Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump TRIGGERED by New Epstein Files Question So Bad He Lashes Out at Kaitlan Collins

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

On this episode of SPEECHCENTER Lovett is joined by The Bulwark's Tim Miller to discuss Kaitlan Collins hammering Donald Trump on the Epstein files and nationalizing elections, Tom Homan on ICE in Minnesota, Mike Johnson on the 4th amendment, and Tom Blanche on the possibility of prosecutions for people in the Epstein files. Upgrade your wallet today! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code SPEECH at https://www.Ridge.com/SPEECH #Ridgepod CHAPTERS 0:00 - Intro 1:01 - Tom Homan on Minnesota 4:54 - Mike Johnson on the 4th amendment 8:58 - Tom Blanche on the Epstein files prosecution 12:30 - Ad break 13:37 - Trump on nationalizing elections 17:45 - Trump on Epstein survivors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The problem is partying with Jeffrey Epstein is criminal and its nature. Because Jeffrey Epstein doesn't really seem to be like the kind of guy that was having normal barbecue parties. It's kind of like saying, hey, Keith Richards invited me to a party. I didn't know there'd be below there. Hey, everybody, welcome back to Speech Center if you thought things couldn't get worse. Since our last episode, your imagination is not where you need it to be. Tim, we're in a lot of chaos right now. There's also going to be a Super Bowl with the Patriots.

How are you feeling about that? Terrible. Terrible. I just, can we not have a little escapism? I guess we'll have Bad Bunny. We love Bad Bunny that is nice. And I do like that they pandered to the whites. And they're like, the whites are unhappy about Bad Bunny. And so we're going to pander and we're going to add Green Day, which has to be the most hostile band imaginable to MAGA in the category of whites.

On today's show, we finally got the Epstein files, or at least most of what we're going to get. Trump wants to now nationalize elections. But first up, here's Tom Holman, announcing a reduction of ICE in Minneapolis while blaming the killings on hateful rhetoric. My goal with the support of President Trump is to achieve a complete drawdown and end this surge as soon as we can.

But that is largely contingent upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its threat of partners that we're seeing in the community. I said back in March, of this year. If the hateful rhetoric didn't stop, I was afraid they would be bloodshed and their has been. I wish every one of you could put that gun on your hip, put that Kevlar vest on, go out there and put up where they put up with. Considering the hate, their rhetoric, the attacks, I think they've performed remarkably, and I'm proud of them. We came here,

President Trump sent me here, to help de-escalate what was going on. We're not surrendering our mission. We're not walking away from our mission. We're just making this more effective and more smart. This is smart law enforcement. Smart law enforcement makes it safer. More smarter. Hopefully it goes better than the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Yeah. No, no, that's an important point. So let me think about. Yeah, the mass deportations will continue until morale improves. I do believe Tom Homan compared to Bovino and given, and what Nome had been saying and what Miller had been saying. He is less escalatory than what came before, but he's still not saying what you would say

if you truly wanted to turn the temperature down and actually acknowledge the concerns of the people on the streets, right? I'll even go a little further than that. It's actually pretty disgusting to say that there's bloodshed in the streets because of the rhetoric. I mean, he's saying that basically

the types of people that Renee Good and Alex Pready align themselves with caused their murder because their tweets were too mean. or because their shouts, not for half of their neighbors were too loud. And it's a pretty gross thing for a government official to say. It also is just flat untrue.

Right. Which is also important to just say clearly. The bloodshed did not come from radical leftists or anti-ice activists or anything of that nature. The murders came from his people, the people that work for him. It's telling that this guy is like the moderating force, or like this is the adult in the room. Is he kind of slurs through that, that, those remarks?

There is a sincere belief in there that the description overall of what the Trump administration is trying to do has been overtorked by the left and that they are taking the worst examples and using it to define the entire operation. I don't think that's a fair rendering, but I think that's the defense that they would probably say they would believe in the same way that they were trying to suggest that because Alex Preddy potentially kicked out a taillight on one day. It means that he is less deserving of law enforcement not murdering him on another day, that because the law enforcement has felt under siege,

and I imagine they genuinely do feel under siege in the Twin Cities. Sure. That makes their being trigger-happy and anxious and twitchy more justified. It's in the same way that they want to hold all Somalis responsible for whoever might have committed fraud, even though 95% of fraud on, I believe, Medicaid or Medicare, whatever, roughly would be the same across as committed by U.S. citizens. They want to hold an entire group of people responsible. They like to do this group condemnation and this group punishment. But no, an ICE officer or a border patrol officer is responsible for his conduct in the moment in dealing

with an individual, whatever that individual is doing and whatever risk or he poses or she poses or doesn't. You can't just bring in what happened at a restaurant, even if it's made up a few days before. You don't get to say, but I've just been in such a foul mood because of all the hostility. That's irrelevant and doesn't matter. Now, here is Mike Johnson being questioned on the Fourth Amendment and its protections against federal law enforcement. When ICE goes to execute a warrant,

it's an administrative warrant, and it's issued by an immigration judge, and that is a sufficient legal authority to go and apprehend someone. Some have complained that the force has been excessive or what have you. I don't know. We're gonna figure that out.

It's part of the discussion over the next couple of weeks. I tell you what the Democrats want to do and what we cannot do, and that is they want to add an entirely new layer of warrant requirement. They want to have a judicial warrant on top of the immigration judge warrant. You've got maybe 20 million illegals who came across the border just in the last four years when the Biden-Harris administration opened the border wide. Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant, an additional warrant to go and apprehend people who we know are here illegal. The people who are advocating for that don't want any immigration enforcement. They do not want to anybody to be sent out of the country here illegally, and that is blatantly

what their cause is. Did you see there was a moment where a DOJ lawyer was being questioned by a judge about why the orders were being violated and why these petitions were not being honored? She just says, this job sucks, and I'd like to be held in contempt so I could just get 24 hours of rest. The request that people's basic rights be honored, it continues to apply even if you're trying to deport a lot of people, even if you're trying to rapidly ramp up federal law enforcement. You sound like a fucking tech guy. It was like, there's no way we've built something so big. We can't possibly do anything to make it safe.

Imagine if a builder said that. Sorry, the building's too big. We can't prevent it from falling down. If you would like to do this, you have to do it legally. The whole, like, man, living in a rule of law society is a pain argument. Isn't really flying for me. You know, I get it. It does suck to live in society.

But, you know, in our country, you do have to go actually get a judicial warrant if you want to kick down somebody's door. Because what if you get it wrong? they've got it wrong a lot. People have basic rights. And I just think that's kind of the trade that you make if you want to live in a society where you're not going to have your rights infringed upon

by the government. It's certain as you'll like this, Lovick, it'll be a hit on my own people. I'm excited. It's kind of reminiscent of the argument that my boys were making after 9-11 about the FISA courts. You know, it's like, well, we got it.

We created an approval process. You know, we can spy on you. And it's like, well, did a judge approve so? Well, like, we kind of created this other set of judges, you know, that are like administrative judges that are our bosses. And what was the percentage of approval by those judges? Yeah, it's like 99. Yeah, it's like, yeah, check, check, check, check, check.

Yeah, anybody you want to spy on, you can. And then eventually people started to kind of say, well, wait a minute, this feels like it's an abridgment of people's rights. Like, this isn't a real court. And like, that's what they're doing, essentially. People hear administrative warrant versus judicial warrant. You're talking about one is a true warrant in the traditional sense of you have a sense of you have to go to a judge and get approval to do the search outside of your chain of command.

And the other is an administrative warrant, which is basically just a procedural check inside of the administration. It's the administration's own approval process that they kind of rubber stamp. And they're just fundamentally different. One affords you a constitutional check. The other just simply doesn't. It's entirely inside of the executive. I know these people are fucking hacks. I know that. I know they're hacks. But they weren't hack. and social studies in third grade, right? They weren't politicians yet. I thought some of that would have had.

Mike Johnson wasn't, are you sure? You think you might have been? You think you might have been? Yeah, maybe. Up next, here's U.S. Deputy Attorney General. Todd Blanch on Fox News, giving an absolutely wild answer as to whether or not the predators in the Epstein files

will be subject to any kind of prosecution. Is there any chance that any of these individuals who partied with Epstein and engaged in relations with minors will be prosecuted? I'll never say no. And we will always investigate any evidence of misconduct. But as you know, it is not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein. And so as horrible as it, it's not a crime to email with Mr. Epstein.

And some of these men may have done horrible things. And if we have evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will. But it's also the kind of thing that the American people need to understand that it isn't a crime to party with Mr. Epstein. It isn't a crime to have luncheon. It doesn't look like that's all that was going on on some of those photos. I mean, if the photos could speak, some of them look pretty bad. That's right. And unfortunately, photos can't speak.

And so we need witnesses and we need... Are there videotapes that you all have? They're all released. They're all released. There were some... Beyond the ones that... Not of any individuals, men having improper sex or anything with victims, but there's videos.

They're all released for everybody to see. I'm upset. So here's the thing. I'm pro-partying. I like to part more than you, right? I think of the kind of panelists here on Speech Center, I'm probably more of a the pro party panelist. That's right.

You're more of a video game advocate alone in your home. That's right. The problem is I think that partying with Jeffrey Epstein is kind of criminal and its nature. Because Jeffrey Epstein doesn't really seem to be like the kind of guy that was having like normal like champagne barbecue parties. It's kind of like saying, hey, Keith Richards invited me to a party. I didn't know there'd be blow there. It's kind of like, that's like what he's known for is the blow. When you see Todd Blanche say this, where is the kind of fire to fully understand this and run it to ground?

The blacked out emails of names of men that are clearly describing criminal activity with minors. There is so much pretend emotion around this from people that are now in the administration or people that wanted Donald Trump to win about exposing this crime that flowed from QAnon all the way up to J.D. Vance. And now they are in power and they are suddenly all a bunch of fucking feckless. inert bureaucrats. And like, I see these files and it becomes a story of like, oh, who went here and who went there. And other countries are managing to drum up ways to turn these things into prosecutions. But here we are just flat-footed. And I understand that there are political reasons. But I also think there's like a deeper kind of cultural fucking rot and evil around the fact that they just don't seem to be that fucking interested. They are more concerned about protecting people.

that might be falsely impugned or whose reputation might be sullied in a way that is greater than that was merited by their actions. Those are the people that they seem to care about in this situation rather than the victims or rather than the, we would presume, at least some other co-conspirators besides Prince Andrew, Ghislane Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein. I fully believe this is a representative story about our fucking evil, godless elitiers. and how they led us into this mess. And I don't know how to come out of it, but that's where I'm at. That's where I'm at, Tim. I'm upset. You've been hot on this.

You were good on this on the pod the other day. Oh, thanks. Speech Center is brought to you by Ridge. I used to have a thick, stupid wallet. It was always fraying. Didn't fit in my pocket. It was a dumb way to have a wallet. But now I have a Ridge wallet.

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They will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Let's go to Trump taking questions at the Oval Office. Here's CNN's Caitlin Collins, pressing Trump on what nationalizing elections would actually mean. What exactly did you mean when you said that you should nationalize elections and which 15 states are you talking about? I want to see elections be honest and if a state can't run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it because, you know, if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don't know why the federal government doesn't do them anyway, but when you see some of these states about how horribly they run their

elections, what a disgrace it is, when you see crooked elections and we had plenty of them, and by the way, we had them last time, but go to 2020 and look at the facts that are coming out, Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at Pennsylvania. Take a look at Philadelphia. You go take a look at Atlanta. Look at some of the places that are horrible corruption on elections. And the federal government should not allow that.

The federal government should get involved. These are agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can't count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over. No, states are not and have never been agents of the federal government, not in counting elections. not in anything else. Again, third grade social studies, sort of stuff. How worried are you right now about given what happened in Fulton County, given what Trump is saying here about the midterms? You know, the 15 states thing is something that's worrying to me, and here's why. Trump gets these

little things in his head. You know, Trump's not exactly a secretive person. You know, he reveals what his plans are for the most part. And the fact that he just like out of thin air was like, 15. It makes me think that there's some actual planning at place. So that's a little alarming. My alarm is like, like there are people in my orbit in the bulwark democracy world who are like more alarmed than me. I do think that the Democrats are really going to shlong the Republicans in November, barring some big changes between now and then. And I think that there's going to be too big to steal all to this. And I think that their failures and their attempt to rig it through redistricting was really meaningful. For example, Doug Maastriano, when you're running against Josh

in Pennsylvania was an insurrectionist and I think that had that election had Joshua won by two points like maybe there would have been people storming the capital of here in Harrisburg but he lost by a million points and felt like they did it because it felt silly and so you know will they try to fuck around with it I think so yeah if it ends up being close are we in for a real big problem yeah because I think them decide not to seat people from California because they don't trust the mail or whatever like all that's possible my alarm is tempered somewhat by what I think is their really bad political standing. Yeah, I think that's right. I also think

we are protected by just the complexity of our elections and how they are administered county by county. And, you know, Steve Bannon had a line about, you know, wanting ICE outside of polling centers. And of course, there may be, I think, ways in which voters will, they may try to intimidate people even before they cast a ballot. But I think as we've seen in the Twin Cities, ordinary people are willing to be pretty tough and nonviolent in protecting each other and their rights. And I worry about it too, but I do think that we have a lot going for us. Yeah. I just like just one thing to say about that while we're kind of bucking people up.

Like I do think sometimes I get frustrated with people on the pro-doctracy side, they're just like, they're going to have ICE agents standing outside of the ballot box and that's really going to depress turnout. And it's kind of like, or maybe it will do the opposite. Yeah. Or maybe it will inspire people to turn out, you know, Sometimes these efforts backfire. Absolutely.

And I just don't want a sense of like a preemptive helplessness because I don't think that that's helpful or necessarily accurate. Everyone has been trained by the Internet to be afraid of seeming too optimistic. Authoritarianism looks stronger than it is. Democracy looks weaker than it is. We've got a lot in our corner and including the fact that Americans are a rambunctious and rebellious lot. Now, Trump's threats to nationalize elections wasn't the only place where Caitlin Collins pushed Trump. She brought up how survivors of Epstein's abuses are upset with how chaotic and incompetent these releases have been, including information about them.

And Trump responded in a despicable way. A lot of women who are survivors of Epstein are unhappy with those redactions that came out. Some of them entire witness interviews are totally blacked out. Do you think that they should be more transparent? They thought they released too much. You know, I heard that, and you tell me something else. No, I think it's really time for the country to get onto something else, really. Now that nothing came out about me other than it was a conspiracy against me, literally, by Epstein and other people.

But I think it's time now for the country to maybe get onto something else. But what would you say to people who feel like they haven't gotten justice, Mr. President? Something that people care about. Yeah, what did you say? What would you say to this? What would you say to the survivors who feel they haven't gotten justice? You are the worst reporter. No one to see. CNN has no ratings because of people like you. You know, she's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years.

I don't think I've ever seen a smile. Well, I'm asking you about survivors of Jeffrey Upstein's Mr. Pudson. Because you know you're not telling the truth. Wow. Just repellents. I want to note before we talk about this specifically that Trump then moved on, took other questions, those two follow-up reporters, reporters did not even acknowledge what Trump had just said to Caitlin Collins moved on to different topics, which is, of course, what he wanted. Also, standing behind him are a group of senators, including Susan Collets, who was just standing there, holding a MAGA hat, I believe, while Trump just berates a woman for not smiling, for having the temerity to ask him about the victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. What did you make of that moment, Tim?

Yeah, Susan was concerned about that, but she didn't want to say anything. but she was privately concerned about the president's behavior. He, um, it is a bit on the nose to, um, you know, be asked about ill treatment and abuse of young women and girls and then to lash out to that question at by attacking someone and by calling them a young woman and making sexist attacks on them. So it is, I mean, so it was like an implicit admission at some level. of what he thinks about the victims of Jeffrey Epstein in the way that he handled that question.

So, you know, I mean, he's sick to your point. The people behind him, you would not accept this in any other scenario. But there's no situation, like, I don't know. You know, if I was at a school or work function and a person in a position of power said something such as that, the idea that nobody would challenge them, nobody would say it's uncalled for,

nobody would walk out, you know, like. I can't imagine. You have a lower bar for the president than the principal of a school or the leader of a youth sports team? The idea of standing behind someone while they said something like that, the ability to kind of quiet that part of themselves, the shame of it, the cowardice of it. It's just despicable. And then, you know, when he says, you're right, like, oh, I think it's time we move on. He's saying the victim should move on. He's saying he wants the victims to shut up and move on.

And he wants Caitlin Collins to shut up and move on and stop asking him about it. Now he sort of landed on this idea that Epstein was in a conspiracy against him with, I guess, Michael Wolf. He's going to sue them. I don't wonder if that'll actually happen because I think it would only keep the story in the headlines more, which is his big problem. All right, Tim, let's wrap it up. Did you see that some Jagoff is trying to recruit new lawyers to the Department of Justice via Twitter? And I just thought it was so telling because, man, if you're a real kind of serious person with integrity and have a law degree, the idea that you're going to want to sign up for prosecuting like Renee Goods widow, combing through the Epstein files, being over overwhelmed 24 hours a day trying to clean up behind ice. I just can't imagine a less fulfilling way

to use your law to. I'd rather be like an asbestos fucking lawyer. I'd rather have my face on a billboard, you know, with one-eighthundred number. That's why they're recruiting on acts. There are a lot of hacks out there in the country. So at some level, I'm sure they're going to be able to continue to do damage. But the fact that that one gal had the mental breakdown who worked for the Department of Justice and just wanted to be held in contempt so she could have some peace and that 14 are quitting in Minneapolis and that they're looking for people on Twitter leads me to believe that, you know, maybe there's some supply and demand issues they're facing as far as hacked attorneys are concerned. And that's another thing to be optimistic about. I'm second dose of

optimism for me. Absolutely. They don't know the guys. Even the valueless people are not seeing it as in their interest. Because there are very smart, capable lawyers who have no values, but even they are looking at this and saying, not for me. But I'll tell you, If you're watching this, you're not a valueless lawyer. You're a person who cares about democracy and building an independent media ecosystem to combat both the kind of feckless corporate media and the deceptive misinformation spewing right-wing media. That's what Tim's doing over at the bulwark.

That's what we're doing over here at Cricket Media. Like, subscribe, leave us a comment. It really does help us build this channel. Every subscriber helps get this in front of more people. You can subscribe for free right now. You can become a friend of the pod and support us. and get free bonus content and episodes that are only for the community. Whatever you do, help us help get good information into the world.

And Tim reads the comments. Yeah, because sometimes people discuss the sexual tension and, like, they talk about who's handsomers. The comments on speech center are usually kind of interesting. They're titillating. So if you want to catch my attention. What is the latest on our sexual tension, according to the commenters? I'm interested in this.

It's got out of course. It are missed. It has. Waxes and wanes. Yeah, for sure. For sure. All right. Well, and now we'll wane, and we'll see you all next time.

Thanks, Tim. Let me tell you the secret of how to look like you know what you're doing. Use mushrooms. Tossamine eggs, noodles, boom. It's delicious. It's not magic. It's mushrooms. Hit up mushroomcounsel.com and get cooking.