Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Oval Office Power Play: Saudi Arabia Commits to Massive U.S. Investment plus Trump Embraces Full Epstein Disclosure

Transcript

Oval Office Power Play: Saudi Arabia Commits to Massive U.S. Investment plus Trump Embraces Full Epstein Disclosure · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: There was a major meeting in the Oval Office.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: It's going to have a big impact on many Americans
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: and more than one trillion dollars of new investment in
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: the United States of America. This news comes as the
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Saudi Crown Prince told President Donald Trump on Tuesday that
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia will be upping its investment commitment in the
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: US to nearly one trillion. That is up from six
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: hundred billion that it was pledged in May. Trump received
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the crown prints on the South Lawn with plenty of
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: well pomp, culminating with three F thirty fives and three
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: F fifteen flying over the White House. After giving the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: crown prints a tour of the President Jawak of Fame
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: along the West Wing Colonnade in a photo opportunity, they
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: held a bilateral meeting before reporters in the Oval Office. Quote,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I believe, mister President, today and tomorrow we're going to
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: announce that we are going to increase the six hundred
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: billion to almost one trillion of investment, real investment and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: real opportunity by details in many areas and the agreement
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: that we are signing today in many areas of technology,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: artificial intelligence, and materials, magnets, etc. Will create a lot
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of domestic opportunities. He went on to add Trump, who
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: moments earlier said he would like to see the Saudi
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: investment rise to one trillion and joked he would need
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: to work on the crown prints. But first, I want
• 1:26
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• 2:46
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• 2:49
  Speaker 2: and wear a badge. So take a stand today and
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  Speaker 2: make a difference with every call you make.
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• 3:14
  Speaker 2: every call you make. I want you to take a
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Listen to what the President had to say is he
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: introduced the Crown Prince to the media inside the Oval Office.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Extremely respected man in the Oval Office today and a
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: friend of mine for a long time, very good.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: Friend of mine. I'm very proud of the jobs nun.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: What he said is incredible in terms of human rights.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: And everything else, and he's the crown Prince, the future King,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: and I just want to pay my greatest respect to
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: your father King, who was an amazing man.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: I met him early on. I freed him at the
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: airport at an age.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: It was pretty high up there, and it was about
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: one hundred and seventeen degrees as he was standing in
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: the gray carpet as I came out of the plane.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: And he's amazing.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: And when I met his brilliant son who was at
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: the oval office, and shortly thereafter you came in represented
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: the country, and I called the father.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: I said, this guy is fantastic. And I don't know
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: if that helped you or hurt you, but obviously it
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: couldn't have hurt too.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Much because here you are right for we had a
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: great mating and the office has changed quite a bit,
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: and we inherited a mess. You actually told me you
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: thought the country was in big trouble. I'm not going
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: to use the exact word that you use. I refuse to.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Say that you thought our country was dead a year and.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: A half two years ago, but a country was in trouble,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: and now we have the hottest country in the world.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: You said that also, and we do.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: We have. The United States is right now the hottest
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: country in the world. And between the tariffs and the
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: election November fifth election, we've done things that nobody can believe.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Twenty one trillion dollars will be the amount invested in
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: the United States or committed to invest in one year.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: So I mere nine months, we're up to almost eighteen
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: trillion dollars. Biden as an example, the Biden administration, if
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: you call it that, it's to me it was the
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Biden lack of administration.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: They were less than one trillion for four years. We're
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: going to be twenty one trillion for one year. I
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: think that's hard to believe.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: The biggest in history was a certain country three trillion.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: We're going to be twenty one trillion. On top of that,
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: prices are coming down. We inherited a mess with high prices,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: the worst.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Inflation in the history of our country.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: We had inflation that was a single four years, the
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: worst inflation in the history of the United States. Gas
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: prices through the route. And that's after destroying our petroleum reserve,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: which was meant for wars and big emergencies, not to
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: try and when at election, they opened up the reserves
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: so that people get dollars three dollars less in gasoline,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: and it didn't work.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: They got about three cents.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Less because as big as those reserves are the peanuts
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: when you're talking about that kind of traffic, and we're
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: rebuilding the reserves, we're doing all of this, and we've
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: done a job. We're also bringing down prices very substantially,
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: and we've already brought them down very very substantially.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Gasoline is way down.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: I think you'll be seeing two dollars gasoline, but we're
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: now at two fifty to forty five.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: Some are lower than that.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: It was four fifty five dollars, six dollars, three fifty
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: three seventy five under by no different.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Numbers, but way high. And we have energy way down.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: But the biggest thing to me, because I know what
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: it means in jobs, is the fact that we're at
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: over seventeen trillion dollars scott and we expect to be
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: around twenty twenty one trillion dollars in one year, and
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: that's many times bigger than history. The highest number was
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: three trillion dollars and we're going to be a twenty
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: one trillion. That means new plants, new AI, new auto plants.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: We have auto plants coming in from Canada and from Mexico,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: from Germany, from Japan. Toyota just agreed to invest ten
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: billion dollars on new auto plants, all American workers.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: We've never been in a position like this. You can
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: go back to the beginning.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Our country has never been in a position like this,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: and it really is because of the fact that we
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: use tariffs to bring all this money in. And you're
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: going to see the results in a year when these
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: plants start to open up. We have more plants under
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: construction now than at any time in the history of
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: our country. And these are big plants. These are the
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I want to
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: thank you because you've agreed to invest six hundred billion
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: dollars into the United States and.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Because my friends, he might make it a trillion, but
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: I'm going to have to work on him. But it's
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: hundred We can count on six hundred million, but that
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: number could go up a little bit higher.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir, I don't know, we'll see, but we appreciate
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: it very much.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: So SODIA is going to be investing.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: At least six hundred million dollars, and that means investments
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: in plans, in companies, money on Wall Street, and what
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: it really means for everybody that really counts as jobs,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: a lot of jobs.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: We have a lot of jobs. So I just want
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: to thank you. We've been really good friends for a
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: long period of time.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: We've always been on the same side of every issue.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I think we've done a great job in wiping out
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: the nuclear capacity of Iran. Nobody else could have done that,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: No other president would have done it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: And we had the pilots in the Oval office right here.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: We were celebrating a very successful attack.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: So I had them in with that beautiful be too
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: bomber that's over there, and they said, Sir, for twenty
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: two years we practiced this attack predecessors.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: These were very young guys.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: So twenty two years they sent our predecessors and us
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: practice the attack on ran But no president ever gave
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: us the go ahead. Three times a year they went
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: up and they practiced the attack. Nobody let us do
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: it until you came along. And I let them do
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: it because it was the right thing to do. You
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: can't have a nuclear rn and so we put you
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: in a very good position.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: But I just want to say it's.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: An honor to be your friend, and it's an honor
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that you're here, and you'd like to say a few words.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: But thank you very much.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: You can hear the President there making it clear that
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: we have an ally in Saudi Arabia when it comes
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to fighting terrorism, something the President wanted to point out,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: also talking about how they worked together to make sure
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: they took out that Iran nuclear plant and one trillion
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: dollars of investment coming into the United States of America
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: as well. The House has passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: known as HR forty four oh five, with a one
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: twenty seven to one vote, with five not voting at all.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: It was taken up under suspension of the rules, which
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: means it needed a two thirds majority, and still passed easily.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Every Democrat and all but one Republican voted yes. The
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: lone no vote was Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: who says he's worried about privacy for victims and people
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: mentioned who aren't charged with crimes. What the bill does
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: is passed by the House is this It orders the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Department of Justice to release all files, all records, all communications,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: and investigative materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and associated investigations.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: The Department of Justice has a short deadline thirty days
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: in some reports, fifteen in others, depending on version and
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: the final texts, and how that will be controlled to
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: make the material public once it becomes law. It also
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: allows reactions to protect the identity of victims and minors
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: avoid harming ongoing investigations as well, and explicitly says the
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Department of Justice cannot withhold or redact information just because
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: it's politically embarrassing, reputationally damaging, or politically sensitive, quote unquote.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: So the question now is what is next. Well, the
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: bill now goes to the Senate. The majority leader there,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: John Thune, has said he expects a Senate to consider
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: it fairly quickly and possibly as soon as later today
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: or tomorrow. But it still needs sixty votes there. And
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: let's be honest, with a Senate divide the way it
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: is where you couldn't even get sixty votes to keep
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: America's government open, nothing is promising now. If it passes
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the Senate, it would then go to President Donald Trump's
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: desk for signature. Now, the bill is aimed at forcing
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: the DOJ, as I mentioned earlier, to release a broad
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: universe of Epstein related materials, including case files related to
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Epstein's sex trafficking investigation and prosecution his associate Maxwell, as
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: well flight logs and transportation records where DOJ has them,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: internal communications and investigative notes files that mention public officials,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: government employees, and other individuals connected to the case. Separate
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: from the bill, the House Oversight Committee already dumped more
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: than twenty thousand pages of documents from the Epstein estate
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: within the last week. That's obviously a lot of documents
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: that have now gone public, But this new bill is
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: meant to go further by targeting the Department of Justice
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: specific files. Now, the other question is where does the
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: president stand on this. Trump's stance has shifted well visibly
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: over the last few days. His earlier stance was why
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: are we doing this? There's nothing there. Let's move on
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: and get the work of the American people done. Then,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: when Representative Thomas Massey and Representative Rocanna started the discharge
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: petition to force a vote, Trump and his allies pressure
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Republicans not to sign it. One administration official report, he
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: called signing the petition a hostile act.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: To the administration.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: But then Trump said, fine, you're gonna play this way
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and you're going to turn this into a democratic hoax,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: then we'll give you total transparency.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Once it became clear that the bill was going to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: have the votes and the.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Discharge petition crossed a two eighteen signature threshold, Trump publicly
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: said to Republicans in the House they should vote to
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: release the files, saying, quote, I've got nothing to hide.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Republicans should support transparency and move on from what he
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: said is nothing but a demo democratic hoax, just like
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Russia collusion. I'm all for it. Sure I would, was
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: another thing that the President said. The White House also
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: has a write up amplifying this line, telling Republicans go
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: and do it, and questioned whether Democrats will equally be
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: transparent about people in their orbit who might be named
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: in the files. So the short version is this, Donald
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Trump said it was nothing at the beginning.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Many believe that is still true.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: But now he's saying give it all to the American
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: people and telling Republicans to move forward, which they've clearly done.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: There's also the political dynamics of this moving into the
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Senate when you have a four hundred and twenty seven
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: to one vote, this makes this the most bipartisan moment
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: of Congress in my lifetime. The bill's sponsors and most
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: vocal supporters include Rocanna, Thomas Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Nancy Mace, a very ideologically mixed group that is clashed
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: with leadership at times as well. Speaker Mike Johnson ultimately
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: voted for the bill, but is still calling it a
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: political show vote and warning that forcing the DOJA to
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: classify within a fixed timeline is dangerous. As he described
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: it from an intel perspective, he's openly asking the scent
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: to change the bill to add more protections for victims
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: and also for whistleblowers. Now the White House and the
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: GOP messaging now is clear, there is nothing to hide.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: It's embarrassing to name names for some, but they're saying
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: let it all be out there.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: So what is next?
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Well, over the next few days, the big question is this,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: does the Senate change the bill? And if the Senate
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: amends or adds more privacy protections, the legislation would then
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: have to go back to the House.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: How broad will the actual release be.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Even if it becomes law, Jay can still redact the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: victims and active investigations. The fight will be over whether
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: the DOJ tries to stretch those categories or whether Congress
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: pushes for a very aggressive disclosure. And then there's more
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: documents to be dumped. In general, the House oversight already
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: releasing twenty thousand pages from the estate. If this bill
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: becomes law, DOJ production could be larger, more sensitive, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: more directly tied to federal investigations and.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Who knew what and when.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Now here's one other part that needs to be brought
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: up and addressed as well, and that is just well
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the politics of this. Here is what James Comer had
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: to say about it.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: In the House, they have no idea la They're just fishing.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: They don't care about the victims. They don't care about
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: providing justice for the victims or giving the American people
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: the truth.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: They only care.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: About one thing, and that's trying to embarrass Donald Trump.
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: They hope and pray there's something in these documents that
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: will embarrass Trump.
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: I've subpoenaed the estate.
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: We've produced over sixty five thousand pages of documents, and
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: there's nothing in there about Donald Trump that hadn't already
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: been disclosed that President Trump hasn't already explained. All we
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: find are knew problems with Democrats like Stacey Plaskett and
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: Hakeem Jeffries.
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: So why not just release the files? I mean, if
• 17:21
  Speaker 7: there's nothing in there, who cares? Why not for transparency sake?
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: And the administration obviously players of the administration said they
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: were going to be released, and then some were released,
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: but not all of them. The President said, go ahead
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: and release them, So just get it out there and
• 17:38
  Speaker 7: have it done with.
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: Well, that's what I've encouraged the White House to do,
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: and they're working with us. They've released what they could
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: legally release. There's grand jury testimony, and the Trump administration
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: asked the judge to release that grand jury testimony, and
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: the judge, who was an Obama appointee, rejected the Trump
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: Department of Justice request to really least the grand jury
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: touch away. So a judge has to issue that. But look,
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: I think the Trump administration is working with us a
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: lot more than what the media has given him credit for.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: But I've encouraged the President to disclose everything. I'm glad
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: that he's gone ahead and put this issue to borrow,
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: this Tutchar expetition behind us. This is just a stunt
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: by the Democrats and a few dyscrountaled Republicans. We're getting
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: the documents, and as soon as we get them on
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: the Oversight Committee, we're making in public and I think
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: that's what the President wants and hopefully we'll get all
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: the documents released and we can move on to the
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: issues that the American people care about.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It's clear this is political and that's exactly what James
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Comer was calling out.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Again.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: The Republicans voted for the transparency because what the Democrats
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: have done is they've used the abuse of sexual assault
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: victims to try to score political points against Donald Trump,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: and now it's backfiring yet again. It's all about transparency.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: That is what President Trump promise when he was elected president.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Yet again, exposing mud that the government was hiding from
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: all of us. We now know that it's moving forward
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: with the Epstein papers. I call them papers because it
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: is a lie to say that there is an Epstein file.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of documents to deal with Jeffrey Epstein,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: but it is not a file in the way that
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: it was described before Donald Trump became president. You know
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: when the Democrats were trying to weaponize it. Well, now
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: we know we're going to get to see those files
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: or those papers. As a Speaker of the House, Mike
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Johnson led the way with a House vote in favor
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: of disclosing exactly what we have at the DOJ. He
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: stated publicly a press conference, I'm going to vote to
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: move this forward. Despite describing the bill as a recklessly
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: flawed bill, Johnson also said that the measure is a
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: way to demonstrate transparency and there's nothing to hide. Specifically
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: in the context of responding to allegations that the files
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: might implicate Donald Trumper be used as a political weapon. Now,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Johnson went to the floor of the House and repeatedly
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: called the bill dangerously fawed because he believes it lacks
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: sufficient protection for victims, whistle blowers, and innocent third parties
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: whose names might appear in the files. He criticized how
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: the bill was drafted, for example, pointing out that the
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: authors of the discharge petition had signed the wrong section
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: of the US Code and that the legislation could force
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: the release of child sexual abuse material due to imprecise language.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Johnson also emphasized that the House cannot amend the bill
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: under the discharge petition process, so he wants to senate
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: via the Majority Leader John Thum, to make corrections before
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: final passage. He said he's been working with a small
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: army of lawyers on this issue. He also accused Democrats
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: forcing what he called a political show vote on this
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: issue and said it was irresponsible how it is happening.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I want you to hear Speaker Johnson in his own
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: words from the House talking about this before the vote.
• 21:24
  Speaker 8: Democrats are using the Epstein tragedy, the unspeakable evils that
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: this guy committed with his trafficking ring and all of
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: the abuses that they that they made these young women
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: go through. They're using that as a political weapon to
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: try to distract from their failures as a party and
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: to try their best to try to tie President Trump
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: somehow into this wretched scandal.
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: The President had nothing to do with it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: He's been very clear and he has nothing to hide,
• 21:50
  Speaker 8: and that's why he's endorsed the vote today. I suspect
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: this vote will be probably unanimous. But here's the important
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: point that everybody needs to understand we have been advocates
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: of maximum transparency, but we have also insisted that the
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: victims be carefully protected. The Oversight Committee has been doing
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: extraordinary work, and we've got some of the most vigorous
• 22:11
  Speaker 8: advocates on the Republican and Democrat side on the Oversight Committee.
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: They've been working in earnest to deliver transparency for the
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: American people and to do it in a responsible manner.
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: What do we mean by that, the bypart is an
• 22:23
  Speaker 8: effort over there is already producing all the results that
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: the discharged petition seeks and much much more. Chairman Comer
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: and all of these advocates over there have been releasing
• 22:34
  Speaker 8: thousands of documents, for example, from the Epstein estate.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: By the way, in my view.
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: That's been the greatest treasure trove of information because it's
• 22:41
  Speaker 8: yielded for us Epstein's own personal flight logs, his financial records,
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: his daily calendars, and so much more. But importantly, none
• 22:49
  Speaker 8: of that was addressed or is addressed, and the legislation
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: that's being voted on today, the estate files wouldn't even
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: have been encompassed in that. And so it goes to
• 22:57
  Speaker 8: show that the Oversight Committee is doing it from the
• 23:00
  Speaker 8: From the very beginning, we've been insistent that this matter
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: be handled carefully and with the utmost caution and care
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: for the people who have been harmed. They should not
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: be made to suffer any longer. We're talking about real
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: people's lives at stake here, and young victims who don't
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: want to be dragged into this political game that could.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: Get hurt further.
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: But the Democrats are rushing the release of thousands of
• 23:22
  Speaker 8: unsubstantiated documents that may be included in this that are
• 23:25
  Speaker 8: going to be in the public domain with the passage
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: of this bill. And there are serious deficiencies in the
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: legislation that I have noted at length, and Republicans have
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: to work to address those deficiencies in the Senate if
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: and when this legislation is advanced. I stood before the
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: American public today at our press conference, and I explained
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: in detail that the dangers of the discharge petition. We
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: have posted at my website Speaker dot gov a summary.
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: The legal Council, a small army of lawyers put this together.
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: I used to be a federal court litigator. Many of
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: my colleagues whove spoken today were we understand the dangers
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: of how this was haphazardly draw on up and among them.
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: By the way, mister speaker, before I forget seeking AMAS
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: consent to enter into this document of the record, it
• 24:07
  Speaker 8: is that.
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: It's on the website.
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: It's entitled how the flaws of HR forty four h
• 24:12
  Speaker 8: five could revictimize Epstein's victims, create new victims, and damage
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: the judicial system.
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: It is dated today, thank you, and.
• 24:20
  Speaker 8: It summarizes just five or six of the major concerns.
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: Among them, it fails to fully protect victim privacy, It
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: could create new categories of victims. It potentially jeopardizes grand
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: jury secrecy. It fails to prohibit release of child sexual
• 24:34
  Speaker 8: abuse materials that are not appropriately defined in the legislation.
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: It jeopardizes future federal investigations, and we have National Security
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: currncerns regarding classified information. We'll put this in the record
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: because we need the legislative record to reflect what is
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: the legislative intent behind this vote. I used to litigate cases,
• 24:52
  Speaker 8: we would litigate federal statutes and whether or not they
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: could survive, and legislative intent is important, and we need
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: to say clearly for the record, as a speaker of the House.
• 24:59
  Speaker 8: I'm saying to you, this legislation that will pass today
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: is flawed and it must be amended. The question is
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: why didn't we amend it here before we passed it
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: because the authors won't allow it. Because under the rules
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: of the House in our discharge petition, they have to
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: agree to consent for the legislation to be amended, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 8: they are not doing that. So now we rely upon
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: our partners in the other chamber to get that done,
• 25:19
  Speaker 8: and they need to do that. The victims deserve our
• 25:21
  Speaker 8: utmost respect. In fact, they should be saluted for their courage.
• 25:25
  Speaker 8: And the young women who have not come forward who
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: are now some of them are middle h women who
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: have not come forward also deserve our respect and they
• 25:32
  Speaker 8: deserve to be protected. Republicans support transparency. We want maximum transparency,
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: especially when it comes to disclosing the names of anybody
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: who had anything to do with these evils, anybody who
• 25:42
  Speaker 8: conspired with or aided in any way Jeffrey Epstein.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: They must be brought to justice.
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: We want the bill to be amended so it doesn't
• 25:50
  Speaker 8: in at the same time, violate victim privacy, create new victims,
• 25:54
  Speaker 8: disclose the names of any whistleblower or informant cause the
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: release of grand jury materials or child say abuse materials
• 26:00
  Speaker 8: are under minor national security, and if and when the
• 26:03
  Speaker 8: Senate takes this up, we will work with our colleagues
• 26:06
  Speaker 8: over there to make sure that these things are corrected.
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: I'll I'll just close with this simple thought. We've been
• 26:15
  Speaker 8: at this a while. It's drug on for a while,
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: but it's time for this to come to light. We
• 26:21
  Speaker 8: are I expect, I expect that this will be a
• 26:23
  Speaker 8: unanimous vote, and it will reflect what I think every
• 26:27
  Speaker 8: member in this chamber. And I'll say this now, at
• 26:29
  Speaker 8: least in recent days, every member of the Chamber on
• 26:32
  Speaker 8: the Democrats side, they didn't say anything for four years,
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: but they're for maximum transparency now and so is this site.
• 26:37
  Speaker 8: But we want to do it in a respectful and
• 26:40
  Speaker 8: careful manner so that we don't subject innocent people to
• 26:43
  Speaker 8: further harm. And that has been the whole thing I
• 26:46
  Speaker 8: told all my members today. I'll be voting yes on this,
• 26:48
  Speaker 8: and I suspect almost everyone will. We'll send it to
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: the Senate and we hope it's corrected. Thank you for
• 26:53
  Speaker 8: the time, speaker.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Now you back, you listen to what he just said there,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: and it really shows you just how sick the Democrat
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: critic party is. They don't care who they hurt. The
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party just wants us to be a political issue.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: They want it to be a political issue. I'm gonna
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: say it again. They want it to be a political
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: issue to hurt Donald Trump.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: That's the whole thing. That's literally the whole ballgame. It's
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: the only thing that they care about. It's sad because
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: there are flaws, but if you're a Republican, as the
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: speaker described there, and you vote against this, it would
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: be used and weaponized against you. That is one of
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: the sad and sick problems of.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: All of this.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: The final point that the President made about this is fine,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: go ahead and make it public so it's clear there
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: is nothing that we as Republicans are trying to hide.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Put it all out there so that everyone can see it.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: It's also sad that the Democrats can't even do that
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: the responsible way, and the only thing they want to
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: do is try to put Republicans in a corner and
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: they don't care what victims they hurt in the process.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Don't forget to share this podcast. By the way, with
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: your family and your friends on social media. Wherever you
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: can hit that subscribe or auto download button and I'll
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: talk to you again tomorrow