← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Trump Signs Bill to Release Epstein Files
00:41:20
November 20, 2025; 6pm: Trump signs the Epstein files release bill, meaning the DOJ has 30 days to release the files. New reports show Trump secretly lobbied GOP senators to slow-walk the bill, MS NOW's Ari Melber reports. Joan Walsh, Chai Komanduri, Gary Shteyngart, and Patton Oswalt join.
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- [00:00]
Ari Melber
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- [00:30]
Patton Oswalt
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- [00:45]
Ari Melber
Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ahri Melber. Tonight, I want to tell you first, we have another installment in our special report. As we go through these emails, evidence and facts. This one is on some of the other powerful figures ensnared by these early Epstein files. The emails are unexpected tranche of part of what is the larger Epstein files. Last night, you may recall, we showed you some of that footage of Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein, which now looks a lot worse when we see their secret private emails leaked about rehabilitating Jeffrey Epstein's reputation. Why did such a top Trump ally want to do that? Well, we have more for you, Volume two tonight. That's coming up. But I begin right now with something you know about that's only getting worse since it happened. We have the reporting here on President Trump's clearly worst week this year, that bipartisan rebuke from Congress on a key vulnerability forcing the coming release of the Epstein files.
- [01:46]
Patton Oswalt
The president has just posted on his social network that he has now signed.
- [01:49]
Che Komandoori
The Epstein Files Transparency Act.
- [01:51]
Ari Melber
We're just hearing that Trump has signed the Epstein Act.
- [01:54]
Patton Oswalt
Donald Trump put his surrender and humiliation in writing, in capital letters. He didn't do it in front of the cameras. He likes to do everything in front of the cameras. Not this.
- [02:05]
Ari Melber
Trump does like cameras. In fact, Donald Trump, through a very long public career, has followed the pretty cliched claim that any press is good press. But I guess that has its limits when it comes to press about blatantly hiding a sex trafficker's files. Why would you do that? Or any press is good press. But what if it's press about your massive, humiliating loss that's really been heard around the world, a loss that shows Republicans will actually overrule Donald Trump as he gets deeper into his lame duck era and that he doesn't have total power over his party despite the many Many times we've been told that by some, whatever their agenda, reason or just misperception, he didn't have total control over any of his party. In the Senate this week, we've also seen how he has now followed the Democrats lead, surrendered to their demand and position, even in a time where he controls Congress, of course, and the White House. So he doesn't want press for that level loss. And so unlike past bill signings by President Trump, we're showing a photo of a past example of this performing a signing this time on this big issue. He denied cameras and coverage, no pictures. And so this is just a piece of the story. But as I begin with you tonight, I just want to do what we do sometimes as so much is happening in the news, and just say something pretty straightforward, maybe even obvious. Consider the irony of claiming to support and sign a law about transparency. It's called the Epstein Files Transparency Act. And you do that while denying any transparency for the public. Final step of turning that bill into law. Reality stars know the power of the camera. So he couldn't bring himself while claiming to have seen the light and now support this bill to allow the light and cameras in to sign it. Because he fought the bill all year. And we've shown you the examples of that. From distributing binders with old material that they wanted to check and see if they could fool their MAGA followers on, they literally handed out binders mislabeled, falsely labeled, claiming they were the Epstein files. That was the beginning of the year. That one didn't work and they did a lot of other hijinks I've shown you. But once he got rolled, that's how they put it in Congress. He then rushed to do a very trumpy PR thing and pretend that he was suddenly okay with passing the bill that forces him to release the files that he's not releasing, which means he continues to obviously be against doing that thing until he hits the legal 30 day deadline, which is new. And we have new reports that expose how that final cover story was not even true. Oh, that he suddenly decided the last minute, maybe he's okay with this. Actually, no. Trump was secretly lobbying Republican senators to slow walk the bill, which you follow the news. So I'm sure you've seen this on matters of a far less consequence than this. Delays are a tool in Congress and sometimes a tool to get more leverage or dilute something when people are paying less attention. And Speaker Johnson publicly claimed the Senate was going to do some of that. That was this week. They were going to he said, take the bill, review it, edit it, make some changes. And remember, we can't say in the news automatically whether that's good or bad. We'd have to see what the changes are. What if they strengthened the enforcement mechanism? Okay. Or as many feared, what if they were pursuant to what Trump wanted, trying to delay, to water the thing down or dilute it? But they didn't do that because Johnson, like Trump, was just shown up in public by these Republicans. And I mentioned some of this, including that new reporting, because on the night of the thing, we weren't up in the process of it. We were covering the substance as we've been covering the emails. But it's also a striking rebuke to Trump, the way it went down. That was we were learning as he called around and couldn't find one Republican senator. Remember, if you want to get into Senate procedure, I was a Senate aide at one point, they call that unanimous consent agreement a way to move things forward. But if you think about all the issues that you might want action on, say gun safety legislation, if you just go down to the floor and say, hey, I want to put this bill forward, it only takes one senator to object. And that's why both parties always have senators on the floor, because the unanimous consent provision is only for things that are so widely agreed upon that you can skip the other hurdles. Sometimes they use it for naming a post office here because the Democrats led and won. John Thune left the floor. Floor. There wasn't any other Republican, if Trump could have gotten one, to go down there and object when Schumer said, we need unanimous consent to move forward on this thing, they would have objected. And under procedure, it would have at least delayed it. So that was, again, a smaller point, but not an insignificant one. It was a final procedural loss for Trump on the way to the big loss. And for those who understand how the Senate works or want to kind of get as dry and procedural as I am and nerd out with me, now you know how it works, too. You probably already knew. It shows he didn't have one friend in the Senate on this issue. Republicans ignored him, and some are now going further. And so that procedural point I made that there was nobody to help is relevant to where we go next Reporting tonight is Republicans want to push Trump to understand that this is not some show that changes next week or when the deadline hits. They want him to take this seriously. And apparently, again, I'm not judging, but apparently Republicans are concerned that sometimes he doesn't take things seriously or Follow the law. Because really you shouldn't have to remind any president who takes an oath to uphold the law that, well, when the law says something's released, you release it. And so what you're also seeing I think is two layers here. That's what I'm reporting for you. That one layer is what I just told you. And the second is they're in charge, not him. They write the laws. And however many times we've been told Republicans won't do this, some are now saying, hey, Mr. President, maybe you didn't feel this way earlier, maybe you had a so called honeymoon, maybe your approval's so low that we're acting different, different energy. But they are telling the law will be followed. Headlines about Republican senators, not just Democrats, warning Bondi, who is Trump's fixer on this, not to delay or slow walk or play games around the Epstein file, which is now law. It gives the DOJ 30 days. So if you're tracking little calendar here on when to tune back into the news, I mean we would love for you to watch all the time, but you definitely would want to watch on the 19th. Cuz either they'll have turned it over by the deadline or they will have failed to turn it over. And those I can just tell you are both big developments. So it's the worst period for Trump this term. More Americans think his policies have hurt them writ large, not just on this issue than help them. You see this 46 to 15 is pretty bad. And if you're saying, oh well, Trump's going to say where's that poll even from? He doesn't believe polls. It's a Fox News poll. As for how badly the economy's going, which is never fully in control of any president but is usually the greatest indicator of that president and their party's success, particularly heading into midterms, 76% of people view the economy negatively. Now that goes in a lot of directions. It might explain why a Democratic socialist did so well in the capitalist city of New York. It might explain why people aren't having all of Trump's bs, as they would put it, some of them as opposed to other times. Also a bit worse than the end of Biden's term. Trump's responding by posting online and ranting while leaders from both parties gathered for a more somber show of solidarity at former Vice President Cheney's funeral. I'm showing you who was there. Leaders who've clashed, of course, the Bushes and the Bidens, Al Gore. That's a type of unity that I guess sometimes it's only a funeral where you'll see it these days. But even there, out of the wishes of the Cheney family, there is of course one person absent. You don't see in these photos Mr. Trump. The President was not invited. In the peril facing Trump, things are changing fast. And the fact that Republicans are part of this revolt upends a narrative. I bet you've heard heard it from people when you chat politics in your normal life. We've heard it from MAGA a lot and we've definitely heard it from some of the elites and media figures even who swallow this MAGA narrative that somehow Trump is Teflon and can't be stopped and controls everything, when in fact this objectively now measurably unpopular leader is having trouble.
- [10:54]
Joan Walsh
So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends.
- [10:58]
Patton Oswalt
They're forcing a political show vote on the Epstein files. This is a political exercise.
- [11:02]
Joan Walsh
It's all been a big hoax.
- [11:03]
Patton Oswalt
It's perpetrated by the Democrats and some.
- [11:06]
Joan Walsh
Stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net.
- [11:09]
Guest Commentator
He had nothing to do with it.
- [11:11]
Patton Oswalt
President Trump has clean hands.
- [11:12]
Ari Melber
He's not worried about it.
- [11:13]
Patton Oswalt
Well, I don't want to talk about.
- [11:14]
Ari Melber
It because fake news, the discharge petition is not only reckless, it is also a totally moot point.
- [11:21]
Joan Walsh
They could do whatever they want. So we'll give them everything.
- [11:24]
Guest Commentator
Sure.
- [11:24]
Joan Walsh
I would let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but.
- [11:28]
Patton Oswalt
Don'T talk about it too much.
- [11:33]
Ari Melber
Things are changing fast. I've got special guests here, Joan Walsh and Obama veteran Che Kohman Duri on exactly where we're headed downhill for Trump right now. When we come back, AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com you know you've reached peak couple energy when your undies match. Meundies match me has you both covered literally in super soft ultramodal undies, socks, PJs and loungewear. Festive prints.
- [12:28]
Joan Walsh
Check.
- [12:29]
Ari Melber
Cozy vibes.
- [12:30]
Joan Walsh
Double check.
- [12:30]
Ari Melber
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- [12:48]
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- [13:22]
Ari Melber
We are back with the nation's Joan Walsh and political Obama veteran Che Komindori. Welcome to both of you. Joan. This is one of those defeats that it takes a few days to absorb. And as we follow reporting, we really see the President had no friends in the Republican Party in the Senate. And some, even though we all know about dancing and spin, some are publicly warning Bondi, we wanna get through this and past it. We don't want you. Delaying and dragging out will make it harder.
- [13:53]
Guest Commentator
Well, and they're right. I mean, she has, with Trump's blessing and order, delayed and dragged it out. This is a problem entirely of his own making. In the first place, he campaigned on releasing them. So did Xi, so did Kash Patel, so did Dan Bongino. And then they said, no, there's nothing there. And then they stonewalled. And so now we wind up on the Eve of thanksg will be going into Christmas. And we've got Republicans who seem really genuinely angry about this, that they, that they have been forced to suffer, that they have been forced to side with pedophiles. I mean, it's kind of pathetic, Ari, when you think about it. Anybody could have joined that discharge petition before they signed in. Representative Grijalva. And they did not just say, you're.
- [14:36]
Ari Melber
Making the point that these 200 some Republicans who now claim they're for this weren't really for it.
- [14:42]
Guest Commentator
They weren't really for it. They could have done this any time since that that petition was. Was brought to them and they did not. And then suddenly, immediately, they're all falling for it. But I think it's also significant in terms of the way the House relates to the Senate, because John Thune stuck his thumb in the eye of sad little Mike Johnson who was like, I'm sure the Senate's gonna do what I want. Well, no, big boy. They aren't. They didn't, they aren't, and they don't answer to you. And that's the beginning, I think, of potentially a healthier relationship between the House and the Senate. And maybe the Congress taking back a little bit of its power.
- [15:18]
Ari Melber
President Che.
- [15:21]
Che Komandoori
Yeah, I mean, to use last year's most overused phrase, there's been a vibe shift. The vibe has clearly shifted away from Trump and maga. You know, I described the Republicans as Trump's flying monkeys. Well, the flying monkeys are no longer obeying. They're flying away and they're going in another direction. And I'll admit, you know, does that.
- [15:46]
Ari Melber
Mean that he's the behind the curtain guy? What's his name?
- [15:52]
Patton Oswalt
I guess.
- [15:53]
Che Komandoori
So the flying monkeys actually obeyed the Wicked Witch.
- [15:57]
Guest Commentator
The Wicked Witch. He's the Wicked Witch.
- [15:59]
Ari Melber
That's what I had to ask.
- [16:01]
Che Komandoori
Right? Yes. Using the OG version of the wizard of Oz, not the new version that's gonna be in theaters this weekend with Wicked. But like, you know, the idea is that the hold that he had these Republicans has really waned. It's disappearing. And we're gonna see more shows, I think, of independence from Republicans going forward in a number of areas, I expect, perhaps even on healthcare coming up pretty soon.
- [16:33]
Ari Melber
Yeah, I mean, you're bringing up Wicked and that history, which is your domain. I'll quote Sabrina Carpenter who says, boys don't have to lie to me. If I like them enough, I'll lie to myself. Wow, Joan.
- [16:52]
Patton Oswalt
Wow.
- [16:53]
Guest Commentator
Wow.
- [16:54]
Ari Melber
And so there's a period where Trump's supporters will say almost anything to make up and lie for him. He would be the boy in this Sabrina parallel. And yet there was a breaking point and the way that they both messaged this Joan mention, they ran on it, they promised it, and then they installed people. This troika of Bondi, Bongino and Patel, who all publicly had promised the Epstein files were coming. Two of those individuals, in our current parlance of podcasts, monetized it, pushed it online a bunch sort of personally benefit from it, but they said they would do it. And so the magabase has not given that up. We showed Rogan upset this week. We showed others basically saying, no, we're not moving on from this. And then you have people around Trump, I'm going to show you again, Lutnick in his cabinet who talked about how in his view, he alleges that Epstein blackmailed people. Bondi's cover up memo, which is she's now retracted it. So I mean, that's not even a criticism, it's just what it was, a misleading cover up memo, claimed that there was no blackmail to investigate. So Trump, even during, after being elected, during office, has his own people fighting over it. Here was lnc. That's what his M.O. was, you know, get a massage. Get a massage. And what happened in that massage room, I assume was on video. This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people. That's how he had money check.
- [18:28]
Che Komandoori
I mean, talk about going off message there. I mean, that was way too much information than I ever wanted to ever hear from Howard Lnick about Epstein and massages. But, but I think that that gives you a sense of exactly what we're going to expect. In these files, we're going to see some very embarrassing details about Donald Trump, about a lot of people who are elites, including some Democrats. We've already seen a fallout here with Larry Summers and some embarrassing details there. So it explains why Trump has worked so hard to cover all of this up. What is more surprising is how the house of cards has collapsed, how on this one issue, this is where Republicans have chosen no longer to follow orders.
- [19:20]
Guest Commentator
JOAN yeah, I think it in the end turned out to be really hard to stand with the pedophiles and against those brave victims. And every time they speak out, whether it's in press conferences, Ari, or whether it's on, on our air, they are so moving, they are so sincere. And I think most people know that if that were my daughter or my wife or my sister, I'd be horrified and I'd want to do the right thing. I have no kind words to say about most Republicans, but I don't believe that most Republicans want to be the pedophile party. And I think the longer this lasted, the more they were confronted with the fact that that's who they were standing with. And there are elites. I mean, there's a story of elite impunity here. When you see those emails, and it's in academia, it's in journalism, it's in our profession, it's throughout polit. It's bipartisan. The idea that Larry Summers thought he could do everything he had to do by stepping back from OpenAI and other public commitments, but still teach at Harvard, just shows how these guys still don't get it. He thought he was going to teach girls and women at Harvard. Thank God Harvard said, ah, we don't, we don't think so. They should have said it a long time ago. But I think that we are, we're seeing the limits of this kind of impunity and we're seeing a glimmer of decency. The other thing that they're doing, which is related but not the same, they are trying to take, take back that awful last minute provision that was tucked into the Senate version to open of the bill to open up the government where they gave themselves eight Republicans got a million dollars roughly for a slush fund to sue the government. If their phone records were released surrounding January 6, the house said, no, you don't, including Mike Johnson, they passed it, but they kept the promise and they came back and took it out. Now that's being fought over in the Senate. There are cracks start to show. And I think smart Democrats are going to be able to make a lot of those cracks in the days to come.
- [21:18]
Ari Melber
Yeah. And so Che, final question. Educate us on whether it's early for those cracks to show because as I mentioned, he's worse. Got worse numbers than Biden in year four on approval, worse numbers than Biden in year four on economy. And we're not at year one yet.
- [21:34]
Che Komandoori
Yeah. And I think the one thing that is very different about where Trump is and you know, you'll see people say, well, this is like, you know, Obama had a very rough first year year, Bill Clinton had a very rough first year, George W. Bush, et cetera. And they've came back to recover. You know, those presidents, to be honest, were younger men. They were more adroit politicians. They had philosophical principles that they could fall back on. The thing with Trump is Trump has none of those resources to draw upon. He has, his only resource he really has is his own character, which we are seeing and we are going to see with these emails and these files being released is rather terrible.
- [22:15]
Ari Melber
Che and Joan, as we kick this off tonight, looking at a couple angles here. Appreciate both of you. I want to tell folks the Epstein story has broken into culture and we're convening a special discussion on that tonight with Patton Oswald. Looking forward to that. Trump's Epstein nightmare, though, has really gone everywhere. Take a look.
- [22:35]
Commercial Announcer
Excuse me, where's Mr. Epstein?
- [22:37]
Ari Melber
Down the hall and to the left. That's one of the jokes we'll explain. But first, before the jokes about the files, we're going to show you more of the files and emails. Volume two from our Bannon breakdown last night. Continues. Next.
- [22:54]
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- [23:25]
Ari Melber
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- [24:13]
Ari Melber
Trump signed the Epstein bill as we've reported, and many early headlines on the emails that have been released from last week focus on the president. But there's a lot more. The newly released emails run to about 20,000, which means you can kind of look by who was emailing Epstein. You can look by other topics, you can look by the banks. We just talked about Harvard and last night we did a big dive on just one person, MAGA ally, former Trump White House veteran Steve Bannon. But what we also get here is context on all kinds of links. There is knowledge, for example, prior to last week's release, that former President Bill Clinton did fly on Epstein's plane in the early 2000s, and that was after he left office. Some of these emails show references and jokes about Clinton. But we are also learning more about just how Epstein used his money and power and access to try to curry favor with people in both parties. And at times it looks like he did that not just for access, but to try to pervert the justice system, which he knew for many years was after him. And that include Democrats who were coming back into office. Some might look at Clinton as sort of a luminary, right, who was done with his two terms. But as we've reported, Obama's former White House counsel was emailing with him. There's reports they had a business relationship, but in 2014 they were talking about whether she could take the job of attorney general. And it seems like there was a kind of an advice going on Epstein saying, you need to talk to boss. She replied, agreed, but I need to be prepared to say yes before I talk to him. It seems to be a reference to how she would approach then President Obama were she to run the doj, the same doj, which of course later charged him. So think about that later. In this exchange, Epstein tells Rumler, or I should say she kind of said, let me start reading this right. She says, quote, most girls do not have to worry about this crap. Which just seemed to be an offhand phrasing from her, not necessarily itself odd, but he replies, quote, girls, careful. I will renew an old habit. When you look at that exchange, it's not just about whether you think it should be written differently or what you think of that banter. Just imagine had, according to these accounts, she gone in. She'd gone in and became Attorney General, but she's talking with someone who should be independently reviewed by the attorney General. As for tech moguls, emails show that there was some sort of call with Elon Musk that he discussed with. How did the Musk call go? Well, not because of me, we learned a little bit about how they banter. Peter Thiel, one of the early billionaire tech supporters of Trump, was messaging with Epstein as recently as 2018. Are you enjoying LA? I liked your Trump exaggerations, not lies. So they kind of mix in this and that. Thiel says, can't complain thus far, you take this piece by piece. There is so much in here. And while understandably the news and politics in general moves on to other issues and what's next and getting the rest of them, consider the fact that for all the skepticism out there about whether we'll see anything from the DOJ, we already have 20,000 new pieces of evidence which is already changing things this week, which is after all of this time and fighting and secrecy, one slice of transparency and potential accountability. Now, I'll mention this is just some more emails that we're tracking. Last night we did a full special report on the Bannon ties to Epstein. If you want to see that, you can go right now to Ms. Now. That's Ms. No, you know our new name, same mission, Ms. Now Ari. And you'll see that report atop our YouTube playlist when we come back, as promised, Patton Oswald with Gary Steingart on the culture of the Epstein story. The Jeffrey Epstein story is major. That's clear in news and politics. Upending Trump's term with his largest loss to date, dominating headlines, including, as you see here abroad, international headlines galore. The topic's broken through even beyond that, though, driving Internet memes and scores of viral jokes. All of this public interest is bad news for Trump because the Epstein scandal is actually through all of this pop culture memes, Internet reaching the many millions of people who, remember, don't follow the news. They will maybe never see this broadcast you and I are sharing. There's a growing number of what they call news avoidants who actually actively skip news, preferring entertainment and social media. Can you blame them? Have you looked around at what we're dealing with? So here's how Epstein is dominating culture. I'm going to show you a couple things and then bring in Patton Oswald. One meme joke here is going to imagine you're about to show you Daphne from Scooby Doo, of course, remember her as Attorney General Bondi. She unmasked Trump in the emails, but then, oops, tries to cover him right back up. Others are mixing outrage with humor to take all of this in, including across what is now the most popular viewed Apple. Tick tock.
- [29:44]
Commercial Announcer
Excuse me, where's Mr. Epstein?
- [29:46]
Joan Walsh
Down the hall and to the left.
- [29:53]
Patton Oswalt
You know who's still not on the.
- [29:54]
Ari Melber
Jeffrey Epstein list or in the emails.
- [29:56]
Patton Oswalt
Or anything like that?
- [29:58]
Ari Melber
Drag queens who read storybooks to children. Alexander Hamilton had a torrent affair and he wrote it down right there. Now, some of the memes here joke about how to get the word out to people of these damning emails. Maybe people who aren't, like I said, obsessed with politics. One of these jokes references when Apple pushed a U2 album automatically onto people's phones. Apple could do the greatest thing ever by automatically downloading the Epstein files to everyone's phone like they did that U2 album. People are posting and sharing that quote. Another remix is a Star wars scene, right? You see here, Vote pass. Release the files unredacted. Right, unredacted. Because that's what they need to be. Others understandably skeptical that the Trump administration will honestly release the full information. We've all seen redacted government material before. That goes all the way back to the JFK assassination investigation. And those folks online where pop culture lives are eyeing this Epstein development with skepticism about redactions or evidence tampering. One of them jokes, any new files from the Trump administration might end up just saying Trump is the most innocent. Also is very smart. You know, if you redact enough, eventually you'll get the right word. That's the joke. And isn't it funny when you explain jokes? Don't worry, Patton Oswald is here. He'll fix whatever I Messed up. The top stories meanwhile, of this busy year is this one. This is Google interest for Epstein Absolutely spiking online while Trump's handling of the issue has crashed. To assess the cultural reaction tonight, we are convening something special. We are joined by a pop culture icon, comedian and actor, Patton Oswald. Thank you. Let's see the movie VO because here we go. You see the comedy. You see the stand up Ratatouille, Zoolander, Young Adult Parks and Recruitment, one of the top shows ever about politics, of course, right here. Veep and acclaimed novelist Gary Steingart is back. He's the author of Absurdistan and the Pandemic Hit Our Country Friends. He's written about autocracy as it occurred in his native Russia. He's criticized Trump. And recently the New York Times published his essay about a related topic, the no King's Protest's Use of Humor. Welcome to both of you.
- [32:19]
Patton Oswalt
Thanks for having us. Yeah, yeah.
- [32:21]
Ari Melber
This is nice.
- [32:21]
Patton Oswalt
Thanks a lot.
- [32:22]
Ari Melber
You're a funny guy.
- [32:23]
Patton Oswalt
Yeah. Thanks for giving me this hole to dig us out of. My God, it was brutal. Listen, part of me is, yes, obviously, this had to break. This had to come out, but there's also part of me that's like, as horrific and awful as all of this is, is this a weird distraction toward the way he's just openly dismantling the country? Like, obviously, I. No, it's not.
- [32:51]
Ari Melber
No, it's not a distraction.
- [32:52]
Patton Oswalt
Okay.
- [32:52]
Ari Melber
Not from him. He, like, today he went on an attack that didn't make this newshour to distract from this story.
- [33:00]
Patton Oswalt
Oh, okay.
- [33:01]
Ari Melber
And I'm not even bringing up because I'm not giving it airtime.
- [33:03]
Patton Oswalt
So he's gotta do. He's gotta top the horribleness with Arty. This is his. Hey, this is his greatest challenge ever. This is. Let's see how he does this. I mean, the whole thing is so disgusting and horrible. But I do remember they. They made HBO Max, made a documentary about QAnon and the history of Q. It's called Q Into the Storm. This is still on HBO Max. And in the first episode, they're like, what does QAnon believe? And they were like, well, they. QAnon believes that there are Hollywood elites that molest and cannibalize children in secret underground chambers. And they put up a picture of Oprah and then a picture of Tom Hanks and then a picture of me. I was in this documentary, and I was.
- [33:51]
Ari Melber
You. You would really like them to find the right guy.
- [33:53]
Patton Oswalt
Well, I. Yeah, well, rather than the wrong ones, but I was like, ah. And my. My agents lost their minds and they called me, like, did you watch that documentary? I was like, I know. A list. Like, no, that's not. Listen, we were not. So like, I.
- [34:06]
Ari Melber
You and Tom.
- [34:07]
Patton Oswalt
Yeah, this. This is like this really creepy reverse version of Truman Capote's black and white ball of like, I really hope I don't make this list. I really hope.
- [34:16]
Ari Melber
I.
- [34:16]
Patton Oswalt
You know, but I just think that the. And also, I love how a lot of Trump supporters are saying, what if Clinton's on that list? And we're all like, we are totally cool with him going to jail.
- [34:28]
Ari Melber
So we have a meme for that. Oh, really? The old saying, there's an app for that.
- [34:31]
Patton Oswalt
There's a meme for that.
- [34:32]
Ari Melber
There's a meme for that. This is mixing Nick Cage and other stuff. Imagine him as a MAGA person. This again, these are jokes from the Internet. And you see him personifying your MAGA friend, saying, you know, Bill Clinton's on that list too. And he goes, yeah, yeah, release the list.
- [34:50]
Patton Oswalt
Yeah, release the list. Whoever's on the list. We. They should go to jail. We. I don't have. I don't have a. I don't fly a Clinton flag off the back of my truck. I'm okay with him going to jail.
- [35:02]
Ari Melber
If warranted.
- [35:04]
Patton Oswalt
If warranted, yes.
- [35:05]
Ari Melber
Who.
- [35:05]
Patton Oswalt
Who is whoever? If people went to that island, they should be in jail. I don't know why people are arguing that.
- [35:10]
Joan Walsh
Absolutely. Send them both to jail. That's perfectly fine. I have to say, you were talking earlier about people not watching the news. Listen, I love seeing your face on my screen, but for a couple of months now, I've been a little bit news avoidant because I feel like I know what the story's gonna be. It's just gonna be horrible, horrible, horrible. Worse.
- [35:27]
Ari Melber
Worse.
- [35:27]
Joan Walsh
Worse. More graph, more graft, more graft. And that's the real thing.
- [35:30]
Ari Melber
But then I'll let you finish. Well, I wanna explain the patent. We wanted Gary to come back so badly as a viewer, we put him on the show.
- [35:38]
Patton Oswalt
That's the only way you put him on that show to watch the show.
- [35:41]
Joan Walsh
See, that's. That's the conspiracy theories.
- [35:43]
Ari Melber
That's the.
- [35:43]
Patton Oswalt
Well, hang on. I plan to not watch this show either in the future. Just putting that out there.
- [35:50]
Ari Melber
Well, I'd say that, yes.
- [35:53]
Joan Walsh
Since Epstein, though, I'm like, I'm waking up earlier than ever, which for writers, like 9am And I'm just like, click, here's my Ms. News. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. It's Like, I'm back with. And this now I'm energized again. Everyone's energized. In my locker room at the gym, half the people, half the bros are talking about crypto, but the other half are talking Epstein.
- [36:11]
Ari Melber
And that's because it's everywhere.
- [36:13]
Joan Walsh
Because it's everywhere. And that's incredible.
- [36:14]
Patton Oswalt
And, hey, that's just locker room talk. Guys, come on. We can. We all just. That's locker room.
- [36:19]
Ari Melber
That's locker room talk.
- [36:21]
Joan Walsh
Well, he's locker room talk.
- [36:22]
Ari Melber
Yeah.
- [36:22]
Patton Oswalt
This is the most demented advent calendar I've ever seen, where every day we just, like, open another window of just pure, dark chocolate horror every single day. And then I just Hope that the 25th is a big, plump trump. And he just. Wow it all. Yeah. A big, plump trump.
- [36:41]
Joan Walsh
Yeah.
- [36:41]
Commercial Announcer
No, I.
- [36:42]
Ari Melber
Well, let me show you a TikTok.
- [36:43]
Patton Oswalt
Oh, God. Okay.
- [36:45]
Ari Melber
This is like.
- [36:46]
Patton Oswalt
It's like hanging out with a teenager. Cool TikTok, man.
- [36:49]
Ari Melber
Dude, look, it was really cool. It was really funny.
- [36:51]
Patton Oswalt
Let's check this out, man. All right.
- [36:53]
Ari Melber
Wow.
- [36:54]
Patton Oswalt
I've never MSNBC you showing this TikTok. It's really cool.
- [36:58]
Ari Melber
You're so. You're so funny. Because you're not even wrong. I've never thought about it, like, because that's part of what we do. But you're saying, like, that's kind of annoying when someone tries to show you too many clips, and that's. We do that all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Damn. I've.
- [37:10]
Patton Oswalt
Show us a TikTok.
- [37:10]
Ari Melber
Show us.
- [37:11]
Joan Walsh
Yeah.
- [37:11]
Patton Oswalt
Now I want to see the.
- [37:12]
Ari Melber
Roll it. Roll it.
- [37:13]
Patton Oswalt
Here we go.
- [37:15]
Guest Commentator
My God. But what if your favorite celebrities on the Epstein list.
- [37:18]
Ari Melber
Miss Piggy is not. Not on the Epstein list. The Pink Power Ranger is not on the list. She would have karate chopped Jeffrey Epstein.
- [37:27]
Guest Commentator
Snoopy is not on there.
- [37:28]
Ari Melber
Shrek is not on the list. Okay.
- [37:31]
Commercial Announcer
What if your favorite politician is in the Epstein files?
- [37:33]
Patton Oswalt
I don't have a favorite politician. Yeah, I. I remember seeing that one. That. I don't have a favorite politician. What nerd has a favorite politician?
- [37:46]
Joan Walsh
Only those who watch the show.
- [37:47]
Patton Oswalt
Yeah, I mean, the classics. Chester A. Arthur. You know, I. I like to. But then, you know, nowadays, I follow there's new kids.
- [37:53]
Ari Melber
Little Teddy Roosevelt.
- [37:54]
Patton Oswalt
Little Teddy Roosevelt, man. Guy took a bullet and finished a speech.
- [37:59]
Ari Melber
Facts. Look at him, knowing his bull moose history.
- [38:00]
Joan Walsh
I know you know your bull moose.
- [38:02]
Ari Melber
I want to get into your project as well. I got.
- [38:04]
Patton Oswalt
I do, too. The hell am I doing here? I'm trying to promote something. Ari, does Jeffrey Epstein have a New album out? No, he's got these really boring files, and it's just full of sadness. I put out an album full of laughter and sunshine, and we're talking about this creepy old pedophile.
- [38:24]
Ari Melber
I want you here every night.
- [38:26]
Patton Oswalt
All right, I'll stay here.
- [38:27]
Ari Melber
This would be great. All right, so I'm gonna give Gary one more meme.
- [38:31]
Patton Oswalt
Oh, dear God.
- [38:32]
Joan Walsh
What did I do for this?
- [38:33]
Patton Oswalt
Go ahead, Gary.
- [38:35]
Joan Walsh
All right, me.
- [38:35]
Patton Oswalt
Hey, make this count. All right. Yeah, Set me up really good.
- [38:38]
Ari Melber
This is an office meme. It says if releasing the names of the pedophiles on the Epstein list threatens U.S. national security. Were being ruled by criminals. And you wrote about this, that the humor does get a point across. And if that's true, we should change that. Yeah.
- [38:56]
Joan Walsh
And you know, my Emily Nussbaum at the New Yorker did a great piece a while back about how Trump uses. He's picked up all this borsch belt humor growing up, as I did in Queens, and he's really good at using it. And I think that was the. Shut up, piggy. That was his attempt to sort of. Of go back in time and use that kind of retort. But it didn't land at the right time because we're post that kind of him doing these things and people being actually like, oh, my God. But the distraction is interesting because as I've said before, it's the graft, the graft, the graft. All of these grifters is what's really happening here. And I think that everything else is a cover up. And I published a book in 2010 where we had a war with Venezuela because the dominant party wanted to distract attention away from. And unsurprisingly, surprisingly, I. I'm not. I'm pretty sure we're going to start modeling pretty soon.
- [39:47]
Ari Melber
Can you sue?
- [39:48]
Joan Walsh
I can sue.
- [39:49]
Guest Commentator
Yeah.
- [39:49]
Patton Oswalt
Yeah.
- [39:50]
Ari Melber
This is your idea.
- [39:52]
Patton Oswalt
That's your ip. That's my ip. The other reason.
- [39:55]
Ari Melber
All right, wait, I got to do your project here. Here's. You can look at that meme. Patton. Yeah. You're funny.
- [40:04]
Patton Oswalt
I am really funny.
- [40:05]
Ari Melber
Black coffee and ice water.
- [40:06]
Patton Oswalt
Yes.
- [40:06]
Ari Melber
We want to mention why you agreed to come on. And we were happy for it. It's out on audible.
- [40:11]
Patton Oswalt
I loved how I. You make it like I agreed to. Come on. All right, fine. I'll help my album out. I'll help you.
- [40:17]
Ari Melber
Sound important. Let's take a quick look.
- [40:19]
Patton Oswalt
Thank you.
- [40:19]
Ari Melber
Everyone can check this out. Take a look.
- [40:23]
Patton Oswalt
I'm okay. I'm a little rattled. My daughter said something to me that no Father wants to hear from their teenage daughter. She called me, dude.
- [40:37]
Ari Melber
We got audio. People can just listen to your jokes. And they can listen more than once if they like the vibe. Tell us about the project.
- [40:44]
Patton Oswalt
It's old school, man. I put out a comed comedy album. It's not a special. It's not on video. These are the albums that I grew up on that. Richard Pryor, Carlin, Steve Martin. People like that. You can just listen to it, download it on Audible, and. Are you going on a walk? Are you doing laundry?
- [41:02]
Che Komandoori
Boom.
- [41:02]
Patton Oswalt
You got a fresh hour of comedy from me that will hopefully get you out of this horrific nightmare world that.
- [41:09]
Ari Melber
We'Re stuck in right now. And what are your favorite topics right now? Because you like stuff that's relatable.
- [41:13]
Patton Oswalt
Yeah, well, I mean, I definitely love the. The ongoing kind of fun friction with my daughter and her generation and then mine, where there comes a time when your generation is, oh, that's right. We're not the cool ones anymore. They are. And they're the ones who are kind of setting. So there's a lot of that back and forth. There's a lot of. There's stuff about AI, A huge chunk about AI and how terrified I am of it. And a conversation that I had, a conversation with a woman who was trying to reassure me about AI and ended up terrifying me, like, 10 times worse. Oh, it got so much worse. So there's a lot of that. A lot of stuff about religion, a lot of stuff about going shopping at Hobby Lobby. Stuff. Yeah. High school musicals. And me turning down a ride from the Planner's nutmobile. It's all over the place.
- [42:08]
Ari Melber
But you. And we're almost out of time. But you and Birbigli are both like, kind comics. So many comics can get into, you know, a little negative. And you guys are like the kind ones. Do you like that?
- [42:17]
Patton Oswalt
I am excited and happy. Happy to be on stage. I'm not there to go, this sucks and this sucks. Most of my comedy is about stuff that I'm enchanted by or excited about or into. And Verbigli is definitely the same way. He is just fascinated with the train wreck of life.
- [42:35]
Ari Melber
Yeah, no, that comes through. And as they always say, when you're yourself, people can tell. So it's like you're funnier than the average person, obviously. But then it's like, oh, wait, but we get what you're into. So let me give it a shout out. New special black coffee and ice water. You get it now on. Excuse me, audible. We love patent. We hope you'll come back with or without a plug.
- [42:55]
Patton Oswalt
And my special is 100% Epstein free, guaranteed. Nothing of the Epstein files on there.
- [43:00]
Ari Melber
We'll be right back. All right, so for everything going on, and it is a lot, it's useful to remember that about a year ago in November, Trump ran and won among all things, by hammering affordability, the economy, what he called the Biden economy, and prices. So how is that going a year later? Well, if you ask Americans, this is not a 5050 issue. A whopping 76% of Americans have a negative view of this economy. With affordability as the key issue that some have tapped. It is worse than when Biden left office by about five or six points from that year. So people don't think Trump has made it better. Some think he's made it worse. As for affordability, here is the president.
- [43:54]
Joan Walsh
We're also making incredible strides to make America affordable again. That's a new word that they're using, affordability. But they came up with a new word, affordability. And they look at the we are all about affordability.
- [44:11]
Ari Melber
Donald Trump seems to think that this is just a messaging issue. 76% of Americans think it is about the actual economy and whether someone who ran on fixing it is getting the job done. That also that sour mood and concern also hangs over the other issues we've been covering and a country that is running out of patience with this administration. We'll be right back. There's a new way to find us online. Go to ms.dot now ari. That's Ms. Now ari. And you can see tonight's new segments from the Beat, as well as that Bannon report from last night. Thanks for watching.
- [44:53]
Commercial Announcer
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