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The Jim Acosta Show
EPSTEIN SURVIVOR JESS MICHAELS SPEAKS OUT PLUS DECODING FOX NEWS' JULIET JESKE AND MEDIAITE'S TOMMY CHRISTOPHER DISCUSS TRUMP LATEST
01:04:13
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. And it's another day that ends in y. In the wait for the release of the Epstein files. Congress passed the bill, Donald Trump signed it, and yet we wait. In the meantime, the Epstein survivors have released a new statement saying they're waiting, too, and they're watching and many of them are now receiving death threats. Let's discuss with Epstein survivor Jess Michaels. She was up on Capitol Hill for that inspired news conference that we saw earlier this week that came before Congress passing the Epstein files bill. And Jess, it's great to see you again.
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B
Thanks for having me back on.
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A
It's been a week.
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B
It's been a week.
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A
What a week. Oh, my goodness.
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B
Like historic events of, of, you know, Representative Grijalva being the 218th signature, being in. In the gallery when she signed the dispatch petition and having all of those representatives stand and cheer us on to then come back and repeat that. I got off the train on Friday and hopped back on on Sunday. And then to be there on Tuesday for that historic moment of just Congress supporting us and saying, yeah, this is unacceptable and we can really all get on board with this.
- [01:20]
A
Yeah. And I was there at the press conference. I mean, I think we were talking about this before we got going here, but there aren't many press conferences that happen up on Capitol Hill that are as inspiring as the one that you were a part of with the other survivors. And I'm not just saying that to, you know, puff anybody up. It truly was. And it was a moment where I think, you know, it gave you some hope for our democratic process.
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B
Yes.
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A
You know, you, you came up there, you spoke, and then this bill raced through both houses of Congress. I don't know if I've ever personally seen that happen in a very long time here in Washing, where almost everybody voted for it.
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B
And we didn't expect that. We expected that we would be getting it through the House. And then we had another month or two of lobbying planned.
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A
Yeah. Right. And you thought this was going to keep being a battle. Mike Johnson was saying, oh, they might. They might change it over in the Senate.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And then over in the Senate, they said, we don't want this, you know, hot potato. Let's just pass it and get it done. And they were hearing from their constituents and they were on your side that that's.
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B
Yeah. And you were there. You heard Marjorie Taylor Greene say that this was an unprecedented amount of support from the American people calling, reaching out to their representatives.
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A
Yeah. There's no question about it. But I, I, I do want to make mention of the fact that the survivors have released this new statement. You shared it with me just a few minutes ago and I, I posted it and want to show it to our viewers here. I mean, this is very important that we show this because basically it jives with what I was saying at the beginning of the show, which is the weight continues. And as we all know, Donald Trump could have released these files without an act of Congress, without an act of Congress that is signed by the president. He could just do this right now and walk us through some of the elements of this statement and why it's so important. And I do want to talk about the fact that, that some of you are now receiving death threats, which is not, it's disturbing, but it's not surprising. But let's walk through what's important in this statement because I want to go through it.
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B
Thank you. And actually, none of this is surprising, right? No, we, we're aware of it, but we really wanted the American people to know that we're aware that this is coming. So this is par for the course. There are going to be attempts to blame victims for our own or each other's abuse. There's going to be victim that has happened for generations to any person that comes forward with sexual abuse, sexual harm issues. I mean, that's, that's par for the course. We're, we're going to expect that there are going to be incomplete disclosures. That's, that's expected. However, I will tell you, we have, so I can't tell you how many attorneys I've talked to that are saying we have teams on the ground. I mean, third party attorneys. We have teams ready for these files that they are going to be combing through them. So we have a lot of support that. I think that there's a real underestimation of how much support we actually have. And I think that goes back to number one, where there's just such a disbelief in sexual assault and sexual harm and trafficking in general that that disbelief is actually really underestimated because it matches the level of support that we have from the volume of survivors that are out there. Yeah, that's threats to our physical safety. Many have already received death threats and threats of harm. And we're bracing for this to escalate. You know, that that's expected. This is the one, number four is really important for people to understand. So in any kind of abusive situation, coercion, the manipulation, sexual harm, silence and secrecy are the tools of predators. Silent secrecy so the fact that we have come together so strongly as a collective of, of sister survivors started by Virginia Giuffre and by Maria Farmer, who was the original whistleblower back in 1996.
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A
Wow.
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B
They, they are going to try to pull us apart. They're going to find ways to pull us apart kind of the same way that has happened with the American people. And I cannot tell you enough how much we appreciate the Republicans that have come on board to support this. There were many Republicans that we went into their offices on Mondays and Monday and Tuesday. They have been supporting anti sex trafficking legislation for a long time. We are not new to them. They have always supported this and they are on board with this. So I think there's a little bit of an underestimation on the part of this administration of how many people are actually against anti trafficking and they happen to also be Republicans. But I saw beautiful, beautiful bipartisan efforts this week that tell me we have a lot of hope for the American people.
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A
I totally agree. And I saw Marjorie Taylor Greene up there. Thomas Massie was up there standing next to Ro Khanna, who's a pretty progressive Democrat. And I mean, that is basically the entire political spectrum in American politics. And you know, Marge, Hillary Green was nodding along with Ro Khanna and he was nodding along with it. So I, I, you know, I, it was kind of a mind blowing experience for me as a political reporter, I'll be real honest with you. But I have to say it's because of you and the rest of the survivors that, that this happened. I mean, there, you know, and the power of Virginia Giuffre's story, it's the reason why this happened. And the images of you and the other survivors holding up those pictures of yourselves, that to me was the most powerful moment because, and I know you, you've all done this before. You did in the PSA the other day. But people have to be reminded you stand there as grown women.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And, but you have to hold up those pictures of the girls.
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B
These are the girls we're looking for, our younger selves. You know, it's, you know, I was 22 when I was raped by Jeffrey Epstein. And it destroyed me. It actually, because I was so at such a vulnerable age. And that's something I really want to touch on very quickly, Jim, because I think one of the things that's going to happen in this, in any kind of a smear campaign, and we heard it with Virginia, is that somehow abuse was our fault or because there was recruiting happening because the public is so uneducated about what happens in sex trafficking. There is nothing about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's trafficking ring that was unique. It is the exact same playbook that is played out in every sex trafficking ring. There is always an older woman that then corrupts these younger, vulnerable young women or boys or men, and then recruits them through fear, through intimidation, through coercion to then get other people. It is not special or unique or in any way something that was a brilliant operation. It is, it is, it is. It's the Sex Trafficking 101. And most people don't know that. And so they don't know, understand the coercive control. What, what is unique about it is the buyers, the, the predators that came in and got involved with all of these young girls and young women.
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A
Yeah, well, and I mean, the consequences, I mean, they started immediately. We saw Larry Summers, former President of Harvard and Treasury Secretary, admit to his, I guess in part to his behavior. I don't know if he fully admitted what he did, but he, he acknowledged mistakes on his part and he said he's withdrawing from public view. But we're not completely to the bottom of this. I mean, there were the emails that came out from the Epstein estate. That's not even, that's not even scratching the surface of what's in the Epstein files themselves. Video surveillance videos, perhaps. Photographs, perhaps. And, you know, you know, I keep coming back to this April 2011 email that came out last week that Epstein wrote to Ghislaine Maxwell about Donald Trump. This is long before he got into national politics. And, you know, he's mentioned as somebody who's been at Epstein's house for hours and hours. And to me, it's just an unanswered question. And they try to say, well, the person whose name is redacted and that, that person said, Trump is a gentleman and all this stuff. Until I see that unredacted name, I don't know that that is the case. We don't know. We don't know what. We don't know. And also, why was he at the house for hours? And I mean, that's another question, too. But I'm just wondering what you think about Trump's involvement in all of this. His name came up so many times in those emails and you have to think it's going to come up when the files are released.
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B
I think his name's going to come up. I think a lot of names are going to come up. And what I, what I fear is that everybody will be so laser focused on Donald Trump that they will miss all the other people that are in this ring because it is so much bigger than Donald Trump right now. He's the person responsible for withholding this information, but he's, he's only one of, of many, many more. And, and it, we would be remiss. I mean, otherwise, the same thing has happened. Like Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested and that was it. You know, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and they're saying, oh, there wasn't any trafficking except to himself. You know, it was just Jeffrey Epstein. So this, this idea of narrowing it down to one person and making that person the fall person is a, is a, is a road we don't want to stay on. So we're just going to say is a lot bigger than Donald Trump. And we have a lot of faith in the American people that they are not going to settle for any of the shenanigans that we're expecting to happen.
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A
And you don't want to get sidetracked by politics.
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B
I don't. We don't. This should never have been, I shouldn't have had to go to. Honestly, as wonderful as you guys are doing all the reporting, you know, there are so many other things I would rather be doing than going up to Capitol Hill and talking Congress. No offense.
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A
Yeah, no, and I saw, I saw Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut the other day. He was asked, well, you know, what if Democratic names come up in all this? And he said, so what?
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B
Exactly.
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A
And that's how, I mean, that's how a lot of people feel, how I feel. So what, I mean, this just needs to be the truth. Needs to come out.
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B
Five administrations, Jim.
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A
Right.
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B
Five administrations. We cannot. And now, regardless of whether he's in, in the fight, like, let's, let's, let's play devil. He's, he's, he's not in the files. This is his administration. He has a responsibility now to, to deal with this issue regardless. And if he doesn't, the American people are going to have something to say about it.
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A
Yeah, well, and, and the, the weight continues. I mean, this was passed, it was signed. They could come out today and say, here it is. Voila.
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C
Exactly.
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A
You go. We saw Pam, Bonnie the other day saying, the attorney General saying, well, we're going to follow the law and, you know, there's some investigations going on. I'm wondering how you interpreted those words. Did they feel a bit coded?
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B
So I just saw the full interview to, like, her horrorful conference today in another interview. And I was. It wasn't the words she said. It was the demeanor. It was. She was. She was not combative like she was during her. Her oversight committee testimony.
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A
Yeah.
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B
She was not boastful like she was in February when she came out with all the binders. She had a very scared look on her face and demeanor. So her. It was her countenance. And all of them. Their countenance that I thought was very different.
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A
Yeah. Like they'd seen a ghost or something.
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B
Yes.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Yeah. The ghost of Jeffrey Epstein is still haunting them.
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A
Yes. And the only way to get this out of our system is to release the files and just do it.
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B
Yeah. And I.
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A
And.
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B
And can I say, Jim, like.
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D
Yeah.
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B
You know, we sexual assault survivors hear victim blaming all the time.
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C
Great.
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B
Release the files.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Somebody's not in the files. He's not, in fact. Great. Release the files. There was no other trafficking except to Jeffrey Epstein. Great. Release the files. The answer every single time to those concerns is release the files.
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A
Just do it. Yeah. And you probably have not had time to fully reflect on this past week, but can you put it into words what this week has been like for you after this long journey?
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B
So I have not slept in four months. I actually slept the last two nights, so it felt really good.
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D
Wow.
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B
It is felt for the first time, a level of validation on a grander scale than I think all of us could fathom. Seeing them stand up and cheer in that House when. When the electronic vote came through and we could see all the names as they. As the. As the votes were checked off. You know, green Y's for Yes was incredibly powerful and gave us a level of hope that I think we needed to keep going. And it's. It's. It's overwhelming and numbing at the same time. And I will tell you that I woke up the next day feeling so much rage that we had to get an actual act of Congress to be heard. That. And that was said to me by a staffer, a Republican representative staffer who sat with us in tears and paused while we were sharing our stories. And she said, this shouldn't take an act of Congress.
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A
Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right.
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B
So I'm. I'm honored to be here, but at the same time, I really would rather not like.
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A
No, no, I know, I know. I know. As much as we like each other, I get it. No, and. And, Jess, you were in the. In the gallery. You were up there watching this go down.
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B
Yes.
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A
What was that like?
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B
It was so.
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A
So, like, you were in a movie or something.
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B
Oh, it was like a movie because initially they did a, a verbal call out for the vote, and then somebody said, no, we want an electronic vote that's recorded. And so they said, okay, 15 minute electronic vote. And, and we were all looking around and all the names were displayed on the wall. And as each vote was electronically put in one at a time, a little, a little letter with the color would go up, E or red N. And so for 15 minutes, the suspense is going while we're watching all of the names change. And sometimes there'd be a red N. And then we'd wait a few minutes and it would change to a green. Until that one guy.
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A
One guy, Clay Higgins.
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C
One guy who.
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B
He's going to die on this hill for his legacy. Until that one guy decided that he was.
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A
If he ever writes a book, his. The title should be that One Guy. I mean, not that I would buy it, but give me a break.
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C
That One Guy.
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B
But to have it, to watch it happen.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Visually. And have like that moment right there. Right. That you were just showing. It was, it was, it was beautiful and validating. And it felt like, I mean, for, for months I was doing four to five interviews a week just to help get this, this, our, our stories out there. And thank you for being one of the people that has had me on several times to just stay on top of this, this story. Jim. And you've had other survivors on. And I, I, I felt like I could have a little bit of an exhale is what it felt like.
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A
Yeah. I must have felt so good, honestly. And, and, I mean, it just was really inspiring. And I, you know, I don't, you don't hear that word tossed around much in D.C. it's. But to see, you know, the, all of you come to Washington and not give up and keep fighting it, you know, honestly, this is the, this is, this is history, what you did this week.
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D
It's history.
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B
And I, I have one story to tell you that I think is really beautiful. So I had happened to run into Representative Melanie Stansbury in one of the green rooms. We were both doing interviews and, you know, introduced myself, thanked her for her vocal support of us. And then I happened to sit next to her in our meeting with the Democratic Women's Caucus, where we had Republican Women's Caucus members there too. And as women, we were all just talking about how do we deal with this issue? And she said, you know, I think I'm gonna go approach Marjorie Taylor Greene later. So we were headed to the vote right after that. And while the 15 minute, while the 15 minute vote was going on, I watched her walk, literally walk across the aisle, sit down next to Marjorie Taylor Greene, put her arm around her, and I was. That moment will stay with me as an inspiring moment because this is what we need. We need to come together. And if it's this one issue, let it be this one issue. But as a country, we've spent far too much time making things political that are not. And, and one of them being child sex trafficking.
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A
Right. We should all be on the same team when it comes to that.
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B
Yeah. Many other things, too. But, like, at least, at the very least, can it be around this?
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A
Amen to that. Amen to that. Well, Jess, I really appreciate the way you have fought for this. I appreciate you coming on so many times. I, the, the number of times you come on pales in comparison to the number of times I bugged you to come on. So I appreciate your.
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B
Asking.
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A
I mean, since July when they tried to sweep this under the rug, to me, this has been, I mean, I think it's been a cause for this show and for what I've been doing that, you know, that you, that this not get swept under the rug, that does not get pushed off to the sidelines and put on the back burner like they try to do with, you know, he's, he's been able to do that with so many things, but not this, not this, not this, folks.
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B
It's also proof that it's bigger than.
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A
Him and it's bigger than him. That's true. Very much so.
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B
On the positive side and on the negative side.
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A
That's exactly right. Well, kudos to you and, and the whole team there. And wow, what a, what a victory. And it's a, it's a lesson for all of us that you can still fight and win, you know, in this country, in this city. So, Jess Michaels, thank you so much for your time. Please stay. And like this happened. I, I will tell the viewers who are watching that just to give you, like, the way this goes down sometimes. Just when did you text me? Like at three, I think. Or three.
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C
Three.
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B
And I had just finished my third interview of the day and I said, here's the statement.
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C
We're putting out a statement today.
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B
And I, I like to keep you informed because you've been such a, an ally of all of us. And, and you said, okay, do you want to come on the show today and talk about it? I was like, yes. And I have another interview at, I went to an interview at 3:30. And then I jumped on this one for four.
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A
Amazing. Well, and that's the determination that it, that it takes. I mean, you know, you, you guys have been dogged. I mean, just unbelievably determined and it's, it's really inspiring. And so, Jess, thank you for your time. Have a great weekend. I, whatever beverage you enjoy, enjoy it. Get some rest and keep us posted because honestly, like, I, I don't. Until they come out, it's not over.
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C
We, we are. We are.
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B
We agree 100%.
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A
Yeah, that's right.
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B
Celebrating this because we need this moment of rest and hope and we've got to soak in all the support that we've gotten, but it's fueling us for the next round and we know we are not alone.
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A
Yeah, and you needed some refueling. That's the thing. You needed that. You needed this.
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B
Yes, exactly.
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A
All right, well, well, good for you, Jess.
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B
Congratulations for celebrating with me today, Jim.
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A
You bet, you bet. Take care. Keep us posted. Thanks, Jess. All right, that's Jess Michaels. Wow. Okay. That's amazing stuff. And you know, the other thing that I thought was fascinating about this week was the way this has been covered. And there are. And as we've talked about on this program, there's covering it and then there's not covering it and willfully ignoring it, which is what they've done over at Fox. And so we're bringing back our friend Juliet Jeske of Decoding Fox News. There's Juliet right there. And I, you and I talk about this stuff all the time. I was just mentioning with Jess Michaels, you know, all the times that she and I talk and then versus the number of times she's been on the show, it's two very different numbers. And that's the case between us. I mean, you and I go back and forth and talk about this stuff all the time. And the way Fox and conservative media tried to bury this, it's kind of remarkable because it's a lesson too. And it's another lesson in all of this from the week. As much as they tried to bury it, they could not stop it.
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C
No, they couldn't. They tried and they tried. I mean, it was when Trump started acting incredibly suspicious, like mid summer, and everything he did just made him look guiltier and guiltier and guiltier. And it was like a switch went off at Fox and they completely stopped talking about it to the point that, I mean, it was, it was stunning. And my followers kept asking about it. What are they saying? What are they saying. And I'm like, absolutely nothing. Yes. This is a chart.
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A
Oh, yeah. Show this chart. Yeah, this is great.
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C
If you notice, it says 11, 23, 25. That's the last. That's the Sunday of each week. That's how I organize everything. That's why it looks like it's in the future. I didn't realize that until after I made it. I was like, oh, that's a little confusing. So that's Sunday. But that is a search for weekly transcripts, simply for the word Epstein. Now, you can see at the end there, it just shoots up like a rocket. I was even shocked. It's 218. And that's not even for the full week because the five is about to air in a half an hour. And Jesse Waters primetime, which is the show I'm on this week, will air at 8pm So I still have two more shows to add to this. So you can see the first spike looks like it's in March. It is technically March. That's when Pam Bondi was going to release. Oh, I've got all these files.
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A
It's on my desk.
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C
Yeah, yeah, it's on my desk. And she released them to influencers and they ended up being the same things that had already been released. And then in July, there was more hoopla about it and, and hype that, oh, any day now we're going to release it. And then Trump started acting completely crazy and then that dropped off. And then I wrote down some dates. September, July 17th is when the Wall Street Journal said they had the. The 5050th birthday birthday book, book, book, with the poem in the women's shape with his signature on it. September 3rd, the presser that Jess, I'm sure, spoke at, that was a bunch of survivors that everybody else carried live. Fox News did not carry it. They mentioned it, but they did not carry it live. It was very gone. It was just very blatant. Everybody else was carrying it live. And then Fox had something else on. And then September 8th, the card was released by the Epstein Estates. That was the. We got to all see the poem and the signature. That certainly looks like Trump's signature. And he tried to deny that it was his. And do you see any sort of. No, you don't see really a spike. You see a little one in September there, and it flatlines. And then even last week. So last week, Epstein was mentioned seven times only. And that was only really because Stephanie Miller, a comedian, was on Hannity and she just blew.
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A
I had her on. I had her on. And we talked about this. It was wild.
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C
Yeah, yeah, it was. Oh, yeah, she, he, he had her on because she had kissed the feet of Jasmine Crockett as a joke.
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A
Right, right.
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C
She's gonna make a big deal out of that. And she just goes, hey, Trump's in the Epstein files.
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A
It was brilliant. But then, but then flash forward to this week and it goes off the charts. And that's when like the dam broke, basically.
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C
Yeah. And they, they've had entire segments now where they're like, the Five has had a blocks where it's all. Epstein and I just sat back going, what is going on? Because they've completely ignored it. So now they're like, oh, Epstein, it's no big deal. Epstein, Epstein. And their whole premise now their spin is that this is really going to be bad for Democrats and Trump was holding it back because he didn't want to embarrass anybody.
- [26:50]
A
Right. Well, and Jesse Waters, he. I think we have this clip. Do we have this clip? Jesse Waters on the Five, he was getting into it with Jessica Tarloff. Jessica Tarloff. And he said, I don't care that about Ghislaine Maxwell or something. Do we have that? We play that. If we can't play it, maybe we have it. Matt, do we have that clip? We might not have that clip. Well, well, anyway, if we get it, we'll get it. But.
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C
There it is. There it is. Maxwell is in a minimum security prison and is being waited on basically hand.
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A
And I don't know and I don't care.
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C
You will find out that the FBI.
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A
Will be embarrassed because they investigated a lot of these allegations. It didn't do anything about it. The DOJ will be embarrassed because they were the ones that cut the sweetheart deal. J.P. morgan, all the bankers will be embarrassed.
- [27:51]
D
A lot of Democrats and a lot of.
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A
And the Royal Family will be embarrassed. And the Chiron says Dems caught in pedophiles web.
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C
Yeah, yeah.
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A
Even though Donald Trump's name is mentioned, I mean, he's more than anybody except maybe Jeffrey Epstein in the emails that were released last week.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And so, so when they finally start covering it, the spin is, oh, it's about the Democrats.
- [28:12]
C
Yeah, yeah. And that's. It's been surreal because I also, like months ago, I went through my entire archives and it was. I went through three years worth of entire episodes and I just searched for transcripts for Epstein and this took days. And I got this huge crazy Twitter thread out of it showing every single instance of when they talked about this. And it used to be, especially with Jesse Waters, that's the irony there. It used to be a huge story for him because he's really into anything even close to conspiracy theory. He especially had the most clips where he was just like, you know, oh, this, this horrible scandal that Trump will certainly uncover the Epstein files over and over and over. And then it wasn't until it started to look like it was very obvious that Trump was covering it up, that they were like, oh, what? That didn't happen. It. So it's been, I think one of the things that's very difficult. It's like when I was in grad school and I'd have to search for something that didn't exist, that's sort of proving a negative. And when Fox doesn't want to cover something, they ignore it. And then people say, well, what are Fox saying? What are the Fox saying? And I have to say, nothing. And then like, how do you show nothing? You know?
- [29:27]
A
Right. It's like, how do you show the existence of nothing?
- [29:30]
C
The existence of nothing.
- [29:31]
A
Well, that's why that graph is so important. That chart that you just showed isn't. That line graph is so important because, you know, it was just, they, they eliminated it from the programming. It was like state television. You know, we don't want mentions of this opposition figure. So it just doesn't, it's like the person doesn't exist. It's like Jeffrey Epstein didn't exist.
- [29:52]
C
Yeah, I love my, I do my nerdy. I call those my nerdy word checks. I do them every single week. And I have kind of a set. You know, it's not usually one word. I have like a list of words that I check for every single week. Democrat, Trump, Biden. Crime, China, Israel. And you can sort of see what happens with these things. And I love a word check because it's very, it's very like kind of naked. They can't hide. They can't, they can't cover it up. It's just there. It's there. That's why. And it's very, very telling because they've done the same thing with Israel. They wouldn't talk about Israel for weeks. And then all of a sudden they try to act like they cared about and, and, and, you know, it was.
- [30:37]
A
It'S very much in cahoots, it seems to me, with the talking points that come out of the White House and it, what it says to me. And this is something Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary, told me a long time ago. Is that, you know, that the, that fox in the Trump White House, they work hand in glove.
- [30:51]
C
Oh, yeah.
- [30:53]
A
Her terms, hand in glove. And so, I mean, this chart to me says that that pattern has continued into Trump 2.0 and maybe on steroids. The other thing, Juliet, that you've done recently, which I love, this is my new favorite thing, is you do this thing that's called Trump without Trump. And for the folks at home who are watching this, who have not seen this before, you're about to see something revolutionary. You kind of tapped into this real frustration that people have. And I hear this all the time from people are like, gosh, I really don't want to hear Donald Trump's voice and I don't want to see his face. I know it's important, but I don't want to hear him and I don't want to see him. So you came up with a solution for that, where you take some of his wacky sound bites, you block over his face, and then you narrate what he's saying. Let's play this, okay?
- [31:41]
C
Are the words of the President of the United States of America. And, you know, we got rid of the drip, drip water. We call it the drip, drip, where it drip, drip out of the sink states with tremendous water. So much water, they have nothing but problems getting rid. They had restrictions on water. It comes down from heaven, right? They had restrictions on water. So you want to wash your hands or like me, I want to wash my hair. I lather up and I turn that and there's no water. The water's drip, they call it. They put a restrictor on. I won't mention that. The third item in the bathroom because I always get criticized. I used to mention that, but I don't mention it anymore because, you know, I think you do. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you shouldn't be owning a McDonald's franchise. You wouldn't do well even with the McDonald's franchise. But no, the water restrictions totally lifted. All restrictors are gone. And, you know, it's interesting. Your dishwasher were covered, right? Who had no water? I was with some of the people that make them Whirlpool and others. Incredible, sir. They won't give us the water to use in our dishwashers or use in our washing machines. The washing machines.
- [33:00]
A
Wow.
- [33:00]
C
I mean, yeah, it's. It's out there.
- [33:01]
A
It goes on and on. And God bless you again, doing the Lord's work. And I mean, we need water excavation. I mean, it does make it sound even more bananas when you read it. Like you're reading a children's story or something, you know?
- [33:15]
C
Yeah. That's literally how I do it. And the joke is, is I. I should give a shout out. I hope one of somebody watching this tells him I give him a shout out. Aaron Rupar, who runs Public Notice, who's also amazing. I love him, who's also in Substack. He's helped me out tremendously. I started making these two years ago, and I used to take an entire speech, condense it down to two minutes, and I would do an annotated version of it, and I would take his voice out, and I would put the captions next to his face. And then people started saying, I can't see his face. So that's what I found, the old ones. And so then I start putting the captions on his face, and it slowly but surely evolved into the music with the children's narrator kind of voice. But what happened was I stopped making these after the election because they started declining in popularity. And taking a whole speech and turning it to two minutes took hours to do. And I was like, I can't do it. He's too exhausting. I don't have the time. So I had stopped making them. And Aaron Rupar was on his. One of the podcasts he works on, and he mentioned it. He's like, oh, she does this thing where she takes. She blocks his face and she takes his voice out, and they're so funny. And because I just wanted people to hear what he was saying, I'm like, they should hear what he was saying.
- [34:28]
A
No, it's important. No, but it's true.
- [34:31]
C
Yeah. And I started making them again after Aaron said that, because I was like, I should probably make these again. And they were so much more popular after he won again. And people started really remembering how awful he was. And I think that's what is driving them. And now they're, like, off the scale popular. It's, like, unbelievable. They are going viral everywhere I put them.
- [34:52]
A
I was gonna say, yeah, because they're. It's taking off now. People are like, oh, yeah, this is what I need.
- [34:57]
C
Yeah.
- [34:57]
A
I don't want to hear him. I don't want to see him.
- [34:59]
C
Yeah. And it's. It's. I'm totally desensitized to him because I've sat through so far, like, 20 of his. I'm. I have a side project which is nutty, but I just had to do it where I'm going through every Single campaign event. It's 117. I have a spreadsheet, and I'm just going. And I have. I'm making transcripts. I have a detailed list of everything he says in each speech and keeping track of when he changes stuff. I'm a nut job. This is what I do. I love research. So I do. I'm like, no, but it.
- [35:29]
A
But I mean, honestly, though, it's serving a purpose. Because like I said earlier, I can't tell you how many times I hear from people like, jim, I respect what you do. It's so. Yeah, but they're like, I can't watch them and I can't listen to them. So here's your solution. Yeah, America. I wish I had come up with this Juliet.
- [35:45]
C
And I will say, too, SNL had Jennifer Coolidge do it one episode, and she's hysterical. Lovely actress. Very, very, very funny woman. And since then, people go, oh, you got this from her. I'm like, I've been doing this for two years.
- [36:00]
A
Oh, my goodness.
- [36:01]
C
Come on. And he's not. Yeah. Anybody could read his blank. You know, it's not like I'm the only person that's ever read his words, so. Of course not, But. And she's lovely, but it's. That is kind of funny because people bring up Jennifer Coolidge and I'm like, please, come on.
- [36:16]
A
But you can relate to what, you know, reporters who have covered him for years, what they go through, like, listening to him talk about faucets and water pressure and windmills and the sir stories. Sir, Sir. Which, of course, as has been noted many times, that's one of the clearest tells that he's lying, that the story he's telling is complete. When he starts to say sir, Sir. Like the big brawny men with the tears in their eyes, they say, sir, Sir. Like everybody at that point, that's your tell. There should be like a alarm that goes off.
- [36:48]
C
But yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [36:50]
A
This is a completely different thing that you're doing, which is great.
- [36:52]
C
So I know I started doing it and it was like they kind of. I added the music a couple. I don't know, maybe.
- [36:59]
A
Yeah, the music helps. Right?
- [37:01]
C
That's. Both of those songs are from Imy's iMovie. They're royalty free. Any. Any video nerd knows those songs. Like, people have said, oh, that's what those are. Imovie. I'm like, yeah, that's Metal Ceremony and Memorial.
- [37:13]
A
So we won't get using it.
- [37:16]
C
No, nobody will. I did it on purpose. Yeah, I did that. On purpose that you could put them anywhere. And the joke was, my producer Matt's.
- [37:24]
A
Probably wondering, like, oh, shit, does that mean we can't post this? Okay.
- [37:27]
C
No, we're fine. It was funny because when I, when I, when I. I had used music before in other videos, and I thought, you know, let's see how that works, you know, because the one sounds sort of like patriotic, like very reverent, and then it's sort of the memorial song is the one when he's speaking. And that's just sort of like, this is a great speech by a great man. Sort of sarcasm.
- [37:50]
A
No, exactly.
- [37:50]
C
And I will say I take great pains to make sure every single syllable is correct. And that past one that you just played, Drip Drip Water is what I called that one. Yeah, I know. I use Premiere Pro to make all my transcripts and Premiere Pro uses AI. And it really had a hard time getting this transcript because he kept like, he says, we get rid of. And at one point he says states have tremendous water and they have a. He cuts himself off, like mid thought. A lot. A lot.
- [38:22]
D
Yeah.
- [38:22]
C
And it, it says problems getting rid, not rid of, just rid.
- [38:27]
D
Rid.
- [38:28]
A
Yeah.
- [38:28]
C
And so for various reasons, he was also really hoarse when he was. He was like talking kind of like this. So Premiere Pro had a really hard time with this transcript. I had to clean. I had to go through this like seven times to get it perfect. It was. And then.
- [38:43]
A
Much respect.
- [38:44]
C
Yeah. When I was reading it, I had a really hard time reading it because it's so odd, the way he speaks in this particular one that I kept.
- [38:52]
A
Adding, well, drip, drip water is my favorite. Also my favorite Dr. Seuss book. I don't know if you know this.
- [38:58]
C
This one is so funny because I had to keep stopping myself because I was adding words that weren't there. You know, I'd say get rid of. And I go, nope, there's no of. Go back, go back, go back.
- [39:07]
A
Amazing.
- [39:07]
C
And. And yeah, I also mix up the, the captions to sort of point out some of the absurdity when he repeats himself. And like, Sir, I always love sir.
- [39:20]
A
Needs to be in all caps, of course, always to be reverent. You know, we're, we're, you know, we're. No water. No water.
- [39:26]
C
Yeah, yeah. I like to make stuff really big. That's something that I like. I keep changing these. Like, I'm the type of person, I don't have an editor, so this is really corny. But one of my teachers in grad school, Greg David, who. Who writes for the City here in New York. He said, it's a very funny, eccentric man. And he turned to our class one day and he goes, if your editor has to come up with ideas for you, you're gonna get fired.
- [39:52]
A
That's true. That is a true. That's a truism in journalism. It's very true.
- [39:58]
C
Yeah. So because I have no editor, I'm always like, okay, come up with a new idea. Come up with a new idea. And like, always, self critical. Self critical, you know?
- [40:06]
A
No, no, no. You've done it. You've done it and you've nailed it. And next, I think we need to buy maybe some animation in there. Faucet turning on the water coming down. We'll workshop this, but honestly, it's already perfect. But, Juliet, great to have you on, as always. Great stuff. Thank you.
- [40:22]
C
Thank you so much. And hi to Duke. This is. This is not actually Odin, but it looks like.
- [40:27]
A
Oh, there's dogs again. Oh, that's very cute. Good stuff.
- [40:33]
C
Thank you.
- [40:33]
A
See you, Juliet. All right, have a great weekend. Make sure you check out decoding Fox News. All right, let's bring in Tommy Christopher because Tommy's standing by. And Tommy, how you doing, man? Good to see you.
- [40:44]
D
Good. How you doing? Can you hear me okay?
- [40:46]
A
I hear you. Doing well. Doing well. You're kind of. You're looking very carvelesque. It's kind of giving me a James Carver vibe here.
- [40:53]
D
I don't know, this stream yard thing, for some reason it's doing like a fisheye thing. And that's okay. I'm not really happy with the look, but that's okay.
- [41:02]
A
You can lean in if you want. It's whatever.
- [41:04]
D
I'm gonna lean in.
- [41:07]
A
You know, we should talk. A couple of things we should talk about. One is, I guess Trump is with Mom Donnie or was with Mom Donnie. And that was. That was kind of wacky.
- [41:17]
D
Yeah. I don't know.
- [41:19]
A
What's that?
- [41:19]
D
I don't know if you got a chance to watch it. I watched.
- [41:22]
A
I only saw, like, a couple of clips where I guess Mom Donnie was basically saying to Trump's face that he is a despot and a tyrant.
- [41:28]
D
Is that. It was a little awe. It was a little. Was a little awkward, but it was, like, friendly when weird. What happened was, you know, the. The conservative media people in the room were trying to cause trouble and.
- [41:40]
A
Right.
- [41:41]
D
You know, he didn't back. He didn't back. Here we go.
- [41:45]
A
Here it is. We. Let's watch this.
- [41:47]
C
Both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views. Are you affirming that you think President.
- [41:53]
B
Trump is a fascist?
- [41:54]
A
I've spoken about.
- [41:55]
D
That's okay. You could just say something.
- [41:57]
A
Okay.
- [41:58]
B
That's easier.
- [41:59]
D
It's easier than explaining.
- [42:03]
A
He doesn't mind being called a fascist.
- [42:06]
D
That was my very good friend Jackie Heinrich asking that question. And good on her for, for trying to clarify things.
- [42:12]
A
Yeah.
- [42:13]
D
But, yeah, I thought, you know, I thought mom, Danny handled it well. And Trump, you know, it's that weird.
- [42:21]
A
Thing that, where he stands next to Trump. Like he does that to people sometimes. He makes them stand next to him while he's seated.
- [42:27]
D
Yeah.
- [42:27]
A
Which is weird. It's like almost like a talk, like a, like a weird talk show from hell.
- [42:33]
D
Yeah. You know, the thing about the, the thing about Trump is that he's really easy to charm if you try. You know, I mean, it seems like mom Donnie really charmed him. You know, I, I understand. I didn't see this part, but, but I read it on my website, media.com, that somebody asked him, do you agree with Elise Stefanik that he's a jihadist? And he was like, no, you know, I, I met with a very rational man and blah, blah, blah, you know, so, you know, who knows?
- [43:04]
A
Republicans.
- [43:05]
D
It's a new bromance. Listen, here's the thing. You know, in his first term, I always had this idea that, you know, if, if the right person got to him, like, he could do single payer and get away with it. You know what I mean? Like, if I, if I had gotten 20 minutes alone with Trump in the first term, I wouldn't have been like, yo, dude, you're a racist. And yo, dude, you're blah, blah, blah. Because I mean, you know, that's not going to help anything. But I would have been like, listen, you really want to like, be a hero? Give everybody health care?
- [43:36]
A
Yeah.
- [43:36]
D
You know, like nobody. You could shoot somebody on fifth Avenue. I'm sure as hell can give him health care.
- [43:41]
A
Right. He convinced the Republicans not to release the Epstein files for a while. Something that they said they all wanted to do.
- [43:47]
D
Yeah.
- [43:48]
A
So, yeah, I think you're right. Maybe that's where this will end up. We'll all end up with free health care. I mean, I don't know.
- [43:52]
D
I mean, I will say this, though. Bum Donnie. I, I'm not that. I, I know some of the guys where I work don't love him too much. I haven't paid that much attention. But wouldn't it be just. I'm rooting so hard for him to succeed. I'M rooting for, you know, like, wouldn't it be amazing if like he gave everybody free buses and a, and a, and a city run grocery store and everything was great because people, people talk about, oh, I believe in New York, but like, yeah, there really is no place like it, especially if you're a business, you know, so it's a playground for the rich.
- [44:25]
A
That's what, that's what Manhattan has become, a playground for the rich. And if you go there, money will fly out of your wallet and your pockets in no time.
- [44:33]
C
Yeah.
- [44:35]
D
You know, if, if they don't want their taxes raised, but like, you know, they'll, they'll drop, you know, 50 grand on a membership to the Met so they can get like a free reception.
- [44:44]
A
You know, it's a second gilded age that we're in right now.
- [44:48]
D
Yeah, it is, it's crazy.
- [44:49]
A
It's insane. And I mean, Tommy, I mean, what did you think of Trump going after the Democrats and saying seditious behavior punishable by death? I mean.
- [44:59]
D
Yeah, well, this is, you know.
- [45:03]
B
I.
- [45:03]
D
Don'T get to write on my sub stack as often as I want to, but like, and we're going to cover this later, but earlier this week I was like, like, I literally gasped at the horrible thing that he said. And this was not about this, this was about something else.
- [45:16]
A
Yeah.
- [45:17]
D
And he managed to like, and it's hard to make me gasp.
- [45:21]
A
Yeah.
- [45:21]
D
And, and then he went and topped that with this. Yeah, it's nuts. And you know, one of the guy, I, I, I, I confess that I didn't read, I only read the headline. But Isaac Shore, who is our, one of our conservative writers, I saw that.
- [45:36]
A
Yes.
- [45:37]
D
He said Trump should be immediately impeached. And like, I don't know, I can't remember if there was also a thing in there about like jailing him. But yeah, impeached. And something else too. There were two things he said they do to him. Maybe it was like horsewhipped, I don't know. Hopefully I'm not misquoting you, Isaac, you know.
- [45:56]
A
Yeah, he's very, he's a very consistent member of the media team. I noticed.
- [45:59]
D
I think he said for Trump to be horsewhipped, so.
- [46:03]
A
Which I don't, I, you know, listen, you know, just because be great if he could just go away. You know, honestly, you know, forget the horsewhip part. But you know, you're right, there were things that, that he, that made us gasp this week. And maybe the one that was the most of all and maybe this is what you're referring to, Tommy, is when he was with mbs, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and said, things happen about Jamal Khashoggi. I mean, you know, that was their banana. Like the momdani thing. That's kind of a sideshow in the Oval Office. And it's humorous, and it's funny that. That. That Trump was with Mom Donnie, and Mom Donnie was allowed to call him a fascist to his face. But for Trump to just sit there and say, oh, things happen about Jamal Kasha, I mean, come on. Come on.
- [46:46]
D
Yeah, that wasn't. I mean, look, that's. That's up. But that wasn't what made me gasp.
- [46:50]
A
Oh, okay.
- [46:51]
D
Okay. And you know what? I want to set this up for a minute, you know, because this deserves its own special attention.
- [46:58]
A
Yeah.
- [46:59]
D
This was literally, like, hours after people were like. Like, complaining and. And just, like, raising holy hell because Katie Couric had dared to ask John Fetterman. You know, Charlie Kirk was kind of. I don't know what she said. I think she actually said, Charlie Cook should be. Kirk. Should be horsewhipped also. But no, whatever she said about Charlie Kirk, it was something along the lines of he was a very controversial guy. And, like, you know, people interpreted. And I read what she said, and I don't think they were being unfair. Interpreted it as sort of excusing. Not excusing, but whatever. Like, he was asking for. Asking to be murdered a little bit.
- [47:39]
A
A little bit, yeah.
- [47:41]
D
In other words, I. I could see people being offended by what she said.
- [47:44]
A
Sure.
- [47:45]
D
But she wasn't.
- [47:45]
A
I didn't see it, so I have no idea.
- [47:47]
D
She wasn't that artless about it. I don't. I think horsewhip might be an exaggeration, but they were flipping out over it. Okay. And, you know, I don't disagree necessarily that, you know, that's not. That's. That's definitely not the way. Whatever.
- [48:05]
A
Yeah.
- [48:05]
D
But they were like. They were losing their. Okay.
- [48:08]
A
Yeah.
- [48:08]
D
Charlie Kirk is the guy. He should not have been murdered. It was terrible. He was murdered by a lone whack job. And.
- [48:16]
A
Right.
- [48:17]
D
Literally, nobody, like, you know the bottom of it either. Right.
- [48:23]
A
Yeah.
- [48:23]
D
Yeah, exactly.
- [48:24]
B
So.
- [48:27]
D
Jamal Khashoggi, what they did to this guy, I can't. It's unspeakable what they did to him. Although I'm going to speak it. Actually, it's hard because this was a government that are. And it's like the questioner said, our intelligence community concluded that MBS was the one who awarded it Right, right.
- [48:52]
A
They took this guy with a bone saw. I mean, he was, he was conscious.
- [48:56]
D
He was conscious.
- [48:58]
A
Yes.
- [48:58]
D
They, they gave him a paralytic, so he couldn't move, but he felt everything as they dismembered him with a bone saw. Okay. Yeah. In. No, and the thing that Trump said that made me gasp was, you know, he was very controversial. A lot of people didn't like him.
- [49:15]
A
Right. That's what it was. Yes.
- [49:17]
D
That my draw literally dropped. And there's, I mean, like, this is, you know, all the, that we've heard him say.
- [49:24]
A
Yeah.
- [49:24]
D
And, and that. And my draw, literally. And these. And these are the same people who were, who were crying and rending their garments about Katie Couric. Very. Like, much more diplomatically saying something about Charlie Kirk.
- [49:38]
A
Right.
- [49:39]
D
I could give two shits about this horrible thing he said about a man who suffered like that at the hands of a foreign government.
- [49:49]
A
Exactly. Brutal assassins.
- [49:52]
D
Yeah.
- [49:53]
A
Yes.
- [49:53]
D
No, I know. I was stunned. And you know what? Everybody listen when people say, oh, you know what? You shouldn't, like, disparage Trump fans. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what? Every one of them that didn't have any energy for this, you are trash.
- [50:12]
A
Yeah, I, hey, listen, Tommy, I'm, I'm right there with you. To me, the fact that Donald Trump would sit there with MBs like that and say, well, he was kind of a controversial figure. Some people liked him, some people didn't. And things happen. It just goes to show you what he thinks of journalists. I mean, honestly, that's, you know, I, I, I'm, I would, I don't think I would ever travel back. I had to travel to Saudi Arabia a couple times. I don't think I would ever go back because I'm worried about being how I would be treated as a journalist. Yeah. And, you know, I, you know, it's.
- [50:50]
D
I don't want to ever be bone saw adjacent. You know what I'm saying?
- [50:53]
A
Exactly, exactly. No. And, and the other thing, too, is to have a big dinner with, you know, all of the big tech bros. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's disgusting, it's filthy, it's gross. And it's a statement of where we are as a country right now that, that Trump, and of course, the Trump family has profited off of these ties with the Saudis. And so when Trump says, oh, they're investing $1 trillion in the United States, first of all, that's about the same thing as their gdp. It's horseshit.
- [51:23]
D
Yeah. Let me, Can I Also, what he.
- [51:25]
A
All he cares about is how much is being invested in the Trump family. The live tournament. I mean, it's. The list goes on and on.
- [51:32]
D
This is the other thing. My jaw dropped twice during that press conference conference because there was that, the thing he said about Kashogi. And then he said to. I believe it was, Mary Bruce, you are a terrible person. He's sitting next to the dude who bone saw a guy who was awake and said, mary Bruce, you're a terrible person.
- [51:54]
A
Right. The terrible person was sitting right ne. The next to him. Right. Well, we haven't even. I mean, speaking of reporters. And you were with Mediaite, so we have to talk about Piggy Gate and Trump calling Catherine, Lucy, a great reporter with Bloomberg. Piggy, Quiet, Piggy. I remember seeing this Friday night, last Friday night, and he's like freaking out, saying, quiet, quiet. And I thought he said Peggy or something. I was like, what, what is this piggy thing? When it came out.
- [52:20]
C
Yeah.
- [52:21]
D
It didn't register for a. You know what's. Yes, there's a lot.
- [52:25]
A
Yeah.
- [52:26]
D
Nobody noticed it until like, Tuesday.
- [52:28]
A
Yeah.
- [52:29]
D
I have to say something. You know, the people on that plane heard it. Okay. Because Jennifer Jacobs. I didn't, I didn't realize it until a couple days later, but Jennifer Jacobs flagged it when it happened. She sent out a tweet. It was not important. That wasn't a pool note. I don't think she was the pool reporter. But. But she, she tweeted a summary of the gaggle and she noted that he called her Piggy and none of them said shit.
- [52:58]
A
And that is a big problem. And you and I talked about this before. There it is. Quiet. You and I have talked about this before, Tommy, that we need to see these reporters standing up for each other. Whereas one of the things that I frankly was kind of sick of by the time I finished my time at the White House was, you know, if you're not, if we're not going to stand up and tell Trump to shut the fuck up when he calls the press of the enemy of the people, then what the fuck are we doing here?
- [53:23]
D
Here? No, I know, man.
- [53:26]
A
And when, when he's going after news organizations the way he's doing it right now, and these news organizations, some of these, some of these news organizations are just absolutely gutless in this country right now. It is, it is. It's a shame. It's a national disaster. And it's a national shame that they don't tell them to go themselves when they screw with the press. Like this to me, is it like, along with the, the portraits that he has up and down the colonnade, there should be another walk of shame.
- [53:54]
D
And it should be, yeah, some of.
- [53:55]
A
These media executives who won't stand up to the White House.
- [53:59]
D
Give me a break and listen, you know, I, I actually thought about doing a column about this, but I didn't, I didn't want it to be seen as beating up on Mary Bruce.
- [54:08]
A
Yeah, but she did a great job.
- [54:10]
D
She did do a great job. But yeah, ABC News and by extension her, to some degree, they completely whitewashed the whole thing. She, she did a first, she did like a direct to camera video about it. She's like, she was talking about the, you know, the MBS exchange and blah, blah, blah. She did not mention Trump's attack. I, I did a search. I searched on the, that Trump said about her. That was never broadcast on abc. That was nowhere to be found in the write up, the ABC News write up of what's happened. And I understand, listen, the impulse a lot. I know that when I was at the White House, a lot of reporters would say, well, I don't want to be the story. I don't want to, I don't want it to be about me. But you know what? I get the R. You. You don't have. I do. No, I do get it too. But, but, but that's gone, that's out the window and they need to wake up and realize that it's out the window because, you know, whatever. I'm sure Mary Bruce is like, well, you know, I don't want the story to be about me. And ABC's like, well, up, you know, we, we don't want our reporter to be the center of the story. You know what, though? You are letting the next reporter down. Okay? That's right. You are letting, you know, I mean, whoever was the last one to get attacked and didn't say let Mary Bruce down. Okay.
- [55:26]
A
That's right.
- [55:26]
D
And I don't, look, I mean, I don't want.
- [55:28]
A
It seems to me what's happening. What's happening is that the White House is calling these news organizations to complain, to moan and complain about certain reporters and certain anchors and trying to get them tossed off the air and kicked out of their jobs and so on.
- [55:44]
D
Who'd they do that to? GM Acosta?
- [55:46]
A
You know, I don't want to mention any names here.
- [55:48]
D
Yeah.
- [55:49]
A
But the, the default position of any television executive for any company, if you get a call from the White House saying we need to get rid of this reporter or that anchor, whatever. The default anchor or the default answer should always be go yourselves.
- [56:04]
D
Yes.
- [56:05]
A
Yes. That is what. And I'm not saying that is like some kind of revolutionary concept. This is a tale as old as time.
- [56:11]
D
Yeah.
- [56:12]
A
News organizations have been telling the White House, whether it's under Republicans or Democrats, to go screw yourselves when they make outrageous complaints like that.
- [56:20]
D
Do you remember how loud they told Obama's White House to go itself when. When Major Garrett didn't get invited to a round robin with the treasury secretary? Do you remember that? Right, right. I mean, we. The.
- [56:32]
A
The press stood up and raised a. A ruckus to get Fox a seat in the front row of the briefing room. People completely forget about that.
- [56:40]
C
Yeah.
- [56:40]
A
So anyway, as you and I go on, it's true.
- [56:44]
D
There's good eggs at least like 10.
- [56:46]
A
Years ago of having a spine. Having a goddamn spine about this stuff.
- [56:51]
D
Well, this is the thing. And, you know, I don't. I'm sure that a lot of these people watch your show, Jim, because, you know, you and me were both veterans at the White House press corps, and we still have a lot of friends in that, on that beat. I never, I don't think I ever ran into Mary Bruce while I was there.
- [57:05]
A
But, yeah, if Mary's watching through the ranks, it does a good job.
- [57:09]
D
And, you know, Catherine Lucy's watching, you know, Ouija Jang, Caitlin Collins. These are all people who have women mostly, who stood. Who stand up to Trump, who Trump. Trump routinely attacks. And look, it shouldn't be up to Mary Bruce. It shouldn't be up to Kate Collins. It shouldn't be up to Kathy Lucy to go out there and, and complain about this. And especially when you're a woman, you know, you don't want to be seen as, whatever the complaint. You know what I mean? That's an extra layer. Yes. That somebody has to have. The news organization should have their back, and the other reporters in those rooms should have their back. Back.
- [57:52]
A
That's right.
- [57:54]
D
And I'm talking to. I'm also talking to these MAGA people. Okay, Right. The Lindell TV people. And, and what's his face?
- [58:02]
A
Brian Glenn.
- [58:03]
D
Brian Glenn. I was gonna say Scott Glenn, but that's a different guy. Brian Glenn. Okay. Which. Which, by the way, I mean, I, I understand that he grew a pair a little bit with. When it came to Trump attacking Marjorie Taylor Green, but you know what? I would have been. And, and a lot of you probably, Jim, a lot of us would have been the first ones to stand up if somebody had abused one of these other guys. I was great friends with John Gizzy. Okay. I was great friends with Fred Lucas, conservative reporters. If anybody had abused them like that, I would have been the first one to get the fuck up out of my seat and say something.
- [58:36]
A
Yeah, I know. I know, man.
- [58:37]
D
This is not about partisanship. This is like you. You guys, it is a privilege to sit in that room. And so many people who do it just ain't shit. And I don't just mean the conservatives. I mean a lot of them. There are a lot of them who sit there with their thumbs up their ass and they don't say anything while this stuff is happening to these very brave women.
- [58:55]
A
And they've done a great job. And I see some of them standing up for one another, and that is good. You know, Peter Alexander, I tell people all the time stood up for me when Trump was coming after me at that one press conference. And that's how it should work. And the White House Correspondents association should be putting out statements saying, you know, you can't call a reporter piggy and you can't say, you know, you can't.
- [59:13]
D
Say there are more useless bunch than them. Christ almighty.
- [59:19]
A
Well, Tommy, now that I've got you all revved up. Yeah, let's. Let's do this again soon.
- [59:25]
D
I also, yeah, Michael Fanon is going to be. I'm going to interview him on. On Wednesday. It's going to be for subscribers only, so, you know, like, cough up the eight bucks and come listen to what I have to say to him and want to. I want to thank you, Jim, and also, great job booking Juliet Jesky, who. I'm a big fan.
- [59:48]
A
If you can. If you can convince your bosses there, because I think she's doing great work over there. You know, I don't. You know, she's just her. But she's doing a great job with. She is literally decoding Fox News, and it's.
- [59:59]
D
I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan.
- [60:01]
A
Yeah. Good to see you, Tommy.
- [60:03]
D
Good to see you, too, Jim.
- [60:05]
A
All right, take care. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Have we gotten ourselves in enough trouble? This is what Tommy was like, book me. Let's do a it Friday. I was like, fine, let's do a it Friday. Here we are. And it is the end of a Friday for me at least. It's been a hell of a week. And I just want to say, you know, from the bottom of my heart, it means so much that you guys support independent media. We get to have the kind of conversations that you don't always get to have that you definitely don't get to have in corporate media, legacy media. So if you can help us out, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. It means a lot and makes a difference. And where, however you're watching this, if it's substack, YouTube, if you're listening on Apple podcasts, it just helps if you, if you make it clear that you like the show and, and want to subscribe and so on. So thanks very much for all of that. And I just want to, I'm not going to end with a long soliloquy today. I do want to just finally say once and for all that, that the, the display of bravery and courage that we saw from the Epstein survivors, that's what I'm taking into this weekend. Let's not end on a pessimistic note. Let's end on an optimistic note for this week, folks, because what they proved here in Washington, and we have become one heck of a cynical country, is that you can believe in something and you can make it happen. And the power that was demonstrated by that very brave group of women, to me, it's absolutely, and I, and I, I think the word inspiring gets overused and it gets schmaltzy and so on. It was absolutely inspiring what they were able to pull off here in Washington this week. I, I don't know if I've ever seen legislation race through Congress in the way that it did earlier this week. And so kudos to the Epstein survivors who have put out a statement just this evening saying they are receiving death threats. They are paying very close attention to how these Epstein files are going to be released and we're not going to stop. I mean, this all started back in July. Folks who regularly watch this program will remember it was back in July when the DOJ tried to sweep this under the rug, when the White House tried to sweep this under the rug. We started right away covering the Epstein story like a pit bull on steroids. And just because this passed through the Congress does not mean this is over by a long shot, folks. Until the Epstein files are released, we're going to remind the American people, going to remind the viewers who watch this show that Donald Trump is still standing in the way of the release of the Epstein files. You can sign a bill into law, whether it's with your hand or the auto pen, you can sign a bill into law, but you have not carried out the law, Donald Trump, until those files are released. My thanks to Jess Michaels to Julia Jeske and Tommy Christopher, who probably got me in some trouble today, but that's okay. So be it. It's a Friday. It's a fucking Friday. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a great weekend. I'll see you next time.