Tara Palmeri on New Epstein Victim Memoir Plus Joe Walsh on Trump Demolishing the White House

Summary

The Jim Acosta Show

Episode: Tara Palmeri on New Epstein Victim Memoir Plus Joe Walsh on Trump Demolishing the White House
Date: October 21, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Jim Acosta Show explores two major stories shaking the U.S.:

1. The Impact of Virginia Giuffre's Posthumous Memoir, "Nobody's Girl"—with deep insights from journalist Tara Palmeri, who shares her close work with Giuffre and the wider implications for justice and truth in the Epstein case.
2. The Controversy Around Trump's White House Demolition for a New Ballroom—with former Congressman Joe Walsh expressing both emotional and political outrage over the ongoing architectural and democratic destruction under Trump.

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Main Theme

Jim Acosta’s call to "hold on to the truth" is woven throughout, centering survivor stories, demanding transparency in government, and spotlighting the battle to protect democratic institutions—both physically and morally.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Virginia Giuffre's Memoir and the Ongoing Impact of the Epstein Scandal

With Tara Palmeri [00:00–22:16]

a. Historical Context and the Memoir’s Reception

• Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl, was published posthumously and is already shaking public consciousness.
• Palmeri is both a named character in the memoir and a long-time investigative journalist in this story, previously working with Giuffre on the "Broken" podcast.

b. The Harrowing Life and Legacy of Virginia Giuffre

• Giuffre suffered abuse from a very young age—by her own father, then living on the streets, before being trafficked by Ghislaine Maxwell at age 11 after being spotted at Mar-A-Lago.
• Palmeri stresses the systemic failures that allowed Virginia’s abuse: “She was a person who never had anyone protect her in her life… from birth, really. She was abandoned. She was nobody’s girl.” [04:51]
• The book details the emotional toll and the challenge of validation, rather than simply seeking legal evidence.

“Would I have been thrilled if [Adam Perry] Lang handed over incontrovertible evidence of wrongdoing? Sure. But I wasn't really expecting that. Mostly what I wanted was validation.”
— Tara Palmeri, recounting Giuffre’s words [03:10]

• The trauma and PTSD from her life was profound; Palmeri denounces posthumous conspiracy theories about Giuffre’s death, emphasizing the overwhelming impact of lifelong abuse.

c. Systemic Injustice and Societal Complicity

• The culture of powerful men versus the credibility of vulnerable women is explored through the lens of former sex crimes prosecutor Deborah Turkheimer’s insights:

“There is a credibility deficit that women, particularly vulnerable women, have when they tell their stories. And there's a credibility inflation that very powerful men have…”
— Tara Palmeri [09:30]

• This dynamic revictimizes survivors and allows abusers to remain protected.

d. The Hope for Justice — Release of the Epstein Files

• Legislative progress is being made: House Speaker Mike Johnson is allowing a floor vote to release the Epstein files, a move long demanded by advocates.
• Palmeri is cautiously optimistic, but worries about potential redactions and the power that remains in executive and legislative hands.

e. The Memoir's Emotional Fallout and Broader Message

• Acosta and Palmeri discuss whether the book is too painful for some readers, but agree it brings needed humanity and understanding to the issue of sex trafficking, moving the public focus from “wealth porn” and tabloid intrigue to the true lives and pain of survivors.
• Palmeri shares a quote Giuffre leaned on:

“Life is not a private affair. A story and its lessons are only made useful if shared.”
— Dan Millman, cited by Palmeri [18:17]

f. Notable, Emotional Moments

• Palmeri reveals how telling her story repeatedly retraumatized Giuffre but that she considered it a “moral obligation” after the world finally listened post-Epstein arrest.
• Details emerge that Giuffre considered Epstein and Maxwell as “paternal” figures because of her desperate search for attachment—a heartbreaking but revealing insight. Eventually, her desire to protect a potential child from abuse motivated her escape.

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2. Trump’s White House Demolition for a “Gaudy” Ballroom

With Joe Walsh [22:16–47:30]

a. The White House Alteration — Symbolism and Outrage

• Live reporting from Acosta: Trump is actively demolishing parts of the White House’s East Wing to construct a $250 million, privately funded ballroom, closing public access and hiding the work behind fencing.
• Both Acosta and Walsh liken the destruction to emotional blows akin to January 6th—a physical and spiritual violation of “the people’s house.”

“There is now a giant hole in the side of the White House to go along with the giant hole inside the White House.”
— Jim Acosta [27:24]

b. Historic Preservation and Responsibility Ignored

• Trump “blows right through” established historic preservation processes via the National Park Service.
• Acosta and Walsh doubt the claim that taxpayers won’t foot part of the bill, given historic underestimations of cost in public projects.

c. The Public’s Reaction and the Next Steps

• The public and even federal employees are discouraged from photographing or talking about the demolition.
• Walsh offers a solution: the next President should bulldoze the ballroom and invite Americans to take part in restoring the White House.

“My first act as President, I’m going to take a fucking bulldozer to that ballroom.”
— Joe Walsh [32:14]

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this ballroom.”
— Jim Acosta, riffing off Reagan’s famous Berlin Wall speech [33:00]

d. The “Extremist Makeover” and the Dismantling of Norms

• Both speakers tie the destruction of the White House to broader abuses of power, from the pardoning of January 6 insurrectionists (including one who reportedly threatened Rep. Hakeem Jeffries) to the GOP’s open attempts at gerrymandering and election subversion.

e. The Silence and Complicity of the Republican Party

• Both repeatedly highlight Republican enablers who remain silent, allowing Trump’s behavior to go unchecked and, in their view, dangerous to the future of democracy.

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3. The Slide Toward Authoritarianism and Extremism in the GOP

With Joe Walsh [Throughout the segment]

• Walsh, a former Republican, addresses the party’s shift from managing its radical elements to actively embracing bigotry and authoritarianism.
• The episode unpacks GOP messaging about left-wing violence, with Walsh and Acosta pointing out that, in fact, right-wing violence has been far more prevalent in recent decades.

“Most of the political violence in this country is right-wing violence. But we condemn it all.”
— Joe Walsh [37:12]

• Discussion of bigoted, racist, and Holocaust-denying rhetoric now surfacing among young Republican leaders and recent appointees.

Notable Quotes:

“Trump has brought everything out from underneath that rock. What was once private, ugly, racist shit that people said—this is what's scary, Jim—so many of these people now are saying this stuff publicly.”
— Joe Walsh [41:26]

“This building belongs to all of us.”
— Jim Acosta [34:17]
(Referencing bipartisan public anger at the White House demolition)

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Memorable Moments with Timestamps

• [03:10] Tara Palmeri on the emotional motivations behind confronting Epstein’s co-conspirators.
• [09:30] Palmeri describes Deborah Turkheimer’s "credibility deficit" versus "credibility inflation" concept regarding abuse accusations.
• [11:23] Palmeri describes speaking with Giuffre prior to her death and the depths of her suffering.
• [14:10] Palmeri: “This is just like the tip of the iceberg” regarding what’s yet to emerge from the Epstein files.
• [18:17] Palmeri reads an inspiring quote from Dan Millman about the power of sharing one's story.
• [27:24] Acosta reporting live on the literal hole being torn into the White House.
• [32:14] Joe Walsh: “My first act as President…I’m going to take a fucking bulldozer to that ballroom.”
• [33:00] Acosta: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this ballroom.”
• [41:26] Walsh on the mainstreaming of racism and extremism in today's GOP.
• [46:41] Acosta: “He’s kind of a dick.” (referring to Senator Mike Lee, in frustration over his transformation and complicity)

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Takeaways & Final Thoughts

• The urgency of transparency and justice: Both guest segments stress that the truth must come out—about Epstein’s crimes and about abuses of presidential power.
• The memoir as a humanizing force: Giuffre’s memoir re-centers the human cost of systemic abuse and challenges popular narratives, aiming to enact societal change.
• Alert for democracy: The White House demolition serves as a symbol for the ongoing threatened state of American democracy and civic norms.
• Call to Action for Leaders: The episode ends with a rallying cry for public engagement and political leaders to resist the destruction—both literal and figurative—unfolding before the nation.

“The truth has to come out. No question about it.”
— Jim Acosta [22:09]

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For Listeners: Why This Episode Matters

Whether you’re concerned about justice for abuse survivors or the protection of democratic institutions, this episode of The Jim Acosta Show delivers a passionate, clear-eyed argument for vigilance, compassion, and action. The guests’ personal experiences and insider perspectives provide both emotional weight and nuanced understanding to two of today's most critical issues.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign welcome to the Jim Acosta show, where it's another day that ends in Y and Donald Trump's cover up of Epstein Gate. But the files may be on their way to being released. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he won't block a vote to release the files and that there will be a floor vote on the bipartisan bill to do just that. Meanwhile, one of Epstein's victims, the late Virginia Giuffre, her memoir Nobody's Girl, hit bookstore bookshelves today, I should say here to talk about that is Tara Paul. Mary, who writes the red letters substack. Tara, great to see you. And you've been following this diligently. You've been working on the Epstein scandal for so long. And Virginia mentions you in this book, in this memoir, Nobody's Girl. And you write about this in your red letter substack. A column of Virginia Giuffre's memoir, Nobody's Girl, hit bookshelves today and the early passengers are already shaking the world. I'm beyond thrilled that she's finally having the impact she's always deserved. Once dismissed as a teen prostitute and a liar, now recognized as the warrior she always was by my heart drops knowing that this moment had come in her death. I saw that fire in her up close. We traveled across the country together, knocking on the doors of people who had worked for Jeffrey Epstein. It took enormous courage to face them, to relive her trauma. Not to blame, but defy meaning. She wanted to hear someone say, yes, Virginia, I remember you. I see you now. Tara, let's talk about this. And, and I mean, you're, you, you play a role in, in her journey.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not, you know, only a part of it. I'm. Her life story is incredible. She is, it's a really eloquent story and it's just, it's incredibly sad story, horrific what she went through, but starting at a very young age. She writes that she was abused by her own father. She was trafficked by 11 living on the street, homeless, trying to clean up her life. And that's when Glenn Maxwell spotted her at Mar A Lago and recruited her. But yeah, in the, at the end of, towards the end of the book, she writes about the journey that we took together. This was in the chapter called Unbroken. The name of our podcast was Broken Jeffrey Epstein. And it was, you know, about trying to put together the pieces of her life and she said that she really loved the team and the power, I can tell you. Let me pull up the. She loved, she was impressed by the team's firepower and she liked that. I didn't give two shakes about Epstein, only the women he'd hurt. And in fact, if you see the COVID art for Broken, we actually put an X over Epstein's face because I was like, I don't really care about this guy. There, there's like a fetish over this person. The wealth porn, the spy porn, you know, porn of it all. And I was like, what about all the girls, the thousand women whose lives he's ruined? And so we went and retraced the steps of her life in a lot of ways through trying to find these, these people who could corroborate the abuse that she experienced. Because for so long she was just dismissed for, for decades. And she wrote about the journey and the places that we went. And there was, you know, we tried to speak to the, the chef Adam Perry Lang, who's now a celebrity chef who had a restaurant on West Hollywood that we went to to, to deliver a note to him. And you know, he was on Oprah and he was Jimmy Kimmel's best friend and he has this book about how to barbecue and he says that he learned how to barbecue on a wealthy client's ranch, Oro Ranch in New Mexico. It's all over the flight logs. And she writes, of course I hope that he might have information that could help me hold Epstein's co conspirators accountable. But also on a purely emotional level, I just wanted to hear Lang confirm my experience. He could have said something as simple as, I saw what happened to you because I was there and that would have helped me heal. Would I have been thrilled if he handed over incontrovertible evidence of wrongdoing? Sure. But I wasn't really expecting that. Mostly what I wanted was validation. Clearly though, I was going to get that. I wasn't going to get that from Lang. And basically every door was slammed in our face. The, the, you know, phone calls were, were just hang ups. And at one point one of this woman who she was trafficked to as well yelled at her and told her that she was the reason that Jeffrey Epstein died. And then wow, killed himself. And then we went to the house man of Jeffrey Epstein who let us in and watching that was, was really difficult, their reunion. But yeah, I mean, I'm just a small piece of her story. Her story, it's about her and it's a story of resilience. But also, I think it's really important to read it for everyone to understand how someone could end up in Jeffrey Epstein's world and trafficked. And then people say, well, why didn't you go to the police? And it's like, this is a person who. Who never had anyone protect her in her life, in her entire life. And from. From birth, really. She was abandoned. She was nobody's girl.

[A]

Yeah, that. That is why she was preyed upon. I mean, you know, because of what she went through in her childhood. The fact that she was a broken person coming out of her childhood. And. And Tara, she names people in the. The book. It sounds. I mean, I was just reading something NBC reporting that Jiufrey said that Prince Andrew had acted as though, quote, having sex with her was, quote, his birthright. That was her way of putting this. And so, you know, can you talk about that? That? I think, you know, this is still having shock waves over in the UK right now.

[B]

I mean, Prince Andrew had to give up his titles.

[A]

Give up his titles. Yeah.

[B]

He's no longer the Duke of York. I'm sure she would have been so pleased to see that. But it's sad that the justice is coming after her death.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And there are so many conspiracies about her death. I mean, she died because she lived with the demons of being trafficked. The trauma that she experienced, the ptsd. It's really profound. And so. So for. For Virginia. Yeah. This is a. This is a story of survival and. And fighting for justice. And it's. She does name names. She doesn't name all the names. There were probably three. Three dozen men, but nobody saw her as someone worth protecting. Not one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that. That's what's so heartbreaking about all of this. It wasn't in a vacuum. It was out in the open. And you, like, even when you see the picture of her, there's one picture in the set in the book where she's standing next to Naomi Campbell and some other man who's clearly an older man. And you just are like, she just looks so young.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Here she just looks like. So young.

[A]

She looks like a girl.

[B]

A girl.

[A]

I know that that's the heartbreaking thing about. And Tara, I mean, I mean, I think you just hit. Part of. One of the reasons why they were a. Preyed upon in the way that they were is that they had access to Jeffrey Epstein's world of being around celebrities and very wealthy people and the rich and famous and so on. And that was part of the. The lure, that was part of the hook that pulled these. These innocent young girls in to some extent.

[B]

I think. I think I don't know so much of it being the celebrities and the travel as much. For Virginia, I think it was the promise of teaching her a skill that could provide her security and, and change her life to become a traveling masseuse, which I think something that she really wanted to do. And she was studying a book about how to do that when Glenn Maxwell found her at Mar A Lago. But, you know, it's, it's amazing because she does write about. She actually kind of writes about Epstein in like a tender way and explains how she actually loved him.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

This was her idea of love. Galen Maxwell sometimes treated her as a, as a motherly figure, and that was a, that was something for her. I mean, if you read in the book, her mother whipped her with, with, with thorns from a. I guess knowing that her husband was, was. Was abusing her and just lived in such a. She just was going through one cycle abuse after another that it was hard for her to find anyone to, to hold on to.

[A]

They almost became paternal in a way.

[B]

I mean, yeah, it was like a messed up family. At one point. They wanted her to have their child. That's when she realized she had to get out because she was worried that the child that she was going to give birth to would be sexually assaulted by them. And that's when she escaped. She had to escape to Austria, she escaped to Australia to be far away from them, to feel safe. And it's just, it's harrowing. Her story is harrowing. There is no other word to describe it.

[A]

And what is your sense of. I mean, this, this book is, Is going to be a blockbuster hit. Does it help bring justice in any way to the situation that we're in the middle of right now? I mean, I can see a scenario where Ghislaine Maxwell gets pardoned anyway. Even I don't even with this coming.

[B]

Out, you know, President Trump doesn't care about the stories of women. I mean, they're. The ethos is women are liars. Men are not rapists. These men are not rapists. These women are liars because they have to blame the women or else they can't be victims. And because that is his role as the ultimate victim. And, you know, I spoke to this woman who is. Was a sex crimes prosecutor for many years in New York. Her name is Deborah Turkheimer. She's got a book called Credible. She explained that there is a credibility deficit that women, particularly vulnerable woman, vulnerable women have when they tell their story. And there's a credibility inflation that very powerful men have and that's why society tends to side with the men. And when that happens, that the, it revictimizes the. It revictimizes the women in a big way because they, it's almost, she said, worse than the abuse the first time around because of, because of the rejection they feel from society of not being heard and seeing the person who committed this crime still being. And so that's something that Virginia has had to live with for her whole life. Yeah.

[A]

And how much does the book get into trying to figure out how to say this in the right way, but what led to her taking her own life? Was there one single thing? Was, was there. Was it a. Was it multiple factors? Were there multiple factors? I mean, do we know why she did this? I mean, you know, she was fighting so hard and she was doing so much like with you, I mean, to try to put the pieces of this together, to try to get justice.

[B]

I think sometimes some demons are just too big to live with. And I spoke to her a few months before she killed herself. And I remember on the phone with her, she was living alone in her. Well, she had an aid but for her health, because her health was really bad. You know, they'd say in these books the trauma keeps the score. I mean, she was a 40 year old woman. She probably had the body of an 80 year old with her kidney failure, her broken sternum, this and that. She was just falling apart. And I remember saying to her, like, Virginia, you have to go to New York. You have to come. Like, you have to go see your family in Colorado. Like, you need to get help. She wasn't doing well. She wasn't doing well. When we were reporting, frankly, like at one time I just called them towards the, the team and I was like, I don't think we can do this anymore. She wanted to keep going, like she really wanted to, but it was too emotionally exhausting for her. It was emotionally exhausting for me. I couldn't take it. At some point I was like, this is darkness. This is a really d story. And I think, like, I really get angry when people talk about the, the conspiracy theories around her death because her brother found her and tried to save her. She was not healthy. She lived a very, very, very, very, very difficult life trying to get over the, the memories of the abuse she, she went through. And I could see it in her face. I saw it in her body, like her reaction to things. It's. It's hard. You know, she had an emotional support animal. She was, she just had it Was it's the trauma from being abused that young, like, actually changes the brain. And I think there needs to be more compassion for people that go through this sort of abuse and to understand, like, why do they suffer for so long? And I think being isolated from her children was really hard. Her estranged husband, the abuse from him, it was just, it was just a lot.

[A]

So, and, and do you think, because you and I haven't spoken about this in a while, do you think that when the, if and when the Epstein files are released, and it sounds as though it's moving in that direction, I mean, when the government shutdown ends, they're saying they're going to swear in Alito Grava, that'll be 218 votes, that'll compel the release of the Epstein files. Theoretically speaking, I guess if the Senate goes along with it and so on and so forth. I mean, I guess Donald Trump could stand the way and say, we're not going to do this at the Justice Department. I, I mean, I don't know. Those are some unanswered questions, I suppose, but do you think we will get some answers out of the release of those files that we don't have at this point, based on your reporting? Based on what? You know, is that just too big of an open ended question? I mean, it seems like we're learning new stuff once when stuff is released, we are learning new things.

[B]

Oh, yeah, no, Jim, this is huge. It's huge. This is just like the tip of the iceberg. There is so much, there's so much under there. I mean, even just the fact that she doesn't name the billionaires that she was forced to have sex with. Like, they're all in her depositions. There's more in her depositions. They're just redacted. Now if they release the Epstein files and they're entirely redacted, then you won't see much more. But if they release the files and they're not redacted the way they are, then you will see the truth.

[A]

And did it shock you when I don't think we talked about. Did it shock you when the birthday book was released and there was that Trump letter in there?

[B]

Not really. Yeah, because this was the culture around Jeffrey Epstein. This was the way that people acted around him. I remember his 40th birthday and like the song that they sang at, it was about his schoolgirl crushes and his 24 hour erections. They sang this like, as a, you know, and it was in front of all these powerful men and I'M just like, ew. This is just. Yeah, normal. They normalized him. He was normalized. There was nothing. There was nothing depraved.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So, no, I didn't, I wasn't really that surprised. I was surprised by the reaction from the White House, frankly. I was like, really? They're gonna deny this?

[A]

That did not make any sense to me. Their theory was that somebody plagiarized this or forged his name or whatever it is, and then they slipped it into this book 20 years ago or something like. I mean, I don't know how foreseeing.

[B]

That Trump would be president when he was a Republican president. He was then a Democrat.

[A]

Right. None of this made, that didn't make any sense to me.

[B]

The lizards did it.

[A]

The lizards did it. The lizard people. Will this book be too hard for people to read, or do you think that there's something for, for people to take away from Virginia's story that is, I, I want to say, and I want to say inspiring, but maybe inspiring is not the right word, but admirable about the courage and the strength that she showed towards, towards the end of her life. I mean, what will people take away from this, do you think?

[B]

I think people will understand sex trafficking better. I think they'll understand the impact of childhood sexual abuse. I think they'll see a human face on a story that has so, for so often, like I said, been focused on the porn elements of it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Wealth, porn, the bankers, this, you know, the, the high flying lifestyle, the friendships with dictators and Bill Gates, Elon Musk, all these men that they, he was friends with. And they'll actually see what it was like to be a woman, to be a survivor of this abuse. The other side of the story that no one ever cares about. And so that's what I think people will see from this book. And I think there'll be some humanity. I mean, for once. Virginia was always treated so poorly, especially by the press. They called her like, you know, all these names. A teen prostitute, a liar. When you read her book, you'll feel real sympathy for her and you'll see what it was like. And I think it'll paint a picture of how this happens and hopefully how it can never happen again. That was what she would have wanted, honestly, for this to live on the written word. What is one of the first. Sorry, I just wanted to read this and I think you'll appreciate it. Yeah, Jim, as a, as a writer yourself, because I know, you know. Yeah. Writing bears your soul, so I appreciated this. Hold on yeah, let me grab it. Where is it? Sorry.

[A]

That's okay. And folks, while Tara's finding this, she reached. I'm just going to tell everybody the genesis of this segment. Tara reached out to me and said, the book is coming out. We need to do this. And I immediately said yes because I felt as though this story had kind of faded a little bit. We need to get it back in the public's face. But go ahead. If you've got it, go ahead.

[B]

Okay. This is by Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. Life is not a private affair. A story and its lessons are only made useful if shared. And this is not an easy book to share to tell the story. But she writes about that too, about how hard it was to keep telling her story over and over and over again. But finally after he was arrested, the world was like receptive to her. And so she felt a moral obligation to, to keep telling her story over and over and over again. And it, it hurt her. She was re. Traumatized every time she told it. She wrote that. It makes me feel bad, but she wanted it out there. But it was such a double edged sword to even working with her as a journalist because you're just like. I felt like I had to stop. So, yeah, to protect her in a lot of ways because it's like they, there's only so much that she could handle. As you know, you could see, it's, you've been there, I'm sure in interviews where you're like, you can see that retelling the story is almost traumatizing the person. And this, this has happened to me not just in this story. I had, you know, I've interviewed parents who've lost their kids. You've done the same thing. It's just, and they're, and you're there.

[A]

To guide them in telling that story as best as you can. But at the same time, you have to understand this, this is hard. This is, this, this hurts.

[B]

This is pain. Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Yeah, it's reliving pain.

[B]

Yeah. And so I thought that that was a really beautiful quote because it's, it reminds me of why she created victims Refuse silence. She believed that by speaking openly about taboo subjects like sex trafficking that she could stop it from happening. And she's right. I mean these, these, these crimes live in the dark because they, they, they're taboo. Even the incest. I mean, I always had a feeling there was some incest angle with her because she would, she said she was TRA traffic that her father would like her father's friend would molest her, which turns out true as well. But I always had a feeling she had an estranged, you know, relationship with her father. She never talked to her father. I was so mad when she died that when her father came out and said she was killed, I'm like, how would you know? You haven't spoken to her in years. And, And I just had this feeling. I was like, there's some. There was something there. And I'm really proud of her for telling that, because, again, that's another really taboo subject. People don't talk about it, and she's just broken so many barriers and walls, and her impact has been profound, and it's sad that she's not alive to see it. Like, it's incredibly depressing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is something that she's had to wait. I mean, didn't. It didn't happen soon enough for her. Well, and there's more. I mean, there's way more than is in this book.

[A]

Yeah, Well, I mean, I, I, to me, the, the sad reality that she's not here hopefully adds weight to the urgency that is needed right now to release these files, for the truth to come out, for there to be justice for the, for the surviving victims in this. There are still plenty of survivors like the ones we saw up on Capitol Hill the other day who are still fighting for this. Tara, really appreciate you coming on. Tara is also the host of the Tara Palmeri show, the Red Letter substack. Make sure you subscribe to Tara's substack to make sure you can follow all of the turns and all of those twists and turns and all of this. And obviously, Tara does a great job on her. On her show as well, her YouTube show and substack show, laying all out all this reporting as well. So, Tara, always great to talk to you. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for reaching out and flagging this. I was like, yes. Oh, my gosh, we have to do this.

[B]

Yeah. And I appreciate your dedication to the story, too. It means a lot to see that.

[A]

We got to do it. I mean, the truth has to come out. No question about it. Thanks, Tara. Good to see you.

[B]

Bye.

[A]

Really appreciate it. All right. And we'll see what happens. I mean, you know, the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says he's not going to block the vote. And. And, you know, for damn good reason, one being that there are Republicans who want to vote for this. And so as soon as they get to 218 votes, which is when Adelita Gralva sworn and she. She Was elected a month ago, folks in Arizona. She still hasn't been sworn in, one of the many outrages in Washington these days. But it seems as though it's happening slowly. But there is momentum heading in the direction of the release of the Epstein files. And I wanted to make sure that we started with that and with Tara Paul, Mary, who is an authority on the subject. I'm going to switch gears now. I want to bring in Joe Walsh, who has some. Some very interesting and I would say spicy opinions on a lot of things that are happening right now, and I think essential takes on what's happening right now. And when I saw one of Joe's takes, I reached out and I said, no, this is. I gotta have Joe back on, because Joe doesn't hold back. And I'm as pissed about this. I'm as pissed about this as Joe is. Joe, great to see you, man. Thanks for coming on.

[C]

Hey, Jim, first off, thank you for having Tara on to talk about that. She's. I mean, Tara is so wonderful, continuing to put out, like, the human side of that story. All of these girls who were abused. We don't talk about that enough.

[A]

We don't, no. And I. When, when the book was coming out, Virginia Giuffre's book was coming out, Tara reached out, and I was like, yeah, we got to do this. And. And, you know, I. I don't know how you feel about this, but I feel as though sometimes, you know, they are kind of deviously trying to figure out inside the White House, inside the Oval Office, how could we get this Epstein story off the front burner? How could we bury it, you know, get it out of the headlines? It. It sets off the Dear Leader and so on. And Joe Walsh, it's great to see you, because there's. There's a ton of stuff happening, and the one thing that you and I, I think, are right in step with one another on is what is happening over at the White House right now, because it symbolizes so much as to what's happening in this country. They're. They're literally tearing the. Out of the White House, the east wing of the White House right now so Trump can build this gaudy $250 million ballroom. Let's get your thoughts on this, Joe. Because, I mean, to me, I. As soon as I saw this, I was like, yes, we got to have Joe back on.

[C]

I gotta tell you, Jim, I apologize if I'm not a very good guest today, because I looked at that image and I looked at that video yesterday. And I just got profoundly sad. I mean, I spend most of every day yelling and shouting about all the outrageous things Trump does. But when I look at that Jim, like, that just makes me profoundly sad. And I don't want to. I hope this makes some sense. I had the same feeling when I saw those images of that people's house being demolished that I had on January 6th when we watched in real time the other people's house being attacked. I was just overcome with sadness that this is happening.

[A]

Yeah, well, and I, I went, this is a. Some. In case you're wondering where we got these pictures from, we didn't rip these off the Internet. I went down to the White House today and I said, you know what, damn it, I'm going to give pictures and video of this. I did a quick little report on this. Let's walk. Watch that, and we'll talk about on the other side. Gee, I wonder why the White House would have the entire perimeter of Lafayette park closed to the public. It's entirely cordoned off right now. You can't get through it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the White House, because of Donald Trump, he has no respect for the people's house, is tearing a giant hole into the entrance of the east wing of the White House. But don't despair, don't worry. Your intrepid reporter here found one part of the south end of the Treasury Department building where you could look through a fence and see how Trump is demolishing our democracy, or at least a part of it here at the White House. This part of the White House is pretty damn important. It is where the general public, public will enter the White House for holiday parties. I took my son to one of these holiday parties back when Obama was president, and Trump says, don't worry about it. This 90,000 square foot ballroom that he's tearing down part of the White House for is going to cost $250 million, but it's going to be paid for by private donors. None of it will be paid for by the taxpayers. Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. But in the meantime, there is now a giant hole in the side of the White House to go along with the giant hole inside the White House. There you go. That's my, my take on it, Joe. But I, I went down there today to take a look and I mean, you're right, it is depressing to look at, but I thought it was so important that I was like, I gotta go see this for myself. And it is, it's unreal how big of a hole, what they've done to the place.

[C]

Jim, thank you for that, and thank you for that report today. No, no, look, I'm trying to figure out why this is impacting me so much. And, and the fact that the Treasury Department, was, it put word out today, don't show or share pictures.

[A]

That's right, yes. They told the employees there, don't take any pictures.

[C]

Yeah. No. So this makes me think that a lot of Americans had the same reaction I did. Look, this is personal. You said it, Jim. That's our house. That's the people's house. I think this will see through. I mean, you and I have talked in the first 10 months. Trump has enacted so much destruction to the norms, the rules, the laws of this country, and so many of us shout every day about it. He's an authoritarian. He's going after his political opponents. He's shutting down speech, and it connects to a degree. But this is personal and it's, it's concrete. He's destroying our house. I mean, it's right there.

[A]

You can see it for yourself. I, I mean, you know, I had to go. Listen, I had to go to. And you sort of know Washington like I do. You had to go to the south end of the Treasury Department, where people line up to go into the White House, Christmas parties and other holiday parties and so on. And they've put, they've, they put a lot of cordoning around the grounds now, because this is how Trump runs things. And there's a, there's a Secret Service security fence sort of around this area of the south end of the Treasury Department. And I had to put my phone up to a hole in the fence, like the seam in the fence between the gate and the rest of the fencing like this, to get a decent shot. And that's the only shock the general public can get. That's it.

[C]

It's amazing, Jim, that you were able to do it.

[A]

Now, now, I'm not trying to toot my own horn. I'm just saying that that's how hard they make it.

[C]

Yeah, well. And again, I'm surprised that you were able to get that close, that you were able to get that.

[A]

Well, that's true. Yeah.

[C]

But, but, but, but look, again, we talk about the damage Trump has done, okay? He decimated usaid. Well, a lot of this stuff we can fight maybe, to try to get back. But there's the White House, those walls that have come down, the east wing that has been demolished. It's kind of like, like that can't come back. This jackass in the White House is destroying a permanent structure that can't come back. And then, Jim, I started to get angry at his enablers who've allowed him to do this, you know, this, he can't do this on his own. They, there's a rigorous, rigorous process to mess with the restructuring, structural changes of the White House and he just blows right through.

[A]

All of that goes right. It's supposed to be done through the National Park Service. You can't just willy nilly start tearing walls down and that sort of thing because obviously you want, you have to keep it up with the historic character and, you know, the nature of the property. And, and he's just, he obviously doesn't give a shit about any of that. And when he says, oh, don't worry, $250 million we've got from the donors to pay for it all, taxpayers don't have to worry about it. Joe, you worked in Washington. You're a Republican member of Congress, you're part of the, the Freedom Party. I mean, come on, we know it's going to cost more than 250 million and we're going to be on the, we're going to be on the hook for part of it. That's just how it is.

[C]

And Jim, as I'm with you right now, talking about this story, which still depresses me, we've got the President, United States out there, it's reported, who's demanding the justice department repay him 230 million.

[A]

I saw that.

[C]

Do you see that? For these investigations? I, I, I mean, just, just crazy stuff. But again, I'm, I'm profoundly sad and I think a lot of Americans are, which is why they don't want those images that you got today, that video. They don't want anybody to see that. But, but I'll go ahead.

[A]

I was gonna say, you have a solution for all this, though. What do you, I mean, I saw that you made mention what you think the next President of the United States should do. And when I saw this, I said, that is exactly what I think. If I became the next President, that's exactly what I would do. And that is your idea is what.

[C]

Oh my God, Jim. And I'm just, I've just been a Democrat for four months and I'm probably not running for president in 28, but I'd be out there screaming right now, my first act as President, I'm going to take a fucking bulldozer to that ballroom of his. I mean, immediately why isn't every potential Democratic leader out there who might run saying that? I said that if I'm elected president, I will open up the White House to the entire country the first weekend I'm President, and I'll invite every American with their sledgehammers and their crowbars and let's tear that fucking ballroom down. Now, that's a lot of fun. And you and I laugh at that, but, my God, this is a serious point.

[A]

He's, yeah, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this ballroom.

[C]

Yeah, tear down that ballroom. Oh, my God.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, I, I'm with you on it, man. And I, you know, people might say, oh, that sounds a little crazy. Jim and Joe, they've, they've gone off the deep end and so on. I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me and said how pissed off they are about this. And I'm sure you're hearing the same comments from your subscribers and viewers, too. People. This hits people in the gut because this building belongs to all of us. And I mean, I, you know, I, I, I, I, I hope that's how Gavin Newsom feels, but I hope that's how these Democratic contenders feel about it, because it's, it's totally obnoxious that they would try to double the footprint of the, of the buildings that are on the White House grounds for this ballroom, this gilded, you know, gaudy Liberace wet dream ballroom that he wants to build there.

[C]

My biggest beef with my new political party is they don't seem to grasp this moment. Here was an absolute softball that that fucking dictator in the White House threw at everybody. And J.B. pritzker and Gavin Newsom and all of you great guys, man, get out there, make the same pledge that, that, that if you ever run for president and you get elected in 28, this is going to be your first act. That damn ballroom's coming down. But again, Jim Trump can't do this.

[A]

He's not.

[C]

His Republican enablers have allowed him to do this.

[A]

That's right. And you mentioned January six earlier. I mean, we got to talk about this. A pardon. January6, rioter, insurrectionist, whatever you want to call it, was arrested last weekend for allegedly threatening to kill Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader. And apparently he was saying, even if I am hated, he must be eliminated. This is a quote from the court filing. I will kill him. For the future. This is somebody that Donald Trump, upon returning to the White House, pardoned and freed, you know, said, hey, here you go. You know you're off scot free. And Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, who, you know, whatever Donald Trump says, he'll just go along with it, was asked about this and let's play it and we'll talk about it.

[D]

I don't know any of the details of this at all. I don't know who's been alleged to have been involved in this. I will say that anybody, anybody who threatens political violence against elected officials or anyone else should be have the full weight and measure of the Department of Justice on their head. I trust that that will happen. I hope it will. We are intellectually concerned about that, obviously. I will tell you this. The violence on the left is far more prevalent than the violence on the right. Don't make me go through the list. You all know it. All of these assassination, the assassination culture that's been advanced now, this is the left in almost every case that is advancing this and not the right. So let's not make it a partisan issue. You don't want me to go there. We're just going to say anybody, any deranged individual, this has to stop. And the rhetoric that you saw on display on Saturday we highlighted yesterday, it plays into this.

[A]

Okay, Come on.

[C]

Shame on him. Shame on him.

[A]

Disgusting.

[D]

When the.

[C]

Shame on him.

[D]

Elected officials participating in a rally that was paid for by Soros. Soros and sponsored by communists with signs.

[A]

He's a jackass. I mean, he's a jackass. You know, he's just going to say these ridiculous talking points that the no kings has something to do with political violence.

[C]

And oh my God, Jim, you, you, you covered no King's Day. You were all over it. I was out there. 99.9 of the people out there were peaceful, joyous, absolutely love for the country. I don't ever want to question anyone or, or consider anyone's religious faith. But doggone it, our speaker Mike Johnson is a very public, proud Christian and the lengths that he goes to, to lie, let's be real, he lies constantly. I don't want to be partisan, but the problem is left wing violence. That's not true. That's a lie. Look at the last 30 years. Most of the political violence in this country is right wing violence. But we condemn it all. He should have left it at that.

[A]

That's right. I mean, the FBI, the FBI has said that right wing political violence has been far more prevalent in this country than left wing. But you know, the other issue is he doesn't even address the question. He doesn't address that. Donald Trump pardoned these people. And this is not the first time that one of the pardoned people that Donald Trump let out of jail after January 6, that they've done something from a criminal standpoint, you know, acted out violently and criminally. But this is somebody who threatened the life of Hakeem Jeffries. And one has to think the longer this goes on, the unstable, the unstable people he released are, are going to be popping up here and there as folks who have done this.

[C]

How many more out there? That's what I thought.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

And one other point that you made about 15 minutes ago, a Democratic congresswoman won an election in this country over a month ago. And that guy right there, Mike Johnson. Mr. Stand up, Mike. Mike Johnson still has not sworn her in.

[A]

It's crazy. Adita Grava, I mean, Joe, can you imagine if you had won a special election, you were a member of Congress, if you had won a special election and then had to wait a month to be sworn in? I mean, that's some, that's some horeshit right there.

[C]

I know people, I know people ask you all the time. They ask me all the time. They're worried about the 2026 midterms. Well, look, again, this is just openly defying rules and cheating. So imagine the worst that they will try to do in 26, period.

[A]

And speaking of cheating, you know, the North Carolina state Senate apparently passed a GOP gerrymandering scheme and they're going to basically add a seat, a one seat to the total that Republicans have in the House here in Washington and they're redrawing the seats and they came out and admitted it. I mean, the leaders there in the North Carolina said it admitted that doing this because Donald Trump asked them to. And that's basically what's taking place, right? I mean, Joe, you said it that they're just trying to steal the midterms. That's what's happening right in front of our eyes. They're just doing it.

[C]

It's open cheating.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, again, go back to April, Jim. Donald Trump called Greg Abbott in April and said I want five more Republican seats. And that started this whole mid decade redistricting. Unheard of. But that's just part of what they're going to do. Trump put an election denier in charge of our election security at the Department of Homeland Security. It goes on and on. Again, he's going to mess with and they're going to mess with the 26 elections. It's why he's putting members of the Military on our streets. This is a scary time. No Kings, we were all happy and joyous, but the context here is this is a really, really scary time. And we need to be aware of that. And that fear needs to motivate us as well.

[A]

And you used to be part of that young conservative movement in the Republican Party. You've obviously changed your mind on a lot of things now you're a Democrat and so on. I'm wondering what your take is on, you know, these texts that have been made public, this telegram chat that has been made public that showed people, young Republicans, not that young, you know, Mike Johnson, some of the others. J.D. vance said, oh, they're like kids. They're not kids, they're young adults, you know, engaging in racist and anti Semitic holocaust denying kind of rhetoric. And then just this just came out today that, that Donald Trump has been, he, he's picked somebody to lead the Office of Special Counsel. A guy named Paul in Gracia apparently told a group of fellow Republicans in a text change text chain that Martin Luther King's holiday should be tossed in the seventh circle of hell and that he has a, quote, Nazi streak. This is according to a text chat reviewed by Politico. I mean, Joe, what is, what do you make of all this? Is some. Is this a feature, not a bug? It seems to me this is, this is all getting unearthed now.

[C]

It's, hey, Jim Acosta. That's a great way to frame it. You're right. I come from the right. And this kind of was always there and in the shadows and talked about privately. Trump has brought everything out from underneath that rock. And what was once private, ugly, racist shit that people said. This is what's scary, Jim. So many of these people now are saying this stuff publicly. They feel emboldened and weirdly, they look at Trump. Trump's their model. Some of them, Jim, have told me this, like, they openly lie. They're open bigots, they're open xenophobes and all the rest. And oftentimes, Jim, their response to me is, well, Joe, Trump's been this way and Trump gets away with anything and he's never paid a price for anything. So they see Trump modeling this and now they're out loud and proud. And you've got people like JD Vance and others who don't condemn any of it.

[A]

Yeah, no, J.D. vance was trying to write it off the other day. And what's incredible to me is, is that Trump had picked this guy to lead a very important office, the, the Office of Special Counsel. Of the White House. And, you know, to me, and I guess there's some Republican senators who have said, no, we're not gonna. We're not gonna confirm this guy. So he may not. He may not get through, and they may have to pull this back. But I, you know, to me, it. It tells me that he's. That there's some four. Knowledge of. Of this kind of. That, you know, I think Trump knows the people who are picking these. These people know, oh, he's one of us. There's there. It just seems to me there's. There, there's that undercurrent there that they know. Okay. One of the reasons why they are being picked is because they harbor these kinds of views.

[C]

Agreed with that. Again. It's like Trump has radicalized my former party. So now it's all out in the open, and there's no shame. None. And in fact, Jim, the scarier thing is a lot of these folks are true believers in this Nazi stuff and this racist stuff. I've said this before, and I know, you know, this. This notion of Christian nationalism, white Christian nationalism, it's a real strong animating force in today's Republican Party, and the country doesn't know enough about it, but it's what's behind a lot of this. I don't think. Like, I think Trump is just a vehicle for a lot of these people because he only believes in Trump. But the people surrounding Trump, they believe in this stuff.

[A]

Yeah. And it makes me worry about the future. It makes me worry about who's coming up the pike in the next 10, 15, 20 years and what he has unleashed. I think it's absolutely right, what you said earlier that, you know, this is lifted up a rock, and under that rock, you know, you have this element of the Republican Party. And Joe, I was talking about this the other day, I think was with Rick Wilson or somebody like that. The. The Republican Party used to have a tradition of keeping the lunatics outside of the tent. That was sort of the. The Reagan Bush philosophy. How you manage the Republican Party, those folks, John Birch Society.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, kkk, David Duke, those kind of nuts, they get left on the outside. They don't get to come in the tent. And Trump has completely obliterated that notion, that idea.

[C]

Oh, Jim, when I publicly came out against Trump seven and a half years ago, MAGA was this fringe thing over here.

[A]

It's right.

[C]

It's. It's now the party. It is the House Caucus, and. And it's. It's a growing part of the Senate caucus. Mike Lee, Utah Senator. Mike Lee and I used to be good friends. We would sit around and talk about the Constitution and the rule of law, and a guy like Mike Lee has sold out to this stuff.

[A]

Totally sold out.

[C]

And I never would have guessed that it is the animating force among the base. You, Trump could be gone tomorrow. This thing's on. On autopilot now, so it's, it's not going anywhere. I'm older than you. You're still such a young man.

[A]

No, no, no, no. I just hide it. I hide it. It's.

[C]

Well, I'm. I'm 84, Jim. I'm old.

[A]

No, but I saw you make a comment to Mike Lee because Mike Lee, I guess, posted something about, I'm at his house because you went over to this Republican luncheon at the, at the Olive Garden, Applebee's patio that they have, you know, replace the Rose Garden with. And Mike Lee was there, and he put out a tweet that said, I'm here at. At his house.

[C]

His house, Jim, again, back in my day in Congress, there was no more constitutional conservative in Congress than Mike Lee. And, and now look at him. And you see the Republican Party, he's based. Mike Lee, he's.

[A]

What the hell is it?

[C]

What is that? He's cruel. He's Trumpy and maga. And he, He. He's brilliant, but he purposely displays ignorance of the Constitution and the rule of law.

[A]

He's kind of a dick.

[C]

He's a dick. He's. But, but, Jim, you're right, but there's great value among Republicans in being that way now. Yeah, you get rewarded. So a guy like Mike Lee now.

[A]

Is that way unreal. Well, Joe, great to see. I'm glad we're of the same mind as to what should happen to Trump's Lifestyles Ballroom. Just knock it the hell down. And I, I especially like the idea of inviting the public to come in and knock it. I could just imagine little grannies with their sledgehammers and stuff like that, and little kids with hammers and just make it like a little weekend project, you know?

[C]

I love that, Jim.

[A]

I love that White House extreme makeover.

[C]

Joe Walsh, thanks.

[A]

Good to see you, Joe.

[C]

Thanks, my friend.

[A]

Thanks, man. Really appreciate it, man. That White House could use an extreme makeover right now. It's getting an extremist makeover, I guess you could say, via Donald Trump. But I mean, just to go back and show those pictures again if you're tuning in late. And by the way, shame on you if you Tuned in late. I'm just kidding. But tune in early because you missed stuff. But I had to go. I went down to. I was so. I was just, you know, I was getting ready for the show. Didn't have much time left before the show. I will say, kind of ran in here at the last second to get going here. If I'm glistening a little bit, that's why. And it's not my face routine. It's. It's because I'm sweating. And I ran down to the White House because I said, you got to be kidding me with this. You got to be kidding me that this guy is tearing a hole in the White House right now. And I went down there, and in the pictures that we saw 24 hours ago, ain't. Ain't the whole of it, ain't this. Ain't the extent of it, ain't the full scope of it. They're still tearing the shit out of the White House, ladies and gentlemen, right now as we speak. They've got bulldozers and all kinds of construction equipment. They've got these. You know, I wish I could paint the full picture. They have these walls up, I think, to keep the public from seeing what's going on. And I had to go to this. This fence, this. This. This wrought iron fence that's been put up by the Secret Service. They've got all this fencing around the perimeter of the White House now. And I had to stick my. My damn phone up against this. The hole in the fence to get these pictures. And there was another cameraman behind me doing it with his. With his professional camera. But I did this with my iPhone. Thank goodness I've got a decent iPhone. But, my God, they're just tearing the. Out of the White House. And nobody said. Nobody said, yes, go ahead and do this. He's just. Do. He's just doing it. He's just doing it. And the people who, I guess are going to bankroll this are all of these corporate cowards who come into the White House and present Donald Trump with these ridiculous, pathetic golden offerings to the Dear Leader, like something out of Babylon or some shit like that. And these are ponying up the money to pay for this monstrosity, 90,000 square foot, faux gold ballroom, an embarrassment of a ballroom, an embarrassment of.

[D]

Of.

[A]

Of. Of. Of a federal building that is going to be built on the White House grounds. This is like right out of Back to the Future, where, you know, there Biff has the Golden Casino or something like. That's literally what Donald Trump is trying to do with the White House grounds. And nobody on the Republican side of things says, boo. Nobody on the Republican side of things says, hold on a second. This White House belongs to all of us. God damn it. Nobody's saying jack shit. And the National Park Service, I guess they work for Donald Trump, but the National Park Service is supposed to be part of the process that you go through in order to alter important, significant federal buildings in this fashion. And he's just blowing through that. And I don't understand how this can go on in our country. Well, I mean, what's next? Are we going to put a goddamn Arby's at the top of the Washington Monument? I mean, he's paved over the Rose Garden to build the ridiculous Cheesecake Factory patio there. I mean, what's next? Are we. Are we going to add a hot tub to the Lincoln Memorial? Are we going to put a Chick Fil A in the. In the Jefferson Memorial? Can. Can. Can the Democrats take over Congress and just paint the Capitol blue? I mean, is that what's going on in this country right now? It's unreal. It is. It is starting to feel less and less like our country. And Donald Trump on Sunday, he says, I'm not a king. I'm not a king. I work my ass off. I'm not a king. No kings. No kings. You heard Trump say that on Sunday. And then 24 hours later, they're tearing the. Out of the White House. That's what a king does, ladies and gentlemen. That's what a king does. A king acts with no regard for anything else, for anyone else. For us, the people, the 350 million people in this country who might say, you know what? We have a problem with this. You can't. Can we have a public hearing? You know, if your local county commission wants to build a new park or convert rails to trails or build a school or anything, you have to have a public goddamn hearing so the members of the public can show up and say, maybe do this, maybe do that. A commission has to be hired to make sure that whatever school or park you're building is not some monstrosity, but Donald Trump over at the White House, apparently, because nobody. Nobody will say shit in DC Anymore can do whatever the fuck he wants to the White House grounds. And I'm sorry if I'm a little pissed off and I'm using some salty language on a Tuesday, but, my God, how is this allowed in this country? To our house, the people's house? He thinks it's his house, and somebody needs to send them a memo that lets them know you just can't. That. That ain't your house, man. It's time for this White House extremist makeover to end. My thanks to Tara Paul Mary with the red letter substack and the terrible Paul Mary show for reminding us once again about the importance of Virginia Giuffre, whose memoir comes out today. My thanks to Joe Walsh for stepping in and. And letting us know exactly how he feels. I'm right there with him. Tear down that ballroom. Next president who comes in, just tear it. Tear it the hell down.

[C]

It.

[A]

This is the people's house, and the people should have a say when it comes to the people's house. My thanks to all of you for watching. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening. I'll see you next time. Sam.