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The Jim Acosta Show
Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro on Texas redistricting plus Juliet Jeske of Decoding Fox News on Fox ignoring the Epstein Files
00:57:34
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
Foreign.
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Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. And it is another day that ends in Y and the Epstein cover up. Despite promising to release the Epstein files, Trump and top administration officials are still withholding that information from the public. So sensing a nightmarish midterm election cycle on the horizon, Trump's own party is now going to at least try to subpoena the files. Who know? Who knows if they'll actually get released? But joining me on the program, as you can see, former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro. A little later, I'll be speaking with Juliette Jeske about her work on the terrific social media account decoding FOX News, which is a great resource for understanding how Fox operates. But in the meantime, Julian, great to see you.
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Julian Castro
Hey, good to be with you, Jim.
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Jim Acosta
Hey, thanks so much for doing it. And forgive me for starting on the Epstein stuff. I do want to talk about the Texas redistricting battle, but, I mean, this bombshell news just came out earlier this afternoon. The House Oversight Committee issuing a subpoena to the Justice Department for its files related to Jeffrey Epstein. You know, apparently they also sent out subpoenas to four former Democratic officials, people like Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, former attorneys general Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, you know, Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, and Alberto Gonzalez. So it's interesting there's casting a wide net, maybe perhaps to not upset the dear leader over at the White House, because they're, they're actually trying to get the Epstein files. But what's your, what's your response to this? And Julian, I mean, I haven't spoken to you about this, you know, on the show, but what's your sense of this whole thing?
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Julian Castro
Well, I mean, my sense of it is that, that Donald Trump and his team, including family members of his, his sons, I know during the campaign, people very close to him, Doug, themselves are, you know, locked themselves in a corner. And try as they might, they can't get out of it because his base especially has such an intense interest in finding out what happened. They were, you know, hyped up on this Epstein controversy in this case for so long. And now, you know, understandably, they want to, they want to know, hey, what happened here? And Donald Trump's done a complete 180 complete about face. And so is the attorney general, Pam Bondi. And I think under growing pressure from that base, you have folks like Comer and others that have basically consented to a deeper investigation, as you say, even as they do that they're trying to make it seem like this is a both sides kind of Thing this person.
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Juliette Jeske
Might have been involved.
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Julian Castro
This person might have been involved. And, oh, by the way, they're Democrats, not Republicans. All of that is to try and I think, make it as easy on Donald Trump as possible and not directly implicate him. But anybody who's following this knows what the real deal here is, which is that the President seems to be hiding something about his involvement. Now, you know, it's important to say there has been no evidence that he was directly linked to any wrongdoing. But at the same time, there's plenty of evidence that he was very close at one time to Jeffrey Epstein, hung out with him, knew him well, visited him, even some who suggest that he, you know, attended these parties where there were underage women. So there's a lot of smoke there.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Julian Castro
That doesn't necessarily mean there's fire, but the way that Donald Trump is trying to hide it certainly makes you think that there's something there.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah. And, and apparently, you know, Epstein's ex girlfriend, Ghisain Maxwell, who was just transferred to a minimum security prison in Texas, I mean, you got to wonder what, what that's all about. Apparently her attorneys said today they don't want the public to see what's in the grand jury testimony. There's been some talk and I think Trump has even said, well, why don't we release some of the grand jury testimony? And apparently she has said through her attorneys that they don't want that, they don't want to do that at this point. And so, I mean, you know, I kind of wonder if, you know, actions speak louder than words here because, you know, why would you transfer her to this minimum security prison? Why, you know, wasn't she just fine being, you know, imprisoned in Florida? What's that all about? I mean, it, it raises a lot of questions.
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Julian Castro
No, I mean, it certainly does. I mean, first of all, as you and others have noted, Jim, the fact that the lawyer from the Justice Department who went down there to speak with Ghisain Maxwell had represented Donald Trump before as his personal lawyer in proceedings, that in and of itself is. I don't even know how that that stands up in any kind of proceeding in the bar for whatever state that he's licensed to practice law in, generally that kind of thing in the practice of law, doesn't happen. So we're already off into, you know, crazy country here. And the way that these things are working out and then to have her transferred to this minimum security prison, to.
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Juliette Jeske
Me, that struck me right away as trying to reward somebody or to Bring them along, see what you can have. Look at this move of good faith if you cooperate with us.
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Julian Castro
For all.
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Juliette Jeske
Of that to happen as this cloud hangs over Donald Trump in terms of.
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Julian Castro
What he knew or didn't know or.
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Juliette Jeske
Did or didn't do is very odd. And in the least, I think that it justifies more investigation, more inquiry.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah, no question about it. Well, let's talk about Texas because, I mean, I'm sure you saw this news that Texas Republicans have voted for the arrest of doz, dozens of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to try to block the GOP plan to redraw those districts, those congressional districts. And apparently the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has ordered state troopers to locate, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has, quote, abandoned their duty to Texans. I mean, you know, they're talking about rounding up and arresting state lawmakers. I mean, what's been your response to this whole thing?
- [06:30]
Juliette Jeske
I'm, you know, I think at base, at the bottom of all of this is Donald Trump cannot risk having the House, the U. S. House, turnover to Democratic control because then there would be some way to do legitimate investigations of his corruption, all of these things that he's doing without congressional approval, not to mention any, you know, personal kind of corruption that may exist. He just can't have that. And that's what's animating this desperate attempt to get five more Republican seats out of Texas. It has to be said, this isn't the first time the Republicans have tried this. They tried it in 03 when Tom Delay insisted that Texas legislators do mid decade redistricting. They succeeded even after Democratic legislators left Oklahoma and New Mexico. So if history is any guide, and 2021 is another good example when Democrats left to take D.C. if history is any guide, what this move by the Democrats buys is time. Yeah, and that can be important here because there's basically an early December deadline for Texas to get its House in order with regard to what the districts look like so that they can have the primary in March and then eventually, of course, the 26th, November 26th election. And you know, it's just a power grab. It's a power grab to avoid accountability by Trump. It's a power grab by Abbott. It's also further suppressing the, the voices of especially black and brown communities in Texas, which has been going on for a long time. It's not in the interest of Texans. It's in the interest of Donald Trump. But what else is new, right? I mean, that's what Republicans all over the place In Congress, governors, wherever they're at, including Abbott, have been doing in the era of Donald Trump.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah, well, and Julian, I think, I mean, part of the reason why I think they're so desperate to claw back a few congressional districts into the Republican column is, I mean, they're not only worried about what's going on with the Epstein files and you saw the House Oversight Committee chairman try to get ahead of that by issuing the subpoena. But you know, at the same time they also have this, the so called big beautiful bill, which, you know, we all have different names for it, but you. It's turning out to be a big blunder for Republicans and I guess we should show this clip. Last night there was a town hall in Nebraska where one Republican congressman was trying to defend the cuts, the steep cuts to Medicaid and was just loudly booed. Let's listen to a bit of that and we'll talk about on the other side, anything. I truly believe this bill protects Medicaid for the future.
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Juliette Jeske
They believe it.
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Jim Acosta
Okay.
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You know, as somebody who's had some town halls, Julian, that's not the reaction that you want from the audience when you're, when you're doing one of those things.
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Julian Castro
Yeah. Like, you know, if you're getting that reaction that you're doing something wrong. Right. And like I, I saw a very interesting clip. You know, of course we're constantly scrolling, seeing a clip of Anthony Scaramucci, who I know, I think you've talked to before. Oh yeah, for sure. Talking about Donald Trump once told him, you know, that that contrary to what you usually hear of Republicans, some Republicans being fiscally conservative and socially liberal, that his base was fiscally liberal and socially conservative. That's interesting. You know, that really caught my attention. And if you notice for when he came on the scene in 2015, 2016, and for the longest time, Trump made this promise that Medicare and Social Security and everything would not be touched. And so it was consistent with that idea, a recognition that a lot of the folks in middle America and so forth that are voting for him actually depend on Medicare, on Medicaid, on Social Security, like a lot of Americans do. But here we have him going completely against that, gutting Medicaid, you know, in so many other ways, gutting the social safety net that has kept a lot of Americans afloat, including a lot of people in his base. And you can't sell people this BS that you're, you're making their life better by gutting this stuff. And so I'm glad to see People, even in the reddest districts, going after their members of Congress for supporting this. And, you know, I always say that people's attention span is shorter than it's ever been, it seems like, especially because the news cycle moves so quickly.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Julian Castro
My hope, like I know a lot of other people are hoping and more than hoping, you know, people are working for, is that folks are going to remember this in November of 26, and these town halls are just a precursor of what people are going to do when they hit the ballot box next.
- [11:29]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's no question about it. I mean, there was just a UMass Amherst poll that came out today that shows approval for Trump's Presidency has dropped by 6 percentage points since April. His approval rating is now 20 points underwater. He's at 38%. And the, the pollster, the director of the poll, said six months into his term as president, Donald Trump looks to be on the ropes with the American public. On the ropes. And the other thing that, you know, folks were upset about at last night's town hall in Nebraska, and I suspect we're going to hear more of this as the days and weeks and months go on, as people are upset about the way Donald Trump has conducted the immigration raids, these ICE raids, these, these migrant detentions that have been taking place all over the country. I was wondering what your thoughts have been on that, because, I mean, what we have seen is, is. Has been pretty monstrous at times. You know, rounding up little kids, rounding up grandmothers and grandfathers, deporting people to countries that they're not even from. It's. It's been unbelievable. And then in this, in that big bill, there are billions of, tens of billions more dollars to continue to fund these types of raids, these, these kinds of ICE sweeps. What do you think?
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Julian Castro
Yeah, it's cruel. It's a continuation of the first term of Trump. Even worse, because they know what they're doing, and they're more willing to break the law to do it. As we've seen them kind of flouting court orders and, and flouting the intention of Congress. And now they're going to have multiples of resources to actually go out and do these cruel things. And, you know, I have been very proud of the reporting that I've seen out there that focuses on the human element of this. You know, a lot of times in politics, people get talked about if they're undocumented, like that's all their life is about. That at one point, you know, you. You didn't follow the law, you came in undocumented or you overstayed a visa, whatever it is. Now, never mind that the reason that the vast, vast majority of these people did that was for a good reason, because they wanted to be able to. To provide for their family and to simply have a better life. It wasn't some, you know, horrendous, mendacious reason.
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Juliette Jeske
You know, don't get me wrong, there.
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Julian Castro
Are people that are here for that reason, but the vast, vast majority, they were motivated by something that all of us can understand.
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Jim Acosta
Right.
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Julian Castro
And during the.
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Juliette Jeske
During the last two years, when Abbott and DeSantis were busing people, in a.
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Julian Castro
Lot of ways, they were dealing with.
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Juliette Jeske
The easiest people to demonize, which is.
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Julian Castro
People who just crossed over the border.
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Juliette Jeske
Now, Trump is going after a set.
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Julian Castro
Of foes who are people's neighbors, their.
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Juliette Jeske
Co workers, their fellow church members, and they've been here a long time.
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Julian Castro
They develop relationships, and people know them. People know that they're not the demons that they've been made out to be by Trump and the Republican Party. And I think that that's why you see in this polling, that it's having an effect. This isn't what most people signed up for. I would say even a good number.
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Juliette Jeske
Of Republicans, some of them like it.
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Julian Castro
But even a good number of moderate Republicans, I think that they feel like he's going too far.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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And I've been thinking about that lately, Julian. People saying, well, this is not what I voted for and this is not what I signed up for, and stuff like that. But, you know, they were waiving those mass deportation signs at the Republican Convention over the summer of 2024. And, you know, a lot of Hispanic voters, Latinos like you and me, voted for Donald Trump. We didn't vote for Donald Trump, but Latino, Latino voters, more Latino voters voted for Donald Trump that we've seen in previous elections. And I suppose you could call it Buyer's remorse or whatever you want to call it, but when you. You're down in San Antonio a lot, and when you talk to folks, what are you hearing from people? What are they saying? Are they saying that, well, I voted for him to bring costs down, and I didn't expect all this because there's a part of me that wants to say, well, don't you know who we're dealing with here? You know, he did family separations during the first term. This can't be too surprising. You know what I'm driving at?
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Julian Castro
Yeah, I mean, I completely understand that.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Julian Castro
You know, I'd be lying If I said that, a lot of times I don't get frustrated. Like, don't you know who this guy is basically? I mean, how many times does the guy have to show you what he's all about and, and how dishonest he is and, and how much? Basically when he says that he's gonna do mass deportations, that's what he would love to do. And what I hear from people is that they thought he was going to go after the criminals. What a lot of them don't recognize is that he considers you a criminal if you are undocumented. That's the crime to him and his cabal. And so it doesn't matter if you've committed a, if someone has committed a crime while they've been here living in the United States, because he considers the entry or how you got here the crime that makes you a criminal. And the other thing is, consistently since he came on the scene in 2015, people give him a lot of credit for being a billionaire and being as they perceive, kind of a self made successful man. And they think, well, you know, he's done well. He must be able to help me and my family and this country do well. He knows how to do that, how to be successful. He built up that image, of course, over the decades. You know, the art of the deal and you know, heyday of the 1980s and, and then the Apprentice in that show, it was that image. That's also, Jim, you know, why I, I actually think that he's not replaceable at all for the Republican Party. And they're going to have a serious problem if they think they can continue on in the same mode with somebody else.
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Jim Acosta
Yes.
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Julian Castro
Some of it is, is getting baked into the system. There's nobody that can do what Donald Trump has done. And I mean that in a bad way. You know, the shamelessness, the dishonesty, the lack of a conscience, the, you know, and at the same time a charisma. Building up your name ID for 40 years, having the resources to withstand hundreds of lawsuits because of your fraudulence, those kinds of things. Nobody else on the political scene, on the right has that ability. And, and they're in for a rude awakening when somebody else, if somebody else tries it in the future.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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And are there, I mean, when you, when you look at, I mean, 2028 is so far off. I mean, you know, my goodness, we don't even know what the world's going to look like in 2028 or I guess 2027. When things get going, are you Are you seeing glimmers of hope that the Democrats can take back power in 2026 and then take back the White House in 2028? Are there? You ran for president, the voters went a different way. Obviously, you were right about some things or you were onto some things back in those days. When you're running in those primaries, a lot of people should give you credit for that. But when you're looking ahead, what are you seeing for the, for the party or is the party kind of searching for an answer right now?
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Julian Castro
I mean, it's definitely searching for an answer. The question is he going to look backward or is it going to look forward? I've often felt that the party too often look last election as though everything is static. And instead of looking forward, I think that folks like Zoran Mamdani in New York City. Now, granted, New York City is not America.
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Jim Acosta
Right.
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Julian Castro
So it's a very different race to run for president. But in the sense of connecting with people where they're at, thinking about housing affordability, thinking about people's means of making a living, embracing a vision that everyone counts, those things in many ways I think can be successful, whether you're in New York City or you're in Nevada or you're in Florida, wherever you're at. I am optimistic about the future for Democrats. My hope is that they're going to embrace being bold and having a positive, strong vision for the future of the country. I also think Republicans are just going to have a very hard time after Trump is done and that those two things combined, plus the natural kind of spring back that you usually get, like we're going to probably see in 26 if people work hard for it and then in 28, that all of that bodes well for Democrats. And we also have a number of people in the party who are super talented, I think, will be able to connect with the American people. So I'm fundamentally optimistic about it.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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And you mentioned Mamdani and housing. I mean, I do think because people say, oh, you know, it's because New York is so liberal and that's why, and that he's doing so well and so on. But, you know, his, his message on affordability, I think definitely strikes a chord with a lot of people, not just in New York City where it's just unbelievably expensive to, to live, but all around the country and housing in particular. And this was sort of your, your wheelhouse there for a while under Obama. Do you have any thoughts on that? Because it is sort of an Undercovered thing. We don't talk about it very much. It's, it's insane how expensive our housing is and real estate prices are through the roof. We're not getting much relief in terms of interest rates, in part because of Trump's management of the economy. But any thoughts on that?
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Julian Castro
Well, we need to pay more attention to it because. Right. It's not this glamorous, sexy issue often talk about a lot. In fact, I was happy that and a little bit surprised, but happy that Kamala Harris in the general election, you may remember, made housing affordability more of an issue than you usually see a presidential, presidential candidate do in the fall of an election year. But, you know, we know the tools in the toolbox that we can use, whether it's like housing choice vouchers or community development block grants supporting more elderly housing and also ways at the local level of easing some of the restrictions that often make it difficult to develop and more expensive to develop. There are many different ways that we can tackle this. And there's a role for everybody, a role for the local, state and federal government that need to make policy changes and put more resources into it, and a role for the private sector, too, nonprofit sector, to get out there and build more housing. We can tackle it. We can do something. We can create more of the housing units that you need to create to make housing affordability real. What we need is the political will to do it. And I think it's also one of these issues where if Republicans would, would just kind of pause and take a cold, hard look at it, they see that this isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. And I know that you hear that all the time. It's almost a cliche. Yeah, true. I mean, go to any small town or medium sized town now, not just these big cities, and ask people about the cost of their rent or how much it costs to buy a house. And they'll tell you. And a lot of them are conservative people. So I hope is that, that we'll get more focus on this in the future.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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And I, you know, I hate to ask these kinds of ridiculous questions reporters ask, but have you given up on politics in terms of being a candidate? Is there a part of it that says, oh, you know, I might like to take another crack at that? You know, first time around, there's a lot of candidates. You know, we had Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg and Beto and Amy Klobuchar as a, that's a tough field to compete in are you scratching your head and wondering, maybe I'll take another shot at this? Or what about Texas? You know, there's a lot of talk that Texas could go blue. I was think of it as, as kind of fool's gold, you know, to think that that could potentially happen. But if you put Ken Paxton on the ballot, I mean, I think things could happen. I saw Rick Perry just came out in favor of John Cornyn, was in the last day or two, which says to me the Republicans are. The party's a little worried about Ken Paxton and how Texas is shaping up. Any thoughts?
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Julian Castro
Well, I mean, there's no question that, that 2026, especially that Senate race.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Julian Castro
People believe that probably Ken Paxton is going to emerge as the nominee over John Cornyn, if that happens. Absolutely. That's an opportunity. Folks will remember that in the first midterm that Trump faced in his first term, 2018, Beto O' Rourke got within about three points of Ted Cruz. That was the high water mark for Democrats for the last couple of decades. I believe that we're headed toward a 2026 where it's going to be another tsunami. And so that Democratic nominee will have a chance, more of a chance than you usually see. So these days, it's the other Castro brother, Joaquin, that is.
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Jim Acosta
I hear about that.
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Yep.
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I know, I know that guy.
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Julian Castro
Race or do something else. I mean, I, I wouldn't say never, Jim, but right now, you know, I'm focused on the work that I'm doing. And like everybody else watching TV at night or watching something on, you know, Instagram or Tick Tock, you get worked up and think, you know, oh, I need to be. But that's unlikely right now. I wouldn't say never, but, but just not right now.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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And what do you, what, what is on your mind when you hear people worry about, you know, Trump, you know, trying to seize power and, and stay in power, you know, not allow, you know, the midterms to take place. Normally we see midterms take place in this country or somehow try to pull a fast one with the 2028 elections. I mean, when people are basically saying he's trying to install a dictatorship in this country. And there are times when I think he is, he is trying to do something along those lines. What, what's on your mind when you hear that kind of talk? Is that overheated in your view, or do you think that. No, there's some real warning signs, real dangerous warning signs.
- [25:49]
Juliette Jeske
Yeah.
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Julian Castro
I mean, I think like a lot of us. Right. You don't want to believe that. You don't want to believe that, that we could have a president who is taking us into authoritarianism. And so there's, at least for me, this natural cautiousness about that. But I don't think anybody can look at what he's done. For instance, just last week with firing the BLS statistician because she came out with numbers, job numbers that he didn't like, and then accuses her of being a Biden. You know, basically lackey makes up these BS excuses for moves that an authoritarian would make. So I absolutely believe that he's making moves that are consistent with somebody trying to slide our democracy into an authoritarian system. Now, how far he's willing to go and how far Republicans who control everything right now are willing to let him go, I think is an open question. But I'm not encouraged because none of them have had the guts really to stand up to him and to stop that. If President Obama or just about any other president had done with the BLS statistician what Trump did, Republicans would have been up in arms and they would have sounded the alarm about an abuse of power. You didn't hear a peep from these guys. You know, every now and then one or two will say something, but to me, and you know, Vice President Harris addressed this the other night in her interview, I think, with Stephen Colbert. It's the capitulation.
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Jim Acosta
Yes.
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Julian Castro
Combination with a guy who was so power hungry and it's all about him and his ego. Those two things do not serve our democracy well. And if they go on long enough, it will lead to, you know, some sort of collapse of our democracy.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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And I wonder, you know, I don't want to hold you up too long, but to kind of wrap things up, I do wonder about tactics and whether Democrats are being tough enough and playing hardball enough. I'm just trying to. When you mentioned President Obama, can you imagine, can you imagine if there are reports that President Obama's name was in the Epstein files and that his administration and folks like you are trying to keep it under wraps that President Obama's in the Epstein files? I mean, can you imagine that? And I mean, to me, if that were the case, I would think that there would be a whole slew of Democratic politicians who would say, you know what, we need to release these files and get that kind of information out there. But when the shoe's on the other foot, there just aren't that many profiles encouraged. They're just not willing to go out there and say it Publicly, I think Comer with the Oversight Committee had to, you know, put that subpoena out there because there was a subcommittee that voted for this. But there are just very few Republicans who are willing to say it out loud publicly that this needs to happen.
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Julian Castro
Yeah, I mean, they're. They've acted like political cowards. They've been more concerned about getting a primary challenge and losing, losing their job than they have been about upholding the rule of law, about upholding the separation of powers, doing their job as congressional representatives, and providing accountability and a check on the executive, on Donald Trump. This is a failure. And I'm convinced that the history books are going to see it as a moment of shame for these Republican representatives. And they're going to have to explain in years to come why they utterly failed in this moment while he was trampling over, you know, law after law, sliding us into authoritarianism, getting away with things that, as you say, you'd never imagine another president getting away with. And for what? I still think this guy's going to be gone from the presidency in a couple of years. And then I think you're going to get some of these people that pretend like they never went along for that ride, and then they're going to start calling for accountability again in the next probably Democratic president and show their true, you know, hypocrisy one more time. It just, it's beyond disappointing, and I think it's dangerous ultimately for our democracy.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. No question about it. You need to have profiles encouraged from both political parties these days. And we're just not seeing it out of the Republicans right now. They're just thinking about their own self interest, that next election, that next primary, and so on. Julian Castro. It was a quick 30 minutes that went by fast. Thank you for doing it. Great to catch up. Good to see you.
- [30:36]
Julian Castro
Always good to see you, Jim. Take care.
- [30:38]
Jim Acosta
All right, you as well. Thanks a lot. That's Julian Castro, former HUD secretary, former Democratic presidential candidate. I've known Julian and his brother for some time now, and it wasn't that long ago, remember when they gave that famous joint speech at the Democratic Convention. And Julian, I think Julian has told some hard truths over the years and hasn't always gotten the credit that he deserves for doing that. So I really appreciate his time. Thanks for coming on the program. I want to go next to Juliet Jeske. You may not know the name, but you might know her social media account Decoding Fox News. It's a very famous social media account on all the platforms. Juliet, great to see you. Thanks for coming on.
- [31:24]
Juliette Jeske
Thanks for having me.
- [31:25]
Jim Acosta
I mean, I, you know, listen, I've been a big fan of your work for, for quite some time now because I've been saying this, you know, I, you know, I used to call Fox the bullshit factory on my old show. And I mean, it is, it is a bullshit factory. It has been for quite some time. Sean Hannity is full of shit. I mean, there's, I mean, there's just a whole slew. Jesse Waters, you know, carries Donald Trump's water. I mean, that's what he does over at Fox. And it's a joke that they, you know, proclaim to be a news network when there are very few people who do actual news. There's. There are a few, but. But in the anchor seat, not a whole lot. And you've been so great, Juliet, at tabulating and going through and watching. Doing the Lord' is the best way of describing it, watching these segments on Fox. And the reason why I wanted to bring you on is because you recently analyzed what, over a thousand minutes of Fox News coverage, including some of their biggest shows, to see are they covering the Epstein files and I guess, you know, tell us what you found out.
- [32:29]
Juliette Jeske
Well, I wanted to check what they were doing because I normally cover 15 hours a week on average, sometimes 20, and I went ahead and did 25. So I got all of the prime time. I got Hannity, Jesse Waters primetime, and the Ingram angle because I felt like I was leaving something out for my readers and listeners because they have a podcast and a newsletter because there was nothing on Epstein. And I thought, you know what? I should triple check. So I'll get all of primetime instead of just one show because I rotate primetime shows. And there was just nothing, Just absolutely nothing. A thousand minutes is roughly when you take the commercials out. 25 hours of Fox News. 25 hours of Fox News. I found like a handful of references, and they were all kind of nonsense.
- [33:15]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [33:16]
Juliette Jeske
One was Eric Swalwell in a video that he made.
- [33:19]
Jim Acosta
Oh, right, I saw.
- [33:21]
Juliette Jeske
Okay, now I think working out. And he, he mentions at the very end, and I'm surprised they didn't clip it. He goes, you're not talking about Epstein. And I'm like, they kept it on air. And I was like, oh, my God, I can't even believe they didn't. They didn't edit that right out. Because why, you know, that counts as.
- [33:36]
Jim Acosta
A reference, I think.
- [33:36]
Juliette Jeske
Yeah, reference.
- [33:38]
Jim Acosta
So we did pull that clip, and I do want to play it because you're absolutely right. It's, it's stunning because it's not like they overtly did like let's do it Epstein segment to talk about this and stuff. It's sort of oblique references that come out here and there. Let's watch and talk about on the other side.
- [33:52]
Juliette Jeske
Okay.
- [33:52]
Should be doing Laura is hiring a writer.
- [33:55]
Jim Acosta
He next staged the very same monologue and at a ball field and then a gym. I should be working right now.
- [34:04]
Julian Castro
I should be at the Capitol. I should be in a suit instead.
- [34:09]
F
Republicans sent us home because they would.
- [34:12]
Jim Acosta
Rather stand up for Donald Trump than.
- [34:14]
Julian Castro
Release the Epstein files.
- [34:17]
Jim Acosta
And you have a great example today in that all the last few weeks it's been Epstein, Epstein, Epstein on all of these legacy media stations talking endlessly and it's having a little effect on the President's numbers, to be honest with you. But all they talk about is Epstein.
- [34:31]
F
And so they could lie and really get some, some sort of edge on Republicans who are just being honest about what's in this bill. But they're choosing instead to do stupid stunts like this and talk about Epstein. As much as people maybe care about it, who are watching right now, I care about it. But the average American, they don't really care all that much about that particular issue in comparison to everything else that's actually impacting their lives.
- [34:53]
G
Convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum security prison in Texas. This comes as her attorneys are seeking a pardon from President Trump. Maxwell recently spoke with the Deputy Attorney General, part of an effort by the Trump administration to fight backlash over the Epstein files. Maxwell is serving a 20 year prison sentence.
- [35:18]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I'm kind of wondering what is that last clip? Was that like on at three in the morning or something?
- [35:23]
Juliette Jeske
No, what they did, what they did. This is a unique thing that I, I don't know if it's Rupert because I know he's sort of feuding with Trump right now.
- [35:32]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [35:32]
Juliette Jeske
But one of the tricks that they do to slip in stuff that they don't want to put on air that was during a pre taped episode of Hannity. And I can always tell. Oh, he, he pre tapes all the time. On a Friday? Are you kidding? Because he'll say special edition, they'll put that on there. And I believe he wasn't hosting, if I remember correctly. I think it was Brian Kilmeade that night, but I can't remember. But it was definitely a pre tape show. Because they always include these news breaks that are like 30 seconds long, maybe 45 seconds long in the middle of the show. Awkwardly, they just stick them in there and that's like the sign. This is a pre taped show. And that was just stuck in there and so nobody could control it. They just played it and then they, they've done that, they've done that before with like bad polling numbers. Yes, Trump's not polling well. 30 seconds gone. And then another time they did it. That was very funny. Was one big beautiful bill. I couldn't believe I caught this. It was another quick 30 second nonsense news break clip where they said there'll be Medicaid cuts. And I was like, whoa. When they described the one, they said, oh, the one big beautiful bill just got signed by Trump. And then they said it will include cuts to Medicaid. And I went, they actually admitted that on air. But that's how they did it. Yeah, that way they can say they admitted it.
- [36:48]
Jim Acosta
Well, and I was going to say in a couple of those clips that you, you strung together there, which, I mean, it looked like maybe four references or five references, something like that. A couple of them were basically, you know, pundits coming on, talking heads coming on to sort of analyze Trump's poll numbers and how they've been impacted by it and sort of to, to lament, you know, the coverage and the way that it's affected Trump's poll numbers, which is not really like covering the Epstein case and the Epstein cover up. I mean, it's sort of, it's sort of too cute by halfway of saying, well, we addressed it, we see, we did a segment right there. What are you talking about? And what I did notice is that you also pulled together some clips and people should just go look at your accounts decoding Fox News on all the various platforms. You were looking at what they used to say before Trump got into office and they were very, they were very, you know, enthusiastic about releasing the Epstein files and so on.
- [37:42]
Juliette Jeske
I hadn't clipped for Epstein because it felt like it was just another conspiracy theory that they were pushing. I knew about it and what happened was the first week they ignored it. I was really bothered by the fact that I again, I thought, what? You know, I don't want to disappoint my, my supporters who are going to be like, what? Because the same thing happened with Dominion. People kept saying, what are they saying about Dominion? I said absolutely nothing. You know, as they lost that case and paid this huge settlement to dominion, voters paid $787.5 million to Dominion Voting systems, if you don't know already. And people kept asking me, what, what are they saying? I said, absolutely nothing. That's. I have nothing to give you. So what I did is I went through, I started decoding Fox News February 2022. I went through all of my transcripts. I save entire episodes. And I said, epstein, boom. Where does it pop up? I made a spreadsheet and then I systematically went through every single episode, put it in Premiere Pro, made a transcript, found the clip, pulled it, and then made this monster sized Twitter thread. That's 18. It's the biggest one I've ever made. 18 videos. It is huge. I'm gonna do something with it on YouTube later tonight. But it's, it's eight. I just made a podcast version of it. It's 18 videos and it's based. I did it by subject of like, this used to be an incredibly important story on Fox News.
- [39:02]
Jim Acosta
Huge, huge.
- [39:03]
Juliette Jeske
Very important. And they would kept changing their target. One minute it was Bill Gates, then they're like, it's Dick Durbin. He's the one holding this from the American public. And then it's always been Bill Clinton. Always, always Bill Clinton. Yeah, they'll just pick a new person and say, well, this is what it's about. And, and I'm just sitting back going, okay, I guess it's not that important now. So that was kind of fun to go through to sort of see what they were saying about it. Just like, just a couple months ago, before it all kind of fell apart on them with Pam Bondi shenanigans, you know, the whole. I still find it very, very humorous that she, that she released phase one in these big, giant white binders.
- [39:44]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [39:45]
Juliette Jeske
And she hadn't, like, read through it or like knew that it was already previously published.
- [39:50]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, they sort of gave them the table of contents or something or the glossary. I, I don't. They didn't quite give them what they were hoping for because it was like the DC Drano guy was holding it up and they acted like they had just like won an Oscar or something. Yeah, you know, I, but let me ask you this because, you know why I do want to ask you, like, why did you decide to embark on this endeavor? Somebody just chimed in and said, you really are doing the Lord's work. I mean, it is for folks, for folks out there who are religious. I mean, it does seem that way, but it is a public service, more to the point, because I, you know, and I, I say this people. I say, oh, that's hyperbole. And so on. I think Fox does act like a propaganda. A propaganda arm for Donald Trump. It is Trump State tv. And years from now, we're going to look back and say, that's what this is.
- [40:38]
Juliette Jeske
Yeah. I was. I have a kind of a crazy story of how I fell into journalism. I had been an artist and a performer for years and years and years. And then I sort of stumbled on the Proud Boys before a lot of people knew who they were. And I started capturing the Gavin McGinnis show, which is where the Proud Boys were formed.
- [40:54]
Jim Acosta
Oh, yeah.
- [40:55]
Juliette Jeske
And this was a streaming show. And I started working with. The only other people that were paying attention were the journalists who were covering extremism. And it's a long story of how I got into it, but I got fascinated. I couldn't stop watching. I now have 407 episodes of the Gavin McInnes show on a hard drive. Gone through all of them, cut them up. And I did. I gave some stuff to the FBI. They were kind of useless. They're just like, oh, thank you. I'm like, this is a scary group. Yeah, thank you.
- [41:23]
Jim Acosta
And I'm like, pay attention to this. Right?
- [41:25]
Juliette Jeske
Yeah, you might want to.
- [41:26]
Jim Acosta
I don't know.
- [41:27]
Juliette Jeske
And then I started working with journalists and I found them to be far more like they could do stuff with it. And long story short, because it's already a long story, but I ended up deciding to go to grad school as a. A older student. And I went to grad school. And when I was in grad school, we do these things called a capstone, which is like a thesis. And I basically created decoding. Fox News only wasn't about Fox, it was about right wing media. So I did Nick Fuentes, Oan and Tucker Carlson. Jeff Jarvis, who founded Entertainment Weekly, was a professor at my school, not my teacher, didn't really know him. He knew I was doing this, got all excited about it and I was throwing everything I had into it because I thought, well, this is the only time I'll get to make my own project. This will be fun.
- [42:11]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [42:11]
Juliette Jeske
And he immediately upon Getting it within 48 hours is like, I'm going to give you a grant if you do this about Fox. Will you do this about Fox? I'm like, let's do this. And he helped me shape it. And then the Grant turned into 100% income from subscribers and supporters through Substack and Patreon.
- [42:28]
Jim Acosta
Wow.
- [42:29]
Juliette Jeske
And yeah, it took 18 months to get to that point. But I'm 100% supported from just regular people. It's, it's a, it's a roller coaster. It's not easy, but it's, and you know, I was self employed before I went to grad school, so I'm used to that part, the tax and all that paying for your own stuff.
- [42:45]
Jim Acosta
And so this is an example, I mean, I, and I talk about this where subscribing does support independent media. It's not just chucking five bucks out the window or ten bucks out the window. It's going to what you do. And this is very important what you do. And is your sense of it that Fox. Because this is my sense of it. They've gotten progressively more pro Trump as the years have gone on. And it's almost, it's really just like out in the open now.
- [43:15]
Juliette Jeske
It used to be more subtle even three years ago. And Tucker Carlson, which. This didn't surprise me at all when it came out in the Dominion. A court document said he didn't like Trump. I was like, yeah, that was kind of obvious. Like he would, he was, you could tell he was sort of phoning that in.
- [43:31]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [43:32]
Juliette Jeske
See the resentment. I think he would have been happier with another candidate. But Fox figured out they make more money if they just are all on board MAGA cult kind of mentality. And by the time he was inaugurated, it was just, I watched, I captured and went through the entire inauguration, which was five and a half hours. And that was brutal. I compare everything to PBS every week as my control. PBS being like solid gold standard journalism.
- [44:03]
Jim Acosta
Yes.
- [44:04]
Juliette Jeske
I watched it on both networks and by the time they went through the inauguration, they would cut back to people on Fox and they're like, isn't this glorious? I mean, it was just off the scale. And they would say things like, hannity's done this. They've done this on other shows. They just literally turn to the camera and I'm like, how can you call yourself news? They turn to the camera and they're like, we want to thank you for voting for Donald J. Trump. And I'm like, what? And then criticize other media. And like, I know Hannity is not an Acosta fan. He's got, he went, he's, oh, yeah.
- [44:38]
Jim Acosta
He hates my ass. That's for sure.
- [44:40]
Juliette Jeske
I kind of love it because to me, it's like somebody that horrible loves you, hates you. It's like, well, you know, I'm okay, man.
- [44:47]
Jim Acosta
By his enemies, I guess. Yeah, yeah, that's bad boys hate me.
- [44:50]
Juliette Jeske
So I'm very Happy with, you know.
- [44:52]
Jim Acosta
Well, I mean, and to me, like, they sort of gave away the plot years ago. I mean, I remember covering Hannity at Trump rallies. He would be at Trump rallies, sort of like host a show right there on the spot. And I'm thinking to myself, and Laura Ingram used to show up at White House events, not in the press area like we, the rest of us were. She would be sitting with the various dignitaries that Donald Trump would bring in, if you want to call them dignitaries. And she was just like part of the, part of the crew.
- [45:21]
Juliette Jeske
Yeah.
- [45:21]
Jim Acosta
You know, part of the gang. There.
- [45:22]
Juliette Jeske
There's no line. There's.
- [45:24]
Jim Acosta
There's no line. It's wild. And then after, I mean, I don't know how much, and forgive me for going on the tangent here, but I don't know how much you watched between the election and January 6th and then after January 6th. But that was a fascinating period to watch Fox as well, because, you know, they were sort of all in on, you know, Dominion and all this stuff. And then when January 6th happened, it was like they, they didn't know what to do with themselves. They kind of snapped back to reality a little bit. And then the ratings started to go down. Newsmax started to go up. It's been fascinating to see how all of this has unfolded.
- [46:01]
Juliette Jeske
I was in grad school during January 6th. I went to. I'll give them a plug. I would love to give my school a plug. Craig Newmark, graduate School of Journalism at CUNY City College here in New York. Great school. I'm a big fan. But I was in grad school and watched all of January six on my phone. I was bizarre. It was on Twitter. And I just was horrified the whole time, just going, you've got to be. What? And then how, what's been interesting is I have seen since I started the project how they've changed it more from, well, January 6th was kind of misunderstood to January 6th was perfectly fine. How dare you. Like, it's bizarre. Like, the only person that's speaks Truth about January 6th is like Jessica Tarloff. That's it.
- [46:44]
Jim Acosta
Like, true.
- [46:45]
Juliette Jeske
Else they just are all in at. Sometimes it's kind of sad. Steve Doocy, sort of semi retired now. He's only part time on Fox and Friends. And he was the one voice on Fox and Friends who would just go rogue all the time.
- [46:59]
Jim Acosta
Every once in a while he would. That's exactly right.
- [47:01]
Juliette Jeske
And I don't, I don't know what's going on there. I don't know if he was Told to do it or if he's just spontaneously, like, rebelling. But that was always glorious to see. My. It was always very, very popular with my following when Steve Ducey went off the rails and would say something that was, like, shocking because.
- [47:19]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [47:19]
Juliette Jeske
Basically speak the truth and they were, like, breaking character. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure.
- [47:25]
Jim Acosta
It's so true. It's so true. And then you have people like, who's this Will Kane guy? You know, they. They couldn't stand Cavuto. Trump couldn't stand Cavut Cavuto.
- [47:33]
Juliette Jeske
So the best guy on the Pro Kabuto was the only journalist.
- [47:36]
Jim Acosta
He was the only one there who had kind of gave you kind of business news and stuff, like. And then Shep Smith before that, they. They couldn't handle Shep. You know, Shep wouldn't do the. The. That they would do. And so they, you know, and just one by one, and it's. It's interesting to see what's happening now. One by one, prominent critics of Trump are. Are getting booted out of their corporate media jobs that, you know, people like Stephen Colbert and so on that we've seen over the last six months. But, Juliet, great work. I mean, it's great stuff. And so where can everybody find you? I know it's the decoding Fox News account that's on all the socials, but you mentioned you have a podcast and YouTube.
- [48:14]
Juliette Jeske
I'm on substack here with Acosta, of course, Jim Acosta, and many others. You can find me on YouTube. And my podcast is available pretty much on every podcast platform except for Amazon, because they're weird. I just find them kind of a difficult company. But every. I'm Spotify, Apple podcasts, all the. All the fun ones they just published today, so.
- [48:35]
Julian Castro
Great.
- [48:35]
Jim Acosta
Well, Juliet, it's. It's great work. I hope we can do this again. You know, keep it coming. And I just. I just really enjoy what you do. And thanks for what you do. Really appreciate it.
- [48:46]
Juliette Jeske
Thanks so much. Thanks so much.
- [48:47]
Jim Acosta
All right, Good to see you. That's Julia Jeske. And if you have not. I mean, I'm telling you right now, if you have not looked at what she does, you definitely need to check it out on all of those different platforms. And, And I think what Juliet was saying during the middle of the conversation there about how, you know, when you subscribe to her work, it actually helps pay for what she does. I mean, it's not easy to just sit there and watch 25 Hours of Fox, as she was saying. A thousand minutes of Fox to come up with four or five clips. And so, I mean, that's a perfect example right there. Where, and you know, there are a lot of fine people on, on this platform and other independent media platforms where if you, if you subscribe, you're, you're supporting the work. And, and so definitely, if you, if you can, if you can do it. I know there's some people who chime in and tell me from time to time, I just can't afford it. You know, that's, that's why I do this show for free. You know, you could watch this show for free on Substack, you could watch it for free on YouTube for folks who are paid subscribers. You get to enter the chat and have enhanced features. But, you know, I, I, I think there's a, there's a, there's something to making this a public service. And so I hope, I hope folks out there go and check out Juliet work. Juliet's work is terrific work. But I, I do want to just wrap up by saying, by, you know, asking the folks over at Fox, you know, Fox, I don't know what it is. It's sort of like that mean girls gif that you see from time to time, why are you so obsessed with me, Fox, again, covering what I do on my show on their network? From time to time, I have to ask the question, where do I send the check? But, you know, the reason, one of the reasons why I wanted to bring on Juliet and, and one of the reasons why I'm making these closing comments that I'm making right now is to really ask the question, you know, is it that important to cover what I do on this show or is it, is it more important to cover what Donald Trump is, is doing with the Epstein files? If you just look at Juliet's work, we talked about this on the show time and again. The main anchors of Fox were calling for the release of the Epstein files. They were calling for justice in the scandal of Jeffrey Epstein. And all of a sudden they've clammed up. As Juliet noted in her decoding Fox News substack and all the other places where she does her work. She analyzed 10:33.5 minutes of Fox News about 25 hours, including Fox and Friends, the Five, the Ingram Engel, Jesse Waters, Primetime and Hannity. And she put together a montage of four or five clips that contained the only references to Jeffrey Epstein on the shows that she was covering. The network, she says, largely ignored the scandal. Why am I bringing this up? It's very important because if Fox were actually reporting on what's going on right now, there would be more coverage of it and more coverage of what's going on with Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump's efforts to cover up the Epstein files and his role in, in whatever is detailed in the Epstein files, more people around the country would see what's going on. Fox, by and large, is the most successful cable news network in the country. Most watched cable news network in the country. People watch it all the time. But my goodness, what are you going to do 5, 10, 15 years from now when we finally know the truth, hopefully, as to what Trump's role was with Jeffrey Epstein? And Fox wasn't covering it. Fox wasn't covering it. You know, I, I, I, I tell you, you know, it's not an exaggeration to say that Fox News is Trump state television. Fox News is essentially what state media dishes out in authoritarian countries all around the world. And I shouldn't say, I shouldn't even say Fox News because as, as I've said many times, it's not, it's not a news network. It's a factory. It's a factory. And there was a, there was a time on my old show where I awarded Tucker Carlson the employee of the month over at the factory and he's no longer there. So, I mean, there's some serious contenders for the factory employee of the month. Is it Jesse Waters? I mean, you know, one has to think he's, he's up there. Is it Sean Hannity? Sean Hannity's constantly, it's constantly clean up on aisle six for Donald Trump on Sean Hannity. You know, they should call him the janitor. He's always cleaning up after Donald Trump's messes. Is it the Ingram angle? Is it, I mean, this new guy, Will Kane, he's the upstart over there. You know, he elbowed Neil Cavuto out of the way because they said over at Fox, they said we need one more propagandist over here who's up for the challenge. And Neil Cavuto said, you know what? That's it. You know, I think I'm out of here. Will Kane said, I'll do it. Pick me, pick me. And it, it, you just have to wonder. You just have to wonder. And, and I, I, I will say I, I, I kind of thought it was sort of incredible when the Wall Street Journal was putting out the reporting they were putting on the Epstein files, the, the birthday book and so on. And for a Rupert Murdoch owned company, I Thought, okay, this is interesting. Here we go. Wouldn't it be great if Rupert or Lachlan were to call down to the headquarters at Fox and say, you know what, we'd like to put some Wall Street Journal reporters on your, on your show, on one of your shows so we can cover this. You know what's going on over there over at Fox. It's now the Jeffrey Epstein cover up network. Is that what Fox has become? The Epstein no files? The Epstein no mentions Cover ups are us? It sure seems like it. And so you know, I asked Sean Hannity, I asked what's his name, Will Kane, I ask Jesse and Laura and the whole gang over there, wasn't it enough that your names showed up time and again in that Dominion case, Wasn't it enough that you carried Donald Trump's water as he tried to overturn an election in this country? And now you're doing it again. Now you're doing it again as the, as the public is clamoring for the truth behind the Epstein files. And why, Donald, why is he so eager to cover up the Epstein files? We don't know what that is. We sure would like to know what's going on there. Why are you, Sean and Jesse and Will and Laura and why are all those folks over there so eager to do Donald Trump's dirty work time and again? It's a good question to ask at the end of this program and I just want to thank everybody for watching. My thanks to Julian Castro, my thanks to Julia Jeske again. Check out decoding Fox News. It's, it's a, it's a real public service that, that she's doing over there, uncovering what's going on inside the bullshit factory. But for now, thanks everybody for watching. Really appreciate it. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening, everybody. Good night.