Up First from NPR - Trump's Epstein Reversal, US Military Pressure On Venezuela, Charlotte Border Patrol

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

President Trump suddenly reverses course on the Epstein files, urging Republicans to support a House vote on Tuesday that he was previously trying to block. In the Caribbean, a major U.S. military buildup raises new questions about the administration’s strategy toward Venezuela as Trump claims President Maduro “would like to talk.” And in Charlotte, North Carolina, a new Border Patrol operation sparks fear and confusion after immigration enforcement agents fan out across the city with little warning.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Tara Neill, Kevin Drew, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Martha Ann Overland.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lindsay Totty.We get engineering support from Damian Herring. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Join us again tomorrowLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump was on the verge of losing a vote over the Epstein files, then he flipped to say he favors the vote to release information about the convicted sex offender. He didn't say the Justice Department will release the files, so why the flip-flop? I'm Stevenskeep with A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. The U.S. military presence in the Caribbean got much larger over the weekend. We may be having some discussions with Maduro. The president says Venezuela's president would like to talk, even as the U.S. sends its largest warships toward its coast. And border agents spread across Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend.

Residents say they were picking people at random. You really need to go outside for an emergency. If you try to stay, just stay home. Be safe. The raids caught local officials off guard. We'll hear how the community is responding. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial.

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Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC, wherever you get podcasts. President Trump abruptly reversed his opinion about a vote on the Epstein files. Trump now says he is in favor of a vote to release information about the convicted sex offender who was his friend for years. The president and his allies in Congress resisted this vote for months. It now seems that many Republicans will join Democrats in voting against the president, so last night the president raised to get in front of that defeat, saying he approves of the vote and, quote, we have nothing to hide. Notably, the House is voting for the Justice Department that Trump controls to release whatever information it has, which Trump,

Attorney General previously declined to do. NPR's Luke Garrett is with us. Trump is now telling Republicans they should vote to tell him to act, Luke, why he change now? Yeah, that's right. And we need to go back a few days to better understand this move and this moment. Last week, Representative Thomas Massey

of Kentucky, a Republican, and Rokana of California, a Democrat, gather 218 signatures. That's enough to force a vote on the release of the DOG documents regarding the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. And a source familiar, but not authorized to share the House scheduled publicly confirmed that Speaker Johnson would bring this vote up on Tuesday.

This teed up a really difficult vote for Republicans who had to decide whether to vote with Trump and against the bill or vote to release the Epstein files. And this was also tough for Trump himself, who faced dozens of potential defectors. All right, so if the vote is on Tuesday, why did Trump make this Sunday late-night announcement? Well, in his social media post last night, Trump said he wanted the GOP to move on from what he called the Democratic hoax and distraction. And notably on the Sunday morning news shows, two House Republicans publicly and loudly rebuked Trump over the Epstein files. On ABC News, Massey took a warning shot against Trump's legacy and any GOP member willing to vote against his bill. In 2030, he's not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles if you don't vote to release these files, and the president can't protect you. Massey then said he believed 100 or more House Republicans would vote for the Epstein file bill, even though only a handful of,

signed on to force the ballot. Wasn't one of them Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Green? Yeah, that's right. And Trump recently called her a traitor and revoked his political endorsement from her after she became more critical of his policies. When asked why she and Trump had this falling out, Green told CNN, unfortunately it has all come down to the Epstein files, and that is shocking. Now, both Massey and Green said they don't believe Trump himself will be implicated in the files, but these public breaks with the president, represent a growing and powerful fissure in the party. Okay, so now that Trump is telling all Republicans to vote for the Epstein-file bill,

what happens now? Well, my sources say the House vote is still set for Tuesday, and with Trump giving Republicans permission to support it, and every Democrat signing the discharge petition, this bill has a really good chance of advancing. In the Senate, it remains unclear if and when Majority Leader John Thune will bring this up for a vote. But again, Trump's endorsement of the bill does not hurt, and Thune has said in the last few weeks, he likes this idea of greater transparency.

But even if it passes through Congress and the White House, lawmakers Massey and Kana were warning yesterday that the files might still be kept from the public. So after all that, how could that be possible? Well, Massey and Kana raised alarm over the new Justice Department investigation into the Epstein case, something it declined to do a few months back. Trump referenced this in his post last night. He said his DOJ is, quote, looking at various Democrat operatives, Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.

and their relationships to Epstein, end quote. Massey told ABC News that these investigations could mask the documents further. If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can't be released. So this might be a big smokescreen. The Justice Department has not yet responded to my request for comment on whether an investigation would, in fact, bar them from releasing these documents, even if a law told them to do so. That's NPR's Luke. Thanks a lot.

You bet. The Trump administration is putting more pressure on Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Over the weekend, the U.S.'s most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean, joining nearly a dozen other naval warships that are already there. The president has been weighing military options against Venezuela, and he told reporters last night that Maduro appears ready to talk. We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we'll see how that turns out. They would like to talk.

The U.S. has been blowing up small boats, leaving Venezuela and other South American countries, claiming they are transporting drugs. The open question is what else the U.S. means to do. For more, we go to NPR's Kerry Khan, who is in Boathe, Colombia. So, Carrie, what has Maduro said about the buildup off the coast of Venezuela? Over the weekend, he gathered supporters, and he announced this plan to rally civilians to defend Venezuela against attack. But listen to this. the crowd, he just wants peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, everything for peace, he says,

like the John Lennon song, Imagine, which he then began to sing in English. Yesterday, the U.S. said it will designate the Cartel de los Soles, which they claim Maduro leads as a foreign terrorist organization. Maduro denies he's a trafficker. Yeah, that designation would allow the U.S. military to target Maduro's assets in Venezuela. So what are people in Venezuela saying about any imminent U.S. strike? Well, the thing is, I can't get into the country, eh? We've been asking for a visa for months, and I'm waiting here in neighboring Colombia with our latest ask. The country's opposition leader, though, Maria Corina Machado, she put out quite a interesting message yesterday,

urging Maduro's security apparatus to defy his orders. Bajen the arms. She says, lower your arms, don't attack your people. She says the decisive hour in Venezuela's liberation is coming, and she urged people to be heroes. Machado's been living in hiding since last year's elections that were widely condemned, and many, including the USA, were stolen by Maduro. But there's a lot of talk now that she actually left the country and is on her way to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize next month.

It's unclear if she will be allowed back. in the country. Now, you were just in Ecuador yesterday. That's neighboring Venezuela and Colombia, where voters are rejected referendum that would have let the U.S. set up a military basis to fight against drug traffickers. Why the no vote? It was really a bit of a surprise, given just the surge and drug gang related violence there. It's just overtaken that country. And multiple Trump officials have been visiting Ecuador recently. They've been backing the young conservative president there, who is a staunch Trump ally. The measure included rewriting the Constitution. And for many, like this no voter, Rosita Guchamil, a 48-year-old homemaker in Quito,

and this was really a no-confidence vote for President Daniel Noboa. She says we just don't trust him anymore. She says he'll rewrite the Constitution to favor himself, and she didn't want to give the U.S. what she said would have been a blank check. That's NPR's Carrie Khan in Bogota, Colombia. Carrie, thanks. You're welcome. Border Patrol agents fanned out across Charlotte, North Carolina over the weekend, detaining people outside supermarkets, laundromats, auto shops, even a church. It's the latest city to see a federal immigration crackdown. Similar operations came in Chicago and Los Angeles. Nick Dela Canal with member station WFAE has been following this and joins us once again. Nick, welcome back.

Thank you. What's it like to be around Charlotte right now? Well, we started to see this crackdown Saturday morning when the city woke up to dozens of Border Patrol agents driving through Charlotte in unmarked vans, especially along the city's major immigrant corridors. And very quickly, videos started circulating online of agents chasing people down sidewalks,

breaking the car window of a man who later said he was a U.S. citizen. Agents were also filmed questioning landscapers who were putting up Christmas lights in a front yard. And, you know, it created a lot of, of chaos. One of the people I spoke with was Jessica Arias, who owns an auto shop in East Charlotte, and she says one of her employees was detained after agents pulled up and chased him. They just came random. They are picking people around. They are not here for delinquents. They are here for working people. And then that sense of chaos really continued on into Sunday when a man was

hospitalized for medical episode as agents were trying to detain him outside of church. Very interested by those details, questioning people who are working, breaking the window of someone who says he's a U.S. citizen. But what is Customs and Border Protection saying about all this? Well, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said agents arrested 81 people on Saturday. We're still waiting on numbers from Sunday. What we don't know is who these people are. The agency hasn't released names or charges. Bovino has shared photos on social media of some of the people arrested, saying they had DUIs or criminal histories, but he hasn't identified them, so we really can't say for sure.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement saying it surged agents to Charlotte to, quote, ensure Americans are safe and safety threats are removed. Ensuring Americans are safe? So when you talk to residents, are they feeling safe? Well, the residents I spoke with, especially in immigrant communities, say they are very fearful right now. You know, I was walking down Central Avenue on Saturday, which is lined with Hispanic businesses. I saw restaurants lock their doors with customers inside. other shops closed early and sent workers home. Some people told me that they're essentially going into hiding. I talked with a construction worker Lopez Nunez, outside of Walmart on Sunday.

He said he's keeping his undocumented wife and newborn home for the week. You really need to go outside for an emergency. If you try to stay, just stay home, be safe and don't open the door for eyes. And in a joint statement, Charlotte Mayor Vailail said agents were causing unnecessary fear and that she stands with residents who want to simply go about their lives. So what is the broader plan of immigration authorities here, as far as you know? We don't really know. We don't know how long this operation will last.

DHS hasn't said. We are seeing some community pushback. You know, there was a big protest in Uptown on Saturday, and advocacy groups are recruiting volunteers to monitor agents. We've already seen some tense confrontations between activists and agents. And so I think what we can expect is for the tension. to grow for as long as this operation continues. Nick Dela Canal of member station WFAE, thanks for the update.

Thank you. That's up first for Monday, November 17th. And I'm Steve Inskeep. The news you hear on Up First is possible because of the people who use it. People like you, when you give to your local NPR station, you help to keep journalists on the ground here at home and around the world. You can make a donation by going to donate.NPR.com. org slash Up First. And for more news and conversations, listen to the radio. Morning Edition is hosted by the same people as this program. You can find it on your local NPR station or at npr.com. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Tara Neal, Kevin Drew, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Martha and Overland. It was produced by Ziat Butch, Nia Dumas, and Lindsay Toddy. We got engineering support from Damian Herring, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.