Breaking News from Pod Save America - Holiday Disaster: Epstein Files Hit Trump

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/rank. Tommy Vietor and Brian Tyler Cohen ( @briantylercohen ) break down the newly released Epstein photos with Trump. 0:00 - NEW Epstein Files Releases 05:46 - Marjorie Taylor Greene vs Mike Johnson 08:17 - Ad Break 09:32 - More Bad News for Trump Photos courtesy of AP Photo Archive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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his former aide Steve Bannon, Bill Clinton, and other assorted creeps. Liberal Tears is brought to you by PDS debt. The Democrats in the Oversight Committee say they have received 95,000 images from the Epstein Estate. They released 19 of them on Friday. I'm going to quickly describe some of what we saw, and then we'll put a few on the screen in post. There's a photo of Trump with a bunch of young-looking women, joker. Trump and Epstein at a party talking to some young women, Trump and a blonde woman on what looks like a private plane, I assume Jeffrey Epstein's. There's a pack of condoms with Trump's name on them and the phrase, I'm huge.

Yeah, Bradhouse stuff. There's a warning tag from a ball gag, an unbelievably creepy thing that I could only describe as a sex glove and then some other weird sex toys. Real disturbing section of these photos. There's a picture of Steve Bannon with Epstein talking. There's another Epstein and Bannon doing like a mirror selfie, like there are, you know, some Gen C's going out for the night in New York. Woody Allen and Cid Bannon talking. Epstein with Woody Allen on a movie set. Epstein and Allen at dinner.

A couple of Bill Gates. Epstein and Alan Dershowitz. And then a photo of Bill Clinton, Epstein, Gleine Maxwell and some others signed by Clinton at the top. I bet he regrets autographing that one. So, Brian, the goal of this released by the House Superside Committee Dems is to put pressure on the Trump administration to release the far bigger tranche of Epstein files we know they are sitting on. Do you think it's working? Yeah, I think it's a shot across the bow. I think it lets the Justice Department know that if they continue to suppress these files,

which we're three weeks into what is a four-week amount of time that they have to release these files, that if they continue to delay or outright defy the law, that there's going to be plenty of files that the Epstein estate has to continue this drip, drip, drip. And it's not going to make it any, like they're basically letting them know that this is not going away that you can just get this done in one fell swoop, or if they want to spend the rest of Trump's presidency, basically letting everybody know every two, three, four weeks that, yes, Trump is involved in covering up the most notorious pedophile ring in American history, they have all of the tools to be able to do that.

Yeah, I think you're right. And also I think every time there's a release like this, good people are understandably outraged and disgusted by it. And we're seeing Republicans slowly peel away from Donald Trump on this issue in particular. Right. So, yeah, I mean, Brian, I was not surprised to see Woody Allen all over this release. That one, that tracks. Yeah, that one tracks. That tracks, unfortunately. But man, Steve Bannon is all over these files. Like, how the hell did this guy get away Scott Free for not just like being friends with Jeffrey Epstein, but reportedly doing media training and like PR work for him as late as 2018 and 2019? It's kind of that that part struck me a little bit because we think of Trump as being Teflon, but he's actually taking the brunt of this. And it's Steve Bannon that's gotten away with very little attention.

Look, I think someone like Steve Bannon, first of all, he's gross. Like you just look at him and Steve Bannon is gross unto himself. But someone who is kind of pulling the levers behind the scenes, he was the chief strategist for Trump in his first term. I'm not sure if he has some official title in this administration. But you expect that from a guy like this. And frankly, you expect all of these people in Trump's orbit to have some association with Jeffrey Epstein at this point. So I don't think that that part is too surprising that Steve Bannon, who is responsible in large part for the rise of Trump. Campaign manager, right?

Right. That he also is associated with the same people that Trump is associated with. But frankly, look, it's not Steve Bannon who is out there exploiting this issue of Epstein on the campaign trail like Trump did. It's not Steve Bannon who created an administration filled with people who primarily. promised to release the Epstein files. That was Trump. And so the buck stops with him. As much as he wants to deny responsibility or diffuse responsibility onto other people, it's him who filled his cabinet with Dan Bonino and Cash Patel, Alina Haba, Pam Bondi, who said the files were on her desk and getting ready to be released in February. And so at the end of the day, you know,

like you can you can call Steve Bannon a creep for sitting, you know, sitting in the same room, getting all these photos with Jeffrey Epstein. And he is. And you'd be right and justified to do that. But Trump filled this White House. Trump filled this. administration with people who promised one thing and delivered the polar opposite. And so he's not going to be able to skirt away from that. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it's just so surprising to me. I mean, there was just this sort of MAGA media influencer class and included the people you mentioned, Cash Patel, Dan Bongino, who were like all over this issue. It was the primary thing they talked about. They knew the MAGA Bay has cared about it. And meanwhile, you have Steve Bannon,

who is Trump's campaign manager, then goes into the White House for what it was, like six months as as like a chief strategist in 2017, gets fired and then goes back to work for. for Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, that is just an unbelievably bad judgment. Also, for all the talk about Bill Clinton and Epstein and the suggestion that Epstein was some like kind of liberal power broker, there's all these documents now of Jeffrey Epstein strategizing with Steve Bannon about how to spread right-wing populism across Europe. It first seems like his politics were fluid. Yeah. Well, look, I think, you know, look, at the end of the day, that kind of feeds into this whole idea that, you know, that Trump and, again, the Bannons of the world, the Bongino's of the world, the Bonino's of the

world exploited, which is that, you know, at the top, there are these gross people who have no political ideology other than just committing these horrendous crimes. And Trump had the perfect opportunity to take these people down, to expose these people, to get the transparency and accountability that they fucking promised. And instead, they're entrenching the very system they vowed to, they vowed to dismantle. Yeah, they are not draining the swamp. It is gross. Okay, so the Epsine files is one of the issues that's leading to this crackup in the mega coalition, along with, I I guess Trump's just general failure to do anything about inflation nor the economy. Viewers know probably by now that Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green have had this huge public falling out and fight.

She's resigning from Congress because of it. But she is not going down without trying to take a final scalp. According to MS Now, Marjorie Taylor Green is seeing if she might be able to oust Speaker Johnson before she goes. Green would need nine Republicans to trigger a vote to basically bounce his ass. So, Brian, I'm not a big fan of Speaker Mike Johnson. But I'm trying to decide if Republicans deposing him would be good or bad for Democrats. Because, you know, there's part of me that wonders if having an inept idiot in charge of the House Republicans might be useful to us in some sense. What do you think?

I'm just here to watch things burn. I'm just here for the things are fine meme. I'm just here for the chaos. Look, I think, isn't that how it goes that if a Republican House member is going to resign, the last thing that they have to do, according to the bylaws, is destroy the city. Speaker of the House. Yes, you're right. I think you're right. Yeah, you have to grab a lighter and just start torching stuff. I don't know. I wish for the best. It's, it's, am I for it? Yeah, of course I'm for it. I think that, I think that it's the worst job in politics being the Republican Speaker of the House, truly, especially in an era where, you know, the majority is, is slimmer and slimmer.

And so if Marjorie Tiller Green wants to, you know, wants to take him down, do I think there's going to be enough votes? Who knows? I mean, I'm split on this, because on one hand, this is the one instance where, look, Mike Johnson, I'm sure has just a few enemies, people who are going to abide by whatever Marjorie Taylor Green is trying to push here. It sounds like every woman in the caucus thinks he's a sexist creep and a pig and a jerk. But at the same time, we have seen so many instances where all of these Republican holdouts are like, I'm going to stand for my values. I'm going to have principles here.

And each one of them falls every single time. Like we always do the same thing where there's like Victoria Sparts and Chip Roy and there's that whole group of like these House Freedom Caucus, like kind of, you know, mavericky members of the Republican House conference. And ultimately they get a nice talking to by by leadership or by Trump himself and they cave. And so, you know, never bet against the cowardice of this Republican Party. But, you know, in terms of it working, I have doubts. But, but again, I'm here to watch it. I'm here to watch or try. I'm enjoying the show too. You also do need someone who wants to step in and take the job, which could be pretty short-lived,

considering how the midterms are tracking. So, yeah, it's a tough sell. Liberal Tears is brought to you by PDS debt. The system isn't broken, it's rigged. And if you're buried in debt, that's exactly how they want it. Big banks profit when you're desperate. Creditors win when you lose, but you don't have to play their game. PDS debt helps you take back control. They've helped hundreds of thousands break free from credit cards and loans. It's your money. It's your future. Time to fight for both. PDS debt goes beyond the numbers to understand your unique financial situation and craft a personalized plan designed just for you. There's no minimum credit score required.

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from being debt free. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you right now at pdsdestdeat.com slash rank. That's pDSdeat.com slash rank. PDS debt.com slash rank. The other huge L that Donald Trump took this week comes via Republicans in Indiana. Trump and Washington Republicans have been putting enormous pressure on Indiana Republicans to redistrict the state and put forward a new congressional map that would have taken Indiana from seven to Republican to 9-0 Republicans, just wiping out two Democratic seats. But that effort was resoundingly defeated earlier this week. The Indiana Senate voted 31-19 against the new map with 21 Republicans, a majority of Republicans in the state voting against it. That was despite intense pressure from the White House, including a threatening. to strip federal funding from Indiana. That's crazy. J.D. Vance visiting the state multiple

times and Speaker Johnson. I don't know if that's intense pressure or just kind of annoying. If it has the opposite effect. Yeah. Again, Turning Point USA went all in on organizing and throwing town halls and trying to pressure lawmakers. And then, like, not funny was a bunch of these senators faced violent threats from Trump backers, including like death threats, threats of violence, threats against their family, which frankly backfired and infuriated them. So can you you just talk about how big of a deal this win is for Democrats? And what do you think about how it will impact the other red states that are considering similar moves going forward? I think actually the Epstein story is a small part of a larger hole. And that kind of, the fact that Trump is

getting weak on the Epstein files, on his inability to help the economy is why I think a lot of these Republicans now feel some space to be able to do this. I think a few months ago, this would have been a complete non-starter. Like the notion that Republicans would defy Donald Trump's on anything. On anything, but especially redistricting, would just kind of be impossible as far as I would imagine. But now you see the extent to which he's weakening.

You see the extent to which the Epstein files dragging him down to the extent to which, you know, his numbers on immigration, which is usually his strongest issue, on the economy. Again, usually his strongest issue, have bought these Republicans some room to be able to stand up and deliver this rebuke. And so what does this do in terms of the broader environment here? What this does is takes Illinois off the table. And I know that you're going to be interviewing that. J.B. Pritzker

is going to be in this room, in that chair. In this chair right here. So warming it up for it. 40 minutes. Yeah, warm it up. Don't. Don't fart on it. I won't. Okay. Thank you. For once. Yeah. First time ever in this. But what this does is it takes Illinois off the table. And Illinois, J.B. Pritzker had come out a few months ago and said basically that he's going to his fortunes in his state to whatever happens in Indiana. So this takes Illinois off the table. But what this does is also offers a permission structure for other Republicans across the country to be able to say, oh, so we're not mandated to do this if we don't want to. Courage, it gets courage. Right. And also it really shows that redistricting in large part, these map redrawing

efforts by Republicans across the country was a wash. I mean, they've got five seats in Texas. That was neutralized by five seats in California. Then Republicans put forward two seats in Ohio. They put forward one seat in North Carolina, one seat in Missouri. There's a vote on that too coming up in Missouri. Correct. That's going to fall victim to a referendum since they got 300,000 signatures, so it's not a guarantee. Now we're likely to just see a vote instead of the actual maps change. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, we've got Virginia Democrats who are kind of taking a no-prisoners approach here, and they're looking to add four seats.

It's amazing. And then, of course, thanks to a court ruling, we have another seat that's going to be available to Democrats in Utah. So this whole thing was largely awash, and it's owed to the fact, A, that California Democrats were able to step up and show that, hey, we can fight fire with fire here, and B, that there are some Republicans, like the ones in Indiana, who are willing to actually stand up to Trump. Yeah, I mean, look, there was an AP poll this week that showed Trump has a 36% approval rating that's down from 42% in March. 31% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the economy down from 40% in March. His handling of crime is down 10 points, is handling

of immigration is down 10 points. So you're right. Like the broader mood music is giving Republicans a lot of political space. And I still think that most Republicans are primarily worried about losing a primary or Trump endorsing a candidate that would primary them. Right. Like that that's why MTG said she's resigning from Congress, so she doesn't want to deal with that. But the lower his numbers get, like the more getting some space from Trump helps them in a general election. And also when you have Republicans threatening to primary everybody, at some point, you've got to imagine that like what are you going to primary the entire caucus in in Indiana are you going to primary every single Republican in the House who voted for the state legislator every state legislator

every every every Republican who voted for the Epstein. There's 427 people in the House that voted for the Epstein file is the only person who's not going to who's not going to get a primary challenger is Clay Higgins. I mean I mean at some point you have to imagine that that that if these Republicans are going to or if the Trump administration is going to expend its political capital, that it's not going to do all of that on just trying to field primary challengers to the entire incumbent class in the GOP. Yeah. Well, when you sum it all up, man, it was a bad week for Donald Trump.

Bad, bad, bad, bad week. Thank you for watching this episode of Pod Save America here on YouTube. First of all, please subscribe to Brian Tyler Cohen's channel. We are both trying to build independent media organizations because the mainstream media is not covering this. No, actually they are covering this stuff pretty well. But not well enough. Not well enough, not from progressive perspective.

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