Bulwark Takes - Tim Miller: Trump's Creepy Epstein "Party" Raises Alarms

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Tim Miller joins Nicolle Wallace to take on the GOP’s spiraling Epstein crisis, the bizarre new details about Trump’s creepy Mar-a-Lago party, and why Mike Johnson is suddenly caught in the middle.... Check out Deadline: White House on MSNBC with Nicolle Wallace: https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house

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Starting point is 00:00:19 If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Ben MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey everybody. Tim Miller from the Bullwark here. I just got off with Nicole Wallace was there the whole hour. Me and Nicole just hanging out a lot these days. Um, we covered a lot of stuff.
Starting point is 00:00:39 Um, we covered the pickle that Mike Johnson is in over the Epstein files and how it's getting even more complicated We covered the New York Times reporting about the 1996 FBI report and what might be getting covered up when it comes to the Epstein files We covered the freedom of Andrea Hernandez Romero and the changing poll numbers on immigration. I appreciated Nicole bringing back a flashback video of my interview with Lindsay Toslowski
Starting point is 00:01:10 for our live fundraiser and not playing the video where I'm wearing a little shorty skirt. But I wanted to, before we got to all that, I wanted to get to one question I didn't get to answer. Nicole was asking one of the other guests, which was about the other New York Times report about this party, this calendar girl party. This is an insane story. I kind of mentioned Bill Kristol today for folks who watched that interview, but I just want to put a finer point on it.
Starting point is 00:01:41 According to this New York Times report, there was a guy, a Mar-a-Lago member, who said that he's going to host a calendar girl party for Trump at Mar-a-Lago and that there were going to be a bunch of VIPs there. But instead of inviting VIPs, Trump only invited Epstein and two women there, including a 22-year-old, quite a young woman, both testified that Trump harassed them. One said that he groped her. And then the 22 year old said he got into bed with her, unwanted, unasked for. Yuck, by the way. And I mean, so I look, all these stories of Trump being a creep and a pervert and committing sexual harassment or as old as time now
Starting point is 00:02:26 it's why the whole thing about why the right wing wanted that scene files crazy when I Trump has this huge track record of disgusting behavior to young women But I like it's the party that really gets me I get assuming the story is true. I don't know any reason believe it's not like Trump hosted a party at Mar-a-Lago with a bunch of young beautiful women and The only person he invites is Epstein It's just Epstein and Trump and all the young women running around Mar-a-Lago at the pool deck
Starting point is 00:03:04 like How fucking weird is that? I mean, putting it even, obviously it's very, um, would be thought incriminating. I mean, it's very, it's very inconvenient in a investigation of Trump and potential involvement with Epstein. But like even just putting aside all that, I knew you're not supposed to put aside, but just like for a second, just step outside of like the heinous disgusting crimes that Epstein committed. What is this party? I imagine you're throwing a party at your house and you invite all these young younger girls and then they all come and they show up and they're like, where are the guys?
Starting point is 00:03:45 And it's like, well, no, I only invited this one creeper over here who's standing in the corner being weird. That is like one of the weirdest, strangest parties in history. I mean, these guys, what are the odds that you had a creeper party and the only person you invited is the most notorious sex criminal in the country? Child predator? Doesn't look great, Donald. Doesn't look great.
Starting point is 00:04:17 Well, where that came from, stick around with me and Nicole Wallace next. Subscribe to this feed. We're getting our ass kicked by this douchebag, Benny Johnson. There's this big article out today about the YouTube subscriptions and how Benny Johnson, this right-winger who is a plagiarist, who has some personal peccadilloes that I don't need to get into, but it's just who sucks, who's a phony. His numbers are skyrocketing. who sucks, who's a phony. Like, his numbers are skyrocketing. He's passing us. Don't let that happen. Subscribe to the feed. Tell your friends. We got to subscribe to the feed. Let's do it. Don't let Benny Johnson and his drivel run circles around us. All right. Stick around for Nicole. Tim Miller. Mike and Tim, because they are careful and responsible people,
Starting point is 00:05:06 have very specifically articulated, and actually between the two of them fine-tuned, almost as visual for us, right? An investigation is a funnel, it takes in lots of stuff, and out the bottom comes corroborated things that they take to the bank that prove guilt, they hope, in a jury of criminality. The problem for Donald Trump is that
Starting point is 00:05:28 Cash Patel didn't go on podcasts and ask for, you know, the corroborated stuff. He didn't go on and describe a funnel. They have been asking for 10 years for all the tapes, all the texts, all the emails, all the videos, all of the investigative fodder, which includes accounts like Ms. Farmer's. Where do you think we are in terms of this story unspooling? I love how you kind of slightly suggested that
Starting point is 00:05:56 I might be a little bit more irresponsible in the accusations than Mike and Tim are. Not irresponsible, but just knit the worlds together, right? Like an investigative journalist and a lawyer and a prosecutor, they're using a scalpel. The Trump world has never used a scalpel when it comes to this story. They're swinging away with the most imprecise weapons, bashing at the people that they think are hiding deep
Starting point is 00:06:21 inside the crevices of an investigative file. They're not asking, I mean, this is what they're asking for, the actual witness testimony and all the names that came up in the course of a decades long investigation. Yeah, no, I'm just teasing. That's exactly right. And here's the problem that cash is in, especially if we believe what Dick Durbin put out, I guess was overnight, saying essentially that the reporting that they're getting Senate Democrats are getting is that in March, somebody whether it be Kambandi or Cash Patel or Daman Geno had ordered FBI agents to go
Starting point is 00:06:55 through tens of thousands of pages of material related to this case and in part of doing that flagging these times where Donald Trump was mentioned. So like to your point if you're gonna take the broadest view of all this then people should see everything that was in there and as far as we know if the FBI agents did what Dick Durbin is saying that they have information that they did, then we would presume that they would have a file or a new file or a new log, if you will, that gather all the Donald Trump mentions. And there's really good reason to believe that there's a lot of them. You know,
Starting point is 00:07:35 we you mentioned this case with Farmer, which I think this this victim case is really important. I don't know if there are others like me out there, but I've become re-obsessed with this. I'd read all the Julie Brown stories years ago, but I re-watched the documentary over the weekend. It's that 1996 FBI report that they're referencing that was massive in getting Epstein arrested the very first time, because initially it was the local Palm Beach police
Starting point is 00:07:59 that had tips related to Epstein, but in order to level it up to an FBI case, they kind of needed evidence that this was happening interstate And so it was that very 1996 report that like led to the initial FBI investigation and Epstein So if it's in that same report this woman says well Donald Trump was also involved I'm not that she he was abusing her but that you know He was in the office with Donald Trump and that Epstein says to Trump, you know This one's not for you or something that effect. I might not Epstein says to Trump, this one's not for you or something to that effect.
Starting point is 00:08:26 I might not have that quote exactly right, but she's not for you. That is extremely damning. I mean, that's not just, that is certainly in the types of things that Cash Patel and Dan Bongino and all these guys have been railing for years that we wanna see and know,
Starting point is 00:08:41 because they assumed it was gonna be all the people that they hate. And so that is just one example of this. That we have the Stacey Williams testimony that Epstein brought Trump into her house. We could go on and on. And so to me, it is extremely damning. It's exactly what they've been asking for for years.
Starting point is 00:08:59 And if we believe what Durbin put out, there is good reason to believe that this is an explicit cover-up by either Patel or Bondi or Trump because they asked FBI agents to look through these materials. Trump is very likely in them and then they decided not to put it out. He has said that he wants all the credible files related to Epstein to be released. He's asked the Attorney General to request the grand jury files of the court. All of that is in process right now. My belief is we need the
Starting point is 00:09:26 administration have the space to do what it is doing. And if further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we'll look at that. But I don't think we're at that point right now, because we agree with the president. So no vote on this resolution. This is the White House Director of Legislative Affairs. I'm just kidding. That was the speaker, Tim Miller. This is the White House Director of Legislative Affairs. I'm just kidding. That was the speaker. Tim Miller.
Starting point is 00:09:47 This is an issue that should be easy for them, like even easier than tariffs, which their voters don't want. Even easier than... I mean, it should all be pretty easy because the voters, their voters do not want cuts to Medicaid, but their voters are ravenous for the Epstein files and they can't even vote to release them, what is this?
Starting point is 00:10:09 It's a pickle for Mike Johnson. I know you think it's an easy one, but here's the problem. Yeah, sure, it's an easy one with the base voters. It's easy to know what they want in a grand scheme of things, but he can't get on the wrong side of Donald Trump. I mean, there's a graveyard of past Republican speakers who got on the wrong side of Donald Trump. I mean, there's a graveyard of past Republican speakers who got on the wrong side of Donald Trump on various issues.
Starting point is 00:10:28 And so I think that is his first and foremost priority. I think that Mike Johnson is almost certainly not, I guess who knows, but there's good reason he would not be read in on whatever it was that was behind the decision for Donald Trump or Pam Bondi to not release these additional files. And so if you're Mike Johnson, it's like, I guess I let's try to kick the can down the road. But it's a real it's a bigger problem than those other mentions you those other issues you mentioned, right? Because tariffs and Medicaid cuts do not inspire
Starting point is 00:10:59 the passions of the base or the passions of the mega media like this does. And just for us coming on, you know, the Theo von, one of those Manosphere podcasters who interviewed JD Vance twice, I think, and Trump once, he is posting. He's from Louisiana, like Mike Johnson. He's posting at his fellow Louisiana, Mike Johnson. He's like, bring this to the floor. Ro Khanna, it's a bipartisan bill. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey, why won't you bring this to the floor?
Starting point is 00:11:24 You're in a bad way. You know, if you're Mike Johnson and you have Rand, if you have these huge podcasters with massive megaphones like calling you out saying, bring this to the floor, and you're now put in this position where you have to be the one standing in the way of more information about these child sex crimes. It's a really bad position for him to be in. Well, and Tim Miller wasn't, I mean, I don't feel bad for him that he's in a pickle, but wasn't he in a different position on this, like 72 hours ago?
Starting point is 00:11:52 Didn't he have a different position on one of those Manosphere podcasts a week ago? He did. I also don't feel bad for him being in a pickle. I'm just describing like what he's, he's stuck between Trump and the base, right? In the mag of media, right? that's where he is usually they're aligned on all that because Trump usually gets in line with where the base
Starting point is 00:12:11 is or brings the base along this is a rare issue where they've not been able to do that so yeah no he has totally flipped on this you know I thought that was interesting the other day that actually piqued my interest more than this right this idea that he was going to buck Trump to push this through. So I'm not surprised that he's now gotten in line. But, you know, again, I mean, there's some level, if you're Mike Johnson, it's kind of like,
Starting point is 00:12:34 why not bring this up and kind of dump this on the executive branch? This is your issue to deal with anyway. You guys can decide which release. But I think in the meantime, he's decided that his prime objective is staying in Trump's good graces. André is an asylum seeker from Venezuela.
Starting point is 00:12:50 He came to the U.S. last year when he was in Venezuela as a gay man. He faced incredible discrimination. He also was politically persecuted. He was physically hurt. He was followed home by police officers. So he made the incredibly difficult decision to come to the US. But he had a really rich life there. He's been in a theater troupe since he was seven years old. He actually worked on the Miss Venezuela pageant. He was in pageants himself as a contestant. Now is that common in Venezuela for Trenton Aragua men to be working on the Miss Venezuela
Starting point is 00:13:28 pageant? You know, I don't think that's been a cover I've seen before. Yeah. That was last month when our friend Tim Miller and our other friends at the Bullwork hosted a fundraiser to support Andres Hernandez Romero and others who were wrongly deported to El Salvador without due process rights. We have an update to Andres story. He has been freed from the notorious mega prison CICOT in El Salvador after being held
Starting point is 00:13:56 there for 125 days. He was detained after he was questioned about his tattoos with immigration authorities. Which immigration authorities associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Agua? Romero is back in Venezuela now because of a large-scale prisoner swap between Venezuela and the U.S. We're back with Tim. Tim, this story was always on my radar, but you elevated it even higher with your astute questions about how and why he was swept up. Do you have any intel or any sense of how he's doing? I talked to Lindsay Tzolosky, who's in that interview, who was doing the real hard work,
Starting point is 00:14:38 is a lawyer on the front lines yesterday. And she said that he's talked to his mother. They're expecting that he's going to be released today or tomorrow. We don't know. He's going through a processing in Venezuela. There's some hope that obviously he fled Venezuela. It's the tragedy of all this is all of these men or at least many of them were fleeing persecution in Venezuela, fleeing communism to come seek freedom and opportunity in America like so many have over the last hundreds of years and instead we sent them to a
Starting point is 00:15:11 torture prison and now they've been sent back home to Venezuela so thank goodness they're free but like they're back in this country so there is this unknown still there's this hope that you know kind of this is ends up being a PR win a little bit for Maduro, that he was able to be the human rights advocate. That's how bad America has acted. We've made the communist dictator of Venezuela look like the pro-human rights advocate, but there's some hope that there'll be pressure on him to kind of treat these men well, so he can get the PR credit for bringing them back home. So that's the hope. We know he's at least talked to his mother
Starting point is 00:15:46 for the first time in 125 days. So that's heartwarming. The whole story is still pretty maddening. And Trump is in overdrive on this with his approval ratings going down as fast as his deportations are going up. Yeah, look, and I think this is why it's been important to advocate on this and something that I've been pushing Democrats and others to do from this day one.
Starting point is 00:16:08 You know, his immigration agenda is not popular. I think there's folks that that that they are afraid to engage him on this because they do think that the border, the closinged ICE raids, regular people don't like this in this country. And I think you can see it in his numbers. And so, while it's good that this El Salvador gambit has failed, these men have been released for now. We'll see what happens in the future. Simultaneously, they just got 45 billion in this last House budget for more domestic detention centers. Tom Homan and Stephen
Starting point is 00:16:46 Miller aren't backing off, so I do think there's more of this to come. I think it's going to be a continued fight for immigrant defenders and other groups like that, but you know I think that the fact that this El Salvador plan totally failed, that those men have all been released, that his poll numbers have gone down, shows like you can beat him if you fight him on these issues and that there's still at some level a feeling in America that, you know, well, maybe they don't support all immigrants staying here.
Starting point is 00:17:16 They do not support this horrific deportation regime that him and Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller and Tom Homan have been putting in place. Tim Miller, this is the sound of my slow clap because Tom Homan and Stephen Miller and Tom Homan have been putting in place. Tim Miller, this is the sound of my slow cap clap because Tom Homan and Stephen Miller have done what many before them couldn't. They have made immigration great again in the eyes of the American people. Seventy nine percent of all Americans believe that immigration is a good thing. That is up 15 points since a year before that, when they were waving
Starting point is 00:17:44 mass deportation signs around at Trump's convention. Your thoughts? Well, it's minor good news, but we'll take the good news we can get at these days, Nicole. And I think here's the thing. These guys really could have shut down the border and done nothing else or just, you know, really done what they said they were going to do, go after only violent criminals in this country. And I think at a very popular immigration agenda. But they're committed to the mass deportation now agenda, and it kind of reminds me of the
Starting point is 00:18:10 gay marriage. You know, like, turned out everybody had a gay person in their family or friend group, and poll numbers changed, right? Everybody touches an immigrant in their life, like, even if they're not, you know? And once they start to hear the horror stories in their communities and see them on TV and see these stories of these men we sent to a concentration camp with no due process, it's not surprising to me that numbers are changing and it is their fault for overreaching. And hopefully, hopefully the overreach doesn't continue,
Starting point is 00:18:38 but hopefully the poll numbers do. Tim Miller, thank you so much for spending the hour with us on all these stories.

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