← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
2026 Midterms Begin Amid Iran War, Economic Woes, Epstein Scandal
00:40:31
March 3, 2026; 6pm; The 2026 midterms kick off tonight with primaries in three states, unfolding at a critical moment in the Trump presidency. MS NOW's Ari Melber breaks down the political stakes, from the president’s controversial war with Iran and widespread frustration over the economy to the Epstein scandal looming over the administration.
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Ari Melber
Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Melber and the midterms we keep hearing about, they officially begin today, as you may have heard, primaries in three states. That's the start of these midterms, and it comes at a very clear crisis point in the Trump presidency. We are here in the first week of a new war, a war that just about everyone says they didn't ask for or see coming inside the United States. And I'm going to show you many of the voices on the right in the MAGA movement who say no thank you at a minimum. Meanwhile, Americans are skeptical of this economy. If that sounds familiar, it's a problem that the Biden Harris team faced in the last election. Only now Trump is the steward of these high prices in this economy. And the Epstein scandal haunts Donald Trump because of his secrecy, his lies, his cabinet members lies. He is standing by an Epstein island visitor up and through tonight and maybe all the way through the midterms, while other countries actually arrest some of these people. That's where we begin. Trump is down in the polls. America is sizing up a war that he never bothered to explain or persuade on. And that, along with perhaps the fundamentals of going to war with Iran, are why we are seeing a whopping 59% disapproval. And this is at the beginning. Many of our Middle Eastern adventures and wars have gotten less popular over time. Trump said today wars can be fought, quote, forever. While other outlets are noting that his rationales, whatever they may be, keep shifting, which means some of them are not true. There's this quote, wars can be fought forever and very successfully. That's what he posted online. A rather remarkable way to draw everyone's attention to the term, the word, the very thing he pledged in the last election not to do, launch forever wars. Trump's policies are clearly underwater. They're hurting. A lot of voters say if this is the solution, they don't want it.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
Certainly not helping sentiment today. Dow's down a thousand ad lines.
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Ari Melber
There is high anxiety all around the world. Energy prices have gone straight up.
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Donald Trump
We have a little high oil prices
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
for a little while.
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Ari Melber
The cost of insuring oil tankers is going straight up. Voters, they're getting skittish. 59% disapprove.
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Donald Trump
People felt it's something that had to be done.
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Rev. Al Sharpton
This may be anti American sentiment.
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Ari Melber
If you look at the Dow 30, well, it's a sea of red, isn't it?
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
America's not as popular as it once was.
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Ari Melber
The rest of them, all in the red, Every last one of them. On the downside, that's a lot of red. That is stocks being volatile. It doesn't mean that we are facing an imminent crash or that the markets, such as they are, have made a judgment yet about what's going to happen coming out of Iran and the Middle East. This is volatility. But that alone draws attention back to the other fundamentals that affect everyone, because you may not be in the markets, a lot of voters aren't, but everyone's in the supermarket where prices are high. That's the economy mixed with a little bit of the foreign policy uncertainty. Then there's the problem that started on the right that Trump said he would solve until MAGA discovered it's his problem. From Donald Trump's long history with Jeffrey Epstein, captured on film and in the files, to the way that his DOJ has been caught lying and according to many lawmakers, breaking the law passed to get to the bottom of it. That is an issue in these midterms as well. Trump has tried different things. He tried hiding the files. He tried denying the problem. He tried saying it was an old, boring story. By the end of the year, it didn't matter what he was doing because unlike Iran, the Congress took over and made him release the files. It wasn't up to the president anymore. This year we have been tracking week after week, accountability for some. And then the Republicans, rather than sort of dealing with that writ large, they've tried to focus in on the Clintons, where they held private hearings, private sort of depositions that now they're releasing with Bill Clinton discussing his history as well.
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Donald Trump
The only conversation I had with President Trump about this was in the early 2000s, and he said, you know, we had some great times together over the years, but we fell out, all because of a real estate deal. And he said, I'm sorry it happened. That's all.
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Ari Melber
Former President Clinton discussing current President Trump's depiction of the fallout with Epstein. Now, who cares? Well, for one thing, Donald Trump has had, not unlike Iran, shifting explanations of his Epstein history, sometimes claiming that when he learned that Epstein was up to no good, that's why he severed the relationship. That would be a good thing, if true. Bill Clinton, a lawyer who knows his way around testimony, he's given a lot of it, has now committed under oath to a different recounting, which also was in some other books, which undercut one of Donald Trump's claimed defenses for his Epstein history. Here's how Jimmy Kimmel sums it all up.
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Republican Senator Tillis
When your best friend was a pedophile
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Ari Melber
and you're losing bigly in the swing states with an election coming up, what do you do? I'll tell you what you do. You fire the weapons of mass distraction. Is it Wag the dog or are we in Iran for another reason? Or is it more than one reason? And is today's reason the same as Saturday's reason that hangs over foreign policy? The midterms start tonight. In fact, we are inside an hour of our special coverage. Rachel leading the whole team as we cover the results in all of these states and the implications. And obviously, if anything happens on foreign policy, we will have you covered for that, too. So that's just around the corner while our beat coverage begins right now with two special guests we booked for this big news night. Michelle Norris, Ms. Now senior contributing editor, and Rev. Al Sharpton, host of Politics Nation on msNow, president and founder of the National Action Network. Welcome.
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Michelle Norris
Good to be with you.
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Ari Melber
Great to have you both. We're going to get the results from the voters. We will hear them out. So I'm not trying to predict or get ahead of that. Our setup tonight, Rev, was a bit of a chaotic salad, and that's because that's what the voters have been given. What do you think people have on their minds turning out to vote in some of these hotly contested primaries where the president's got a lot of problems, not a ton of consistent solutions.
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Rev. Al Sharpton
I think that clearly the paramount problem that the president has and the Republican Party has is affordability. They have predicted, promised, obligated themselves to something that is not only not happened, it is actually going the other way because they not only have brought prices down and the cost of living down, now we're hearing in the last 24 hours with the question of Iran, oil and gas prices going up. So they have began a campaign against themselves. I think that's going to be a paramount issue in today's primaries. I think that we will then get to gender and race and all of that. And what side do you consider yourself? Conservative or left wing? But I think everybody's coming in there basically dealing with my cost of living, my survival, and it costs more than it did before. And I thought we were fighting against this and they're going to face that. I think on both primaries, you know,
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Michelle Norris
you said this is a chaotic salad. I think it's a salad that's giving a lot of the voters a bit of indigestion. And in addition to affordability, I think there's a problem with credibility. This is someone who said that he was gonna deal with the Epstein case and it turns out that he is a major player in it. He's someone who is gonna end forever wars. And now he's talking about wars that go on forever. Those are two words that no voters ever wanna hear in the same sentence. Forever and war. And we have to think about where these primaries are taking place. Major military installations in all three of these states. North Car, Texas and in Arkansas. And that will be, I think, very front of mind because when America goes to war, red America bleeds in a very significant way. These are the people, many of the people who support Donald Trump, it is their sons and daughters who enlist in the military. They volunteer, they will be fighting these wars. And as Donald Trump says, they are at risk now of losing lives. Yeah, you mentioned seats at the table.
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Ari Melber
You mentioned how people are feeling in those places. There's so many bad things. One good thing about primary days is people come out and vote and if they choose to speak to our reporters, we hear from them. And so we're going to be doing this all night. But let's get right to it because we got some new reaction from Texas and North Carolina voters to your point on these issues. Let's take a listen to these voters.
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Commercial Announcer
We are now in another war in the Middle East.
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Ari Melber
What do you make of that as a regular citizen?
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Commercial Announcer
POD is a polite way to say it.
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Ari Melber
We have enough things that we need to take care of over here in
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Rev. Al Sharpton
the United States policy of it. My personal opinion, it's a long time
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
coming and something should have been done
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Congressman Robert Garcia
back when the issues of terrorism had
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Ari Melber
originated out of that country.
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Factor Meals Advertiser
I feel like the presidency started out with some promises about having a peaceful nation, and I don't feel like we're really living up to that promise right now.
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Michelle Norris
Well, there you hear it. You know, people are. They're tired, they're exhausted. And adding to the affordability and the credibility is just that, competency. You know, you expect a certain level of competency from the federal government and whether it's dhs, whether it's the way that we're conducting these strikes without bringing Congress into this, that we were hearing from members of Congress who woke up and saw it on Twitter in the morning. And that's how they learned that America is going to war. I think the American public is really uncomfortable about that, and we were seeing a high turnout even before the weekend. But I think that some of the long lines that you're seeing is indirect response to America now involved in a quagmire that is quite fuzzy in its objectives and it's uncertain how long this was going to last.
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Ari Melber
Yeah. And that then goes to. We're just in the early days, rev. But a lot of big voices on the right are saying no to this kind of attack on Iran. And I don't think people misunderstand the complexity. I think the complexity that we got a crash course in in Afghanistan and Iraq has everyone in America a little more aware of, well, what are we going to do over there and for how long? Which is, as always, a separate question from whether bad people run a bunch of countries in the world. They do. How many of them do you want to be responsible for? So I know that you always agree with everything that Tucker and Megan and Alex Jones say. Rev.
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Rev. Al Sharpton
Everything.
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Ari Melber
Everything. But let's take a look at whether you agree with them tonight. Take a look. I can't believe it.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
Our bombs are now smarter than our
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Ari Melber
not the United States war. This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives to make the United States safer or richer.
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Michelle Norris
My own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country. Our government's job is not to look
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Ari Melber
out for Iran or for Israel.
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Michelle Norris
It's to look out for us.
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Ari Melber
I don't like the mullahs, but this is supposed to be America first.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
We're not supposed to be running around doing this anymore.
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Rev. Al Sharpton
I think there you have it. These are three prominent people on the right that helped set a climate for his election that are now saying not just their opinion, but they're repeating what he sold the voters America first, no wars. I think the most effective attack on any politician or anybody, any public figure is when you use what they said back on them. And then people said, but he said this. And I was with him when he said it. I supported him when he said, I'm not a critic, I'm not Sharpton or Melbourne. I was with him. He said this to us and he's not doing it. That can be devastating at the polls because you are talking about people that were his allies that beat the drum for him every night and they beat the drum for him, unlike Trump, believing in certain things. Trump, I think believes in Trump. But Carson and them, as much as I disagree with them, believe some of that stuff. America first. And they're true believers. And now they're turning that on him, saying he's not only not delivering, I don't even know if he believes well.
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Ari Melber
And that's what connects each of the issues we've touched on high prices and the president's not focused on anything to do about it. Epstein and all the double talk. And now Iran, which is the potential, the risk of a Middle east engagement, foreign war, forever war, which they didn't even bother to explain. I mean, it is, I know we're all supposed to lower the bar, but to ask men and women to go into battle with Americans now already dying in the field, and this president has not even deigned to address them, the military, let alone a national address to the country, which is what we usually see, or an address to Congress on this topic, nothing. It's take a little truth social, little Q and A. It's no Wonder he's at 60% negative on this. And we've seen historically people start out usually a little more kind of open to it because they want to support the military. And I've had a lot of guests on this week who said military doing a great job, but they're operating under the umbrella of a policy that doesn't even have a reason. So I wanted to get you both on sort of that where that fits into tonight. We have our shortest break, 90 seconds. We're back with our big Newsnight panel.
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Michelle Norris
why have I asked my H vac guy I found on Angie.com to change my grandpa's trachea tube because I was
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Ari Melber
so amazed by how quickly he replaced our air ducts.
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Michelle Norris
I knew I could trust him to
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Rev. Al Sharpton
Make it quick young man.
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Michelle Norris
Aw, see, Pop up trusts you.
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Ari Melber
New information crossing from the Pentagon which has released the names of four American soldiers killed in this Iran war. They were killed in Kuwait. That was during an unmanned aircraft system attack. They were all based in Des Moines. In total, Pentagon has confirmed six Americans have died thus far in this Iran operation and the surrounding battles and threats. I'm back with our panel. Rev. That actually just crossed since we came on air. And the whole nation, I think owes the debt of gratitude to everyone in uniform. They go out there and serve regardless of the mission or their personal views on it. That's, that's our system. But tonight voters are weighing in. And do you think the way this has been rolled out and what, what the Iran attack is will weigh on the minds of some voters?
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Rev. Al Sharpton
Absolutely. I believe it will weigh heavily on the minds of some voters. Six people on day that many of them are going to vote. Some have already early voted but many of them are going to vote. They're hearing on the news 6 people dead in a war that he promised we were not going to war and in a situation that's not clear why we are going to war. Don't forget we've heard two or three different reasons from him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others as to why we even there. Rubio said we wanted to throw the first blow because they were going to hit Israel and then they would hit us. Trump says something totally opposite. So it's all over the place. Why we there. But we see people are dying and at the same time, we're seeing prices go up. We're seeing your FBI directors partying and high fiving and jumping around in the dugout or in the locker room of the team. All of this at the same time with Kristi Noem fighting a Republican during the hearings today. All of this at the same time does not occur to their benefit as people are going to the polls, Republican or Democrat.
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Ari Melber
And Michelle, we are getting our arms around the data here in Texas, which has a hotly contested primary in both parties for Senate Democrats, over a million and a half ballots. Republicans 1.3. That's from vote Hub. And we can put that up and we have it. But there is an enthusiasm gap in the polling. It appears it may also exist in
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Michelle Norris
the voting and that predates what happened, as I said, over the weekend. And many people will probably go off to the polls because they're really concerned about this. Rav, you were talking about Cash Patel in the locker room. I mean, let's not forget that on the night that this happened, Donald Trump was at a MAGA fundraiser, you know, surrounded by people, dancing, partying. That is just. And a war that was launched from a golf resort in Florida, you know, not even from the White House. He has said that this is a war of necessity. He repeated that again today. I really doubt that most people see that this is a war of necessity. They deserve an explanation. And one of the reasons I also deserve an explanation is part of your job as the commander in chief is to rally the public to support the troops, to make sure that the people are supporting and that they understand what the troops are putting their lives on the line for. And he has not done that. And I remember talking to people during the Gulf War and asking servicemen and women, do you understand what you're fighting for? And sometimes there would be this long pause. You know, they couldn't even articulate it themselves. That is a really bad position to put our military in and it's a horrible position to put the public in to watch people that they love and respect fighting a war that they do not understand.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, powerful words here as we see what the voters are going to say at least in these states tonight. Michele Norris, Reverend Sharpton, thanks to both of you. The Rev actually mentioned a Republican Senator Taran into the embattled Homeland Security chief and we're going to get into that tonight. Plus, the Epstein scandal update. The Trump cabinet member who lied about all this will testify and the scrutiny on the rationale for war. We touched on this, but we're going to fact check why Donald Trump keeps changing the goal, even as we're already deep into this exchange with Iran. The great, talented and highly experienced ambassador and former peace negotiator Dennis Ross is back with me tonight. We began our midterm special coverage tonight touching on how the war is affecting the voters potentially. And we're going to be watching all that tonight. Now we turn to the policy in the Middle east directly. The president says he may be open to supporting militia groups in Iran taking up arms to dislodge the regime, which is both a tacit acknowledgment that so far the killing of Khomeini has not changed how Iran runs. Yet the Wall Street Journal reporting on that, which also raises questions about what our plans are. Meanwhile, an Iranian drone hit the American consulate in Dubai. There you can see the impact of smoke and fire rising after the attack. U.S. officials did say they were able to account for all personnel. The Pentagon also releasing video of U.S. airstrikes on Iran's mobile missile launchers. All this amid growing scrutiny on what Trump's rationale for war is and if it keeps changing depending on the day or who's talking. Trump has said that he felt Iran would launch attacks soon. That's part of why he moved first, which is kind of a preemptive attack argument. U.S. intelligence assessments have indicated there was not a looming or preemptive strike expected from Iran, at least according to what we knew. That's the latest in several justifications.
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Donald Trump
Our objective is to defend the American people and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America. Our country itself would be under threat and it was very nearly under threat.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran's short range ballistic missiles.
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Ari Melber
He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, the threat posed by their navy. We hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government.
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Ari Melber
This is not a so called regime change war, but the regime sure did change.
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Donald Trump
If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.
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Ari Melber
Back with us now is Ambassador Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle east expert. He served as a peace negotiator and a diplomat across several administrations working in the Obama administration there. You can see him in the Oval Office with the President and the Secretary of State at the time. We also want to remind everyone, when you think about how long this history runs, on the left you see Bibi Netanyahu, who is back again, the leader of Israel. And you have him there with Yasser Arafat and Ambassador Ross all the way back in 1997. We should mention his latest book on the region, Statecraft 2.0. What America needs to Learn in a Multipolar World is available now. Welcome back. You remember that photo, that moment?
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Donald Trump
Yeah.
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
I've just changed a little bit. Not much.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, well, that's. The passage of time is something we all have in common, even across the great barrier that separated those two men and their peoples. But I show that because you've lived through so much of this. The last time you were here, we discussed some of what might actually change on the sort of chessboard. And I'm curious how that compares with the way the administration is talking about it, which each day floats different reasons for what we're doing.
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
I think one of the hardest things to come to grips with is what you're raising. What is the objective here? Good statecraft is always characterized by you marry your objectives and means. Now, you can't really marry means to objectives unless the objectives themselves are clear. So thinking through the objectives is really important. We keep getting a different explanation for what the objective is. We just rehearsed as I was watching all these different accounts. Now, it may be that President Trump deliberately wants to keep the definition of objectives quite fluid because it frees him up to basically decide on his own at a certain point. Okay, I will define the objective after the war is over and I can claim that we succeeded. That's very possible. It may account for why no one seems to be able to give you one CL clear objective. And the president himself seems to emphasize different points at different times.
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Ari Melber
And I'll jump in to say that the question there then becomes is that for substance negotiators like a certain amount of flexibility and you actually get a good outcome. Or is it for pr, which is something that this former reality show host, now president is versed in. Because when Vietnam didn't go the way successive administrations wanted, there was the old saying, declare victory and leave, which was a face saving spin, but didn't mean that it was worth the blood or treasure or that we had a good outcome.
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
Look, it's very possible that the president could be in a position quite soon to claim the following A. I said I. The President said that if they killed a lot of their citizens, they would pay a price. In this case, Khamenei paid the price. And I also said they wouldn't be in a position where they could threaten any of their neighbors. And I put them in a position where they can't threaten any of their neighbors. He could actually adopt a unilateral position along those lines and say, if they continue to fire, then they'll pay a much bigger price. But we've achieved our objective. Now, the irony is it would be easier to make that case if that had been the objective from the beginning. If you are waiting to explain your objective until after it's over because you think that allows you to present this in the best possible light, it unfortunately puts you in a position where the expectations you've generated don't necessarily match what you're now saying. That's why I say you really want to be quite clear on the objectives you have in mind, not only for the reasons, Ari, that you're saying you want to sell it to the American public. If you're never explaining what the objective is, you're raising doubts among the American public. Well, what is this about? What is the purpose here? Why are we doing. Actually makes it harder to sustain domestic political support for what you're doing. The fact is, what we're doing right now is clearly designed to weaken the regime. The other night when I was on with you, I said, I think the objective is probably regime weakening, not regime change. And I still think that's probably what it is. And it's not necessarily the worst thing in the world, but it's a lot easier to sell that. And I mean that in a positive way if you're clear about it. But if you're not going to be clear about it, then it leaves it up to everybody to try to imagine what is this really about. And when people begin to imagine, then they begin to look for conspiracy theories. And that's never a particularly healthy thing.
- [28:20]
Ari Melber
Yeah, and the president hasn't been clear about those lines because of his style, if you want to call it that, diplomatically. He muses about things. He says, well, the next leader hopefully be better or it could be as bad. Take a look. To the president musing.
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Donald Trump
Well, most of the people we had in mind are dead. So, you know, we had some in mind from that group that is. Is dead. And now we have another group. They may be dead also based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty sure we're not going to know anybody.
- [28:58]
Ari Melber
And he goes on to say, you know, the next person, we just hope they're not as. As bad as the previous person. I'm curious your reaction to that. And then in the limited time we have, when you talk about the weakening, do you have a sense we showed your long history in the region, your time dealing with both parties. You know, we got a lot of people who talk about all this stuff and have never been anywhere. You, you've done this for 40 years and you talked to Arafat and Netanyahu and Likud and the cutout groups and the Hamas intermediaries. Do you have a sense yet of how it plays in the region around Iran where groups and other states that viewed it as this tyrannical terror supporting, mighty nation regionally, maybe not compared to the US Or Russia, but regionally, are watching it going. Was it never as strong as they thought or is it too early to read the region that way?
- [29:49]
Ambassador Dennis Ross
I'm not sure it's too early to read the region that way. I think in fact, the region before this, nobody actually wanted. I know there's some nuance, there's some discussions of what the Saudis really wanted. I think the Saudis, given their preference, would have preferred calm. But if they felt we were going to engage in a conflict, then they wanted us to be decisive in terms of what we did. The region, I can tell you for sure, is always worried we're going to start something then leave with them being exposed. So their attitude in advance was we preferred to be calm. Now what's most striking is Iran has made a bet. Iran believed that they could put pressure on the Gulf states who would then put pressure on us to stop. What they've done by not just hitting American bases in these countries but by hitting all sorts of civilian targets is they've turned all these countries that would have preferred to stay out of this. They've now put them in a position where they're prepared increasingly, I think, not just to defend themselves with our help, which we are doing with them because we have central command and a lot of this has been rehearsed with them, but they appear prepared to actually take offensive action in response to what the Iranians are doing. The Iranians, in other words, have succeeded in creating a much stronger coalescence among the Gulf states. We had a effect, I don't want to trivialize, but we had a feud between Saudi Arabia and the UAE going on. There were clashes between them, and that's gone now. Now that's been. That relationship has been cemented again because of Iran. So Iran has succeeded not only in bringing everybody together, but think about it, this is a U. S. Israeli operation, the first one in history, and we have the Gulf states who are prepared to join with it. Now, that's a really interesting realignment in the region, and that's thanks to the strategy that the Iranians have adopted. Just one comment on the first part of the question. My reaction to the president talking about the people we might have talked to are all dead. We had the ability to target them if we were planning to talk to some of them. Well, why would you target those? If you have in mind a strategy for who you're prepared to deal with afterwards, well, then presumably, A, you have some context to them, even if it's indirect, and B, the one thing you want to be sure of is you don't go after them. So it looks to me as if maybe we had this in mind, but we didn't really connect the dots in terms of our strategy. So we've made it more difficult to determine what comes next. And I think, I think that's fair.
- [32:31]
Ari Melber
Yeah. And without minimizing or oversimplifying, there may be folks in the National Security Council and the intelligence services and the policy planning who are playing chess and thinking four moves ahead. To your point, you don't attack a whole Iranian government summit meeting if you wanted to keep two of those people as your, as your potential plan B. But they're being overseen by leadership that is at best, improv dancing and saying, well, I'm improving on this. I'll just go with how it feels. I mean, the president literally said I felt like they were going to hit us first, which is not military talk, not military strategy, and speaks to the gap we're seeing. And Secretary Rubio trying his best to re explain or sanewash things that Trump then withdraws hours later. And we're in the early days of this, so everyone can hope that it works out. You've identified accurately places where it could work out. And yet it doesn't seem like they're maximizing that possibility with some of the leadership. So again, we got the midterms. We got a lot going on tonight. Ambassador, I'm happy you could make time for us.
- [33:39]
Ambassador Dennis Ross
Always good to be with you.
- [33:40]
Ari Melber
Appreciate it. Coming up, we have a breakdown on Republicans going after the DHS chief and accountability in the Epstein scandal. A key lawmaker joins me next.
- [33:52]
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- [35:02]
Ari Melber
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Ari Melber
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- [35:15]
Ari Melber
We have breaking news on how Congress is dealing with the Epstein scandal. Number one, Trump's embattled commerce Secretary, who was caught lying about visiting Epstein island, has agreed to testify again. He has spoken to some degree about Epstein. He was also Epstein's former neighbor. And the Oversight Committee has a new letter out tonight calling on a range of new witnesses to agree to testimony. It is a demand letter and they have subpoena power if they want to raise the stakes. And it includes a host of people, including former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemler. Her spokesman says she welcomes the opportunity to appear. So that suggests progress. But overall, she is part of seven new individuals. These would be new witnesses subjected to this interview process, including Bill Gates, Epstein's longtime assistant, Leslie Groff, who we learned from the files was under DOJ scrutiny and some other big names. This is a developing story. I'm joined by Congressman Robert Garcia, who's a top Democrat on oversight, part of this whole process. What can you tell me about this letter tonight and what happens if those some of those on here don't agree?
- [36:24]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Well, look, first let me just begin by saying that we support those names. These are individuals that we have actually directly requested Chairman Comer to subpoena and to get testimony from. We have been pretty consistent in also forcing votes. We were going to force another vote tomorrow on Howard Lutnick. I'm glad now that Secretary Lutnick is going to come forward without any sort of subpoena and testify willingly and if these other individuals will do the same, that is going to be a very important step for transparency and to ensure that we get the full truth on the Epstein files in this investigation. So we've said from day one, we will talk to anyone. We don't care what party they are, who they serve with or how powerful they are. If they know nation about Jeffrey Epstein,
- [37:10]
Ari Melber
if they don't come forward, if they
- [37:11]
Congressman Robert Garcia
don't, they should, then. Then we should send that a subpoena to every single one of them to come forward and force a testimony.
- [37:17]
Ari Melber
This list includes individuals who we know substantively were in the orbit. Leon Black was someone who had a lot of money going back and forth with Epstein. And Rumler ultimately recently was pushed out of Goldman Sachs. The files show a whole range of interactions. Do you also view this as part of the overall progress or do you view this as weighted in the other direction of partisanship, in that Doug Band is tied to Clinton, Rumlers tied to a Democratic administration, although many other Republican administration officials are not on this list. How do you view this list of names?
- [37:58]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Look, I think obviously there has been clearly been some kind of partisan direction from Republicans. And I think you've seen that in the last few weeks. And certainly I think when the president who has called this investigation a hoax, but then a week later will say that he wants Republicans to only go after Democrats, I mean, clearly there is a partisan nature. But at the same time, we want an opportunity to talk to anyone that was in Epstein's orbit. And so we don't really care their political party. If they have information, they should come forward and talk. Which is why folks like Howard Lutnick, who's obviously the Commerce Secretary, should come before our committee. But I also want to remind the chairman and everyone else that the person that appears in the files, certainly more than all the folks you just mentioned, is actually Donald Trump. So if we really want to get to the bottom of what actually happened and why there's this cover up, the person we should sit and talk with is President Trump.
- [38:52]
Ari Melber
To that point, here's what witness and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said,
- [38:59]
Ambassador Dennis Ross
I think that it would be in
- [39:03]
Michelle Norris
keeping with the scope of the investigation of this committee to set up a deposition with President Trump.
- [39:14]
Ambassador Dennis Ross
Given what's in the files and given
- [39:19]
Michelle Norris
past and prior conduct, he would be
- [39:23]
Ambassador Dennis Ross
on my witness list. He clearly knows what he did. He knows what others did.
- [39:32]
Ari Melber
Congressman, many people view that as a long shot, but so was a bipartisan vote that you and Ro Khanna and Massie and Others ultimately got to force out the files. What would be the path to that and what are you doing about any misleading redactions or held back documents at this juncture?
- [39:53]
Congressman Robert Garcia
Well, I think one is obviously we've set a new precedent and we've supported by the way, we wanted to talk to Bill Clinton. We're glad that he came in. We set a new precedent to have in certainly present president's former presidents come testify. And so we will again ask President Trump to come and voluntarily meet and sit down with our committee. And if not, there's other actions we can take. And certainly in the majority, we're going to try to force that action. And if not, then Donald Trump won't be the president forever. And so we are going to ensure that we get to the truth as it relates to missing documents. We continue to find that the DOJ is removing more and more documents from the files, has been reporting on that. It's completely outrageous. Remember, they've only produced about 50% of them. And so when people talk about releasing the files, that's not over. The Epstein files have not been released. We've had a partial release to jump in.
- [40:45]
Ari Melber
Let's say people are listening to you. Let's say they agree or that sounds right. And here we are now going into another month, March after this deadline of December. When do you sue? When do you take other measures?
- [40:58]
Congressman Robert Garcia
So the power of suing, as you know, within the House is decided by the House majority to sue as a Congress. But we, we are working with outside groups. There are outside groups right now that have already filed certain lawsuits. Those are going to continue. And the pressure of the American public has actually made a real difference. I mean, think about just a few months ago and where we're at today. We have forced subpoena votes. We forced a Transparency act law. We used to talk to folks.
- [41:23]
Ari Melber
Incredibly, I'm only jumping in and say minority. Yeah, you've done a lot for the minority. Do you think Massie would join you on suing? I mean, go ahead.
- [41:31]
Congressman Robert Garcia
I think that we are building Republicans a bipartisan coalition to get more and more folks to ensure that as a body, we demand the rest of those files. So there's a lot happening right now in the works for that very thing to happen. But what's important is the pressure has to also come from the American public right now. I mean, over 70% of Republicans and Democrats believe that all the Epstein files should be released as an important issue. It's, in fact, Donald Trump's worst performing issue. When you look at polling and survey work. And so Republicans need to do the right thing here. This is about survivors. We are making incredible progress. This investigation is just getting started. It's not a hoax. And Donald Trump should come and testify in front of the committee.
- [42:16]
Ari Melber
Congressman Garcia, thank you very much on what is a busy news night in many ways. Appreciate it. We'll be right back. The midterms, which get underway with tonight's primaries and Rachel standing by in about seven minutes are always, always a referendum on the incumbents. That hurt the Democrats in past cycles, but it could hurt Donald Trump's party a lot in this cycle. Consider the ice, deportations, detentions and tactics. DHS Chief Noem testified today this is the first time she has had to sit down under oath in this setting, a setting, I should say, since the killings of Renee Goode and Alex Preddy in Minnesota. And there were Republicans going after the record and the facts versus how she has led. Here's Republican Senator Tillis
- [43:06]
Republican Senator Tillis
and what we've seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem. A disaster. What we've seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens. I could talk about the culture that's been created here with, with Stephen Miller aiding and abetting the fact that you can't admit to a mistake which looks like under investigation is going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretty probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back. We're an exceptional nation. And one of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you've demonstrated anything but that.
- [43:46]
Ari Melber
And on it went strong words from a Republican senator about the facts. Those Americans were killed by their government overseen by the Trump administration. And according to that longtime Republican, it was an avoidable, unnecessary killing of Americans and one that we are at risk of repeating because he says this Trump official won't even admit the obvious mistake. Those Americans should not have been killed. We are gearing up tonight for the special coverage and that's coming right up.
- [44:21]
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