex crime and accused of worse and yet seemed to be close to the top of MAGA.

18:27And this surprises us why when we have a president who was elected after a tape where he admitted and bragged about how easy it was to sexually assault women and still got elected. So they had a lot of cover, I think, from their vantage point about what it meant to be as crass and gross as those exchanges represent. But I also want to say at that time in 2018, this is when Steve Bannon was going to Europe and they were talking about his Europe trip because he's working to unite extremists, including folks that we would call white supremacists and neo-Nazis, as part of a global movement that really represents some of what we have seen, the very central dangers to our own democracy and to our own people, including when you hear Marjorie Taylor Greene talk about violence and how it puts her in danger.

19:16And you both know your way around the law and you've both dealt with issues around harassment of women, mistreatment of women and how common or normalized that can be. Kathy Rumler was a top Obama official and lawyer and she was in these emails with him. This goes back a ways 2014 where she's emailing. Most girls don't have to worry about this crap. Epstein replies, quote, girls, careful. I will renew an old habit. The Guardian writes, and this, again, implicates people we've seen in both parties and top of business and tech and some academia, the, quote, bantering, frivolous tone of so many of these emails applies.

19:56Epstein would have felt welcome as a member of, quote, polite society, receiving no social incentive to change his ways. Far from being ostracized as a sex offender, he was normalized. And so, Gretchen, beyond all the ways people have picked a certain enemy or opponent and looked at it through that prism, there's a larger question here over this decade period about the normalization of not just the worst sex crimes, which some people may not have known about, I want to be clear early on, but clearly sexism. And you have to keep in mind that a lot of these emails were being written at the height of the Me Too movement, which makes it even more alarming during that time because people were talking about this consistently and constantly.

20:35I think I'll go back to what I've often said, which is that power supersedes party. You know, sexual power, sexual harassment, abusing women, it supersedes party. And this is a pure example of that where we're seeing Democrats and Republicans. Now, listen to Donald Trump in the Oval Office again today. He's saying it's still a hoax, even though he's saying that they should vote on it now. But he's given the green light. And back to the significance of this. He's basically said to John Thune in the Senate, go ahead, have everyone vote for this. Now, he didn't go as far as saying he's actually going to sign it.

21:09But what would he do at this point? Well, and like I said, sign it. He can release it. If he wants to do the thing, he can do the thing. And every day that he doesn't do the thing, he's against it. But since you mentioned it, I'll play this. And Maya, we are careful with how we broadcast things that are misleading. So I gave my introduction report. And I want to, again, remind people what he's saying is misleading. He's talking about a thing he's not doing and then says, sure, but someone's going to have to make him do it. And we'll see if he actually signed it in law, as you mentioned. So this was today.

21:38Take a listen, Trump and the Oval. They can do whatever they want. We'll give them everything. Sure, I would. Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don't talk about it too much. Be transparent, but don't be transparent. I mean, that's really the message. And what he will, I don't know what he'll do. But I'm sure we're going to see him try to find ways to get his minions in the Department of Justice to also do whatever they can to block turning over whatever they can, whether it's because a grand jury, which is not a lot of the documents. Let's be very clear. It's a very, very, very small number of what was 100 ,000 pages of documents.

22:20But secondly, whereas after he directed that they start investigating Democrats whose names were coming out of these emails, no Republicans and certainly not, you know, but go after by all means weaponize the Department of Justice to go after people he doesn't like and people who are in another party. But whether or not there's been speculation about whether he'll then try to have them say, well, we're investigating. And so for in for in order to have the integrity of our investigation, I don't think it flies politically. I don't think it flies legally. I'm just saying that to say, I think we will see a lot of dissembling from him after this vote.

22:59Right. Which is why saying you want something that you're not doing doesn't go very far. And whether a judge would find that credible when Pam Bondi wrote a memo saying there's nobody left to investigate. So there's a lot there. I want both of you know your way around the law. And I want to turn to how the actual evidence we've gotten in the new emails really undercuts what the Justice Department's been doing, including with Maxwell. So our guests are with us. We're going to get into that next.

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