Bulwark Takes - Trump Panics as House Takes Step to Release Epstein Files

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

The House just hit 218 votes to force a floor vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files — a rare bipartisan revolt that Donald Trump tried, and failed, to stop. Sam Stein and Andrew Egger share their take on what's next before the files could be released, why MAGA world is panicking, and what the newly released Epstein emails reveal about Trump’s own connections to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. Get 40% off your subscription to Calm’s entire library at https://Calm.com/BULWARKTAKES

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing out of the Bullwork. I'm here in Austin for the Trib Fest, but I felt the need to jump on the YouTube's with my bud, Andrew Eger, even though I have very, very bad internet Wi-Fi, so I beg your forgiveness for this. doing this because the House apparently now has 218 votes for a discharge petition to release the Epstein files that came after Representative Kachov was finally seated by Speaker Mike Johnson, put her name on the petition, and then gave a floor speech in which she said the following about why she was signing a petition.

Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein's abuses than he previously acknowledged. It's past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people. We need to fight for our immigrant communities and veterans. We need to stand up for our public schools, children, and educators. We need to respect tribal sovereignty in our environment. We need to stand up for LGBTQ plus rights because that's what the American people expect us to do. Fight for them. That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files.

Now, Andrew, let's talk a little bit about the process here because discharge petition, 218 votes, House will have to vote on this, and a bunch of Republicans who are not on the discharge petition has said they're going to vote. vote for it anyway. At that point, it goes to the Senate, and John Thune, the majority leader has to take it up. Don't know if they have 60 votes there. And even then, Donald Trump could just veto it, sit on it, do whatever. So people are very excited, rightfully so, about the 30018 votes, but should it come with a dollop of caution, I suppose? Yeah, sure. I mean, the, the bottom line is that this is, of course, not like the main thing. It's not like, you know, Representative Grijalva is in the House now, and boom, the White House is going to be forced to

release all these Epstein files. It's just one more procedural step in that direction. And it is also one more kind of significant moment in terms of actually sort of holding Republicans to account on this, because this has been a big fault line for Republicans. Their base has demanded a full accounting for, you know, the Epstein scandal forever for a long, long time. But Donald Trump has spent this whole year trying to turn the page on the story, trying to say, everybody's past this. It's super old news, yada, yada, yada. He's just sort of beside himself

that any Republicans are signing on to this effort at all. Bud. It's not just turning the page. He spent today turning the screws on Republicans. Lauren Bovert was called in to talk with a bunch of DOJ officials. She's on the discharge petition. I've been shocked at how aggressively and openly they are pushing Republicans not to do this.

Yeah. And that's been a shift, too. I mean, like, very early on the kind of line from Trump's allies was, look, we're going to put out all the Epstein stuff, all the Epstein stuff that's fit to print. You're going to get it, all of that. But as these revelations have continued to come out and just more and more, like, insane bad news for Trump and, like, just stuff. I mean, like, it's crazy. It's crazy this stuff. I did a video with Sarah this morning on, on some stuff that we got from the House Oversight Committee just today about emails between Epstein and certain of his associates, you know,

suggesting that Trump is implicated in some of this stuff personally. So, like, as all of these things have continued to pour out with the birthday letter and all of these things, they really have dropped the fig leaf more and more. And I think that what you're seeing right now, I mean, it's just been naked from the White House today. They're hauling in individual Republican Congress members and saying, look, take your name off this petition before it goes through. It doesn't look like they're succeeding. I mean, there's not a lot of Republicans on there right now.

It's just four, I believe. But it doesn't seem like they've managed to, you know, break any of them. and it looks like this is actually going to go to a full vote of the House and every single Republican is going to need to side either with, you know, Epstein transparency or with Donald Trump. I mean, it's, it's remarkable, even if we don't ever get the full, you know, the full release of the files that this petition demands, it is remarkable that they have managed to get to this point, despite months and months and months of bullying from Donald Trump and months of stonewalling from Speaker Mike Johnson. Yeah. And some of these Republicans who are not signing. the discharge petition, which, again, forces a vote, have indicated, as I noted, that they would vote for a bill to release the files. And, I mean, look, take it for what it's worth, big grain of salt, pile of salt because, you know, who knows where they come down when the actual vote happens. But you had a couple very conservative Republicans warned Davidson and Eli Crane telling

mine and Rajah at CNN that they plan to vote for a bill to release the files if it comes. And they seem like almost piqued at what was going on here. Davidson saying that he wants Pam Bondi to go before the House Judiciary Committee to what he said, do some explaining. So, you know, maybe there's a backlash brewing here with the administration. It certainly becomes a little bit harder to hold the line when you get some of these revelations. And I just want to go through something. I'm going to offer my, like, most generous interpretation to Trump on this stuff. And you can tell me I'm crazy.

The most generous interpretation to Trump is that these files show, that potentially Epstein thought that Trump was working with authorities to get Jeffrey Epstein. The dog that didn't bark could be like, oh, Donald Trump is not being mentioned in any of these contemporaneous news accounts or by any of these leading investigators because he's cooperating them, right? Like, that might be Epstein's theory of the case. That's the most generous interpretation to Trump. And even in that generous interpretation, Epstein has Trump. with, you know, emailing about Trump, being fully aware of the younger girls, being fully participant in his lifestyle, or at least a, I shouldn't say a participant, at least someone

who knew about the lifestyle. There's some emails that have been serviced of Epstein setting up Trump with a 20-year-old girlfriend. There's one email where he said Trump knew of it and that he would come to my house many times during the period. Another email, I'm just going through some of the files that we dug up. have them asked my houseman about Donald Trump almost walking through the door, leaving his nose print on the glass as young women were swimming in the pool. And he was so focused, he walked straight into the door.

This is like an email. This is like primary documentation as the president. And the guy's saying, yeah, he was so obsessed with these young women that he almost hit his face into the glass. I'm like, it's just crazy stuff. And then Howard Lucknick, who was the neighbor of Epstein, Epstein emails about him. Epstein, one point says, you see, I know how dirty Donald Trump is. I mean, this is like a treasure trove of unreal stuff that even in the most generous interpretation is, I mean, objectively crazy and bad.

It's just, we're in like very much uncharted waters here. Bullwork takes is sponsored by Com. The pressure to make the most of the final months of the year is quite real. If you woke up today thinking of all the things you should be doing, well, please stop shooting on yourself. You're doing the best you can. When the shoulds pile up, Com is a tool that I reach for. to release stress and to find space to breathe, even on the busiest days, even on those days when

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Absolutely, absolutely very much uncharted waters. And I think one thing that I keep coming back to is how untenable of a position it all puts Mike Johnson in. Because we all know what Donald Trump is going to do, right? Donald Trump is going to stonewall. Donald Trump is going to try to change the subject. He's going to say it's all a witch hunt. He's going to say he's just going to lie.

you know, like, this is just how he approaches every story, whether he's, whether he's particularly guilty or not. And there's a lot of reason to, like, to believe that there are particular reasons why he's doing that here. But if you're Mike Johnson, you know, you are trying to balance both sides of this thing. You're trying to balance the fact that ultimately you, you have to stay loyal to Trump in a lot of ways because that is what Trump is demanding of you. And that's what it means to be in the Republican Party. But you're also balancing that against these demands from the base, which are not going away. I mean, that's what you, that's, you know, you just mentioned some of these.

going away? Well, I mean, among some of the influencers, sure. But like, I mean, there is pretty quiet out there today. It has been pretty quiet out there today online from the, from the Magaray. Let's be real. Yeah, I mean, but, but, but I mean, it's been quiet. They've been, yes, but again, you're talking about influencers. We're talking about, like, people who are, like, doing, who are, like, kind of professionally obliged, whereas, like, this has been kind of a ground up thing for a lot of these people. And I think a lot of these people, so the, the, the, the, the, the thing that Mike Johnson has had to do, you know, for months now, is try to sort of like offer this substitute process. Instead of this vote to release all of the files, he wants this, this more orderly release

of them through the House Oversight Committee, where they can kind of like, you know, have more control over what comes out and what doesn't. And what he has said, the case he has made is that this, they want to do it this way because this is actually what's more fair and more respectful to Epstein's victims, right? I mean, that's the line. Not that they're like keeping back stuff that Trump doesn't want out, but that this is, you know, the best way to protect the identity of various other victims and things like that. And obviously, he has kind of gotten away with making that case. A lot of his members have found that compelling and have said they're going to stick with that. But now that you have the discharge petition, you know,

fully stocked, now that this vote is coming to the floor. And again, as this stuff just keeps coming out just the more and more insane stuff about Trump himself personally and Trump's own more and more bare-knuckle tactics about trying to like bully his own members into into line on this stuff. I just I just think it's not going to be a tenable place for Johnson to be. And I think I think you are seeing like the seeds of an actual possible floor revolt on this stuff. I mean like it's crazy. So let's say let's say you know it's going to pass, which at this point you know it's going to pass in the house. Like what are the incentives if you're a Republican to take a vote against releasing the files. I mean, you have to really fear the president's wrath or something, right?

And I just don't think that that's that compelling, which is why I can imagine a fair number of Republicans would vote for this once it does get to the floor. And look, I mean, part of the issue here is that both the intimidation campaign, which is happening right on the open, it doesn't work for Trump because it makes him just look guilty, right? The more he's turning the screws on Lauren Bobert, the more you just ask, well, why are you so intent on keeping this stuff private, right? Like, we know that you're in these files. It's very evident now, right? Like, why you, like, what has got your goat here? And then, of course, the other thing is that there's just incredible inconsistency if they were to turn around and say, no, we don't want to see this stuff. I mean, we're unearthed this

J.D. Vance tweet from 2021, where he literally, like, admonishes reporters for not caring enough about this. I mean, he writes, if you're a journalist and you're not asking questions about this case, you should be ashamed of yourself. What purpose do you even serve? I'm sure there's a middle class teenager somewhere who you could who could use some harassing right now, but maybe try to do your job once in a while, classic JD tone right there. But like, you know, if you have, if you're on the record with that type of stuff, it becomes a little bit hard to then turn around and say, oh, this is just a distraction by journalists had to get Donald Trump, right? Yeah, 100%. And can we talk for just a second about how this entire thing is like 100% an own goal on the part of the

administration, like, it is possible. It is possible we would have had this insane months-long scandal if, like, if it weren't for the precipitating event of their big theatrical rollout of the Epstein files where they summoned lives of TikTok and D.C. Drano and all those people to the White House and they traips them out with those binders in front of the cameras. Like, maybe we still would have done that, but that actually really was a precipitating event in reigniting this scandal as far as this White House is concerned. Because a whole, whole bunch of people who have wanted these files out for years looked at that and they said, now hold on.

This is ridiculous. This is like a complete kabuki theater like nonsense. Like you really expect us to believe that this is this is what you have in terms of Jeffrey Epstein. And again, maybe it still trickles out. But that really did precipitate this entire month's long process of rake stepping on the part of the administration that has just kept this whipped into a frenzy ever since. I mean, it's just, it's bizarre.

I mean, how long? When was that? was that like March or April that it was early the day from me it was early in the administration and it was total self-owned right like there was no reason to do it and the reporting on it was that they just wanted to give them something and then of course they turned around like wait a second all this stuff is already public uh but there's like a lot of you know there's a lot of like inflection points i suppose in this right like obviously none of this would matter if they hadn't spent the past four years prior to trump winning back office saying there's

a big cabal happening here right like i mean they they up the and ante for this stuff. And then, of course, which by the way, by the way, sidebar on that, that has been the other weird thing about these, about these, these, you know, these, these massive tranches of, of emails that have just been released today, not just these ones, not Trump, but like all of these people, like random New York Times reporters, obviously on like sort of like buddy, buddy terms with Epstein and Michael Wolfe is like out there helping him do his PR stuff. I mean, it's like, it's crazy how well connected he was. Yeah, he was talking with like Russian officials, like saying, hey, get Lavrov in touch with me so that

I can, like, let him know how to work Trump. But it's like, this guy clearly, you know, I didn't, maybe I didn't appreciate just how interconnected he was with the global elite. But he definitely was. I mean, go look at the top barric email. I mean, this guy's now the ambassador to the Turkey, right? So it's like, he ran Trump's transition. There's like weird shit happening all over the place in a way that I didn't appreciate. I was, I was going to say in terms of the sort of like inflection point sliding doors moments, though.

I mean, the other one that now is more recent is, of course, and Tim, our colleague Tim Miller brought this up, is Democrats deciding to reopen the government, right? So, like, let's say in theory they hadn't decided to reopen the government. We would still be in a shutdown. Snap benefits would not be going out. Obviously, they'd still be fighting over health care, and there maybe could have been some progress on getting those Obamacare subsidies extended, but you wouldn't have Grahava seated and you wouldn't have the production of these documents

and you wouldn't have the discharge petition, at least at this point. Maybe it would have happened down the road, although there's some timing issues with it. But look, this is this is the case that people who are for settling the shutdown we're making is that other business does need to go on. And that business is important. And maybe it's not like the biggest win for Republicans if you move on to the next order of business. So food for thought, I suppose. You're not going to take debate because you were anti-cave. I was anti-cave in a lot of ways.

I don't, I mean, I just don't know. I don't know behind the scenes like how much of the timing of these things was like sort of coincidental. I don't know. Because in theory, no, because House Overside actually did shut down its Epstein stuff during the shutdown, right? So this all was just completely on ice until

I don't know, Democratic staffers. Imagine having this in your back pocket and through the shutdown, I mean like, oh my God, oh my God, get this thing over with that one, release this stuff. The timing is either really unfortunate for Trump or it is actually deliberate on the part of the Democrats on the Oversight Committee to put this out on the morning

of the Grahalva swearing in, right? To just just tee it all. I think it's got to be. It's deliberate, but it's deliberate, obviously, but it was going to happen no matter what. It's just a matter when. And then it did, there's like a weird historical parallel here, but I'm not going to get into it with like the 2013 shutdown. How almost we're following almost the exact same pattern where everyone thought Republicans had blown it. There's a bunch of infighting. And like two days later, healthcare.gov is exploding. And they're like, oh my God, we have this scandal. The tables turned very quickly. Anyways, that's where we stand.

And you did a great job doing that. Very, very brief. All right, buddy, thank you. To the people who set up the Wi-Fi in this hotel, thank you. It looks like I managed to make it through the recording intact. We'll see if it uploads. We'll be following this storyline. Obviously, when they vote, we'll come back.

We'll do this all over again. There's so much more to unearth, especially from the files themselves, which are incredibly juicy and scandalous. Andrew, take care, buddy.