The U.S. House of Representatives is headed for August recess after Speaker Mike Johnson cut House business short amid the political furor related to Jeffrey Epstein.

House Democrats, meanwhile, have spent this week introducing amendments for a full House vote on whether the federal government should be forced to release documents related to the Epstein investigation.

To discuss that political battle and House Republicans' priorities were joined now by Republican

Congressman Mike Herodopoulos of Florida. Congressman, welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for me.

Great to be here. I'm honored. So at this point in time, six months into the Trump administration,

the second Trump administration, the president's

passed a major budget bill, he had great NATO meetings overseas, the successful Iranian strikes.

I know Jeffrey Epstein is not what he wants to be talking about, and yet many in his base,

many in the party want more information and want him to make good on the pledge to release

that information. Should he do that? I think so. I think that's the progress we're making towards today. I think the quicker, the better. But, of course, one make the innocent their names redacted, who are not involved in this mess. But we've heard about it for years. I wish that Biden administration had done something the last four years when they held onto these files. But that said,

I think that transparency is the ultimate disinfected. It's the reason why I created what's called the Ledger Act, where every dollar should be online. Let's put everything out in the sunshine and let the cards fall as they may. I think that's the best way to restore trust in government. So why do you think there's been this hesitation we've seen so far? The Attorney General basically saying, I have the files on my desk, they're coming out and then saying, we're not going to be

releasing them. That's what's fueling this frustration among some in your base. What's behind that? Well, I think that's the fair assessment. I think people are frustrated. They've waited a long time. They thought it would come out. I think we're in the last throes of it. Our speaker, Speaker Johnson wants the same. He wants it out transparent. I think once we get back from the August reset, which is already planned, this is not some thing that people didn't expect. But I think hopefully... It was moved up a bit, to be fair. Yeah, but by a day. I mean, we got our agenda through, as you know. But that said, I think in September we should expect to see all of this. Again, let's keep the innocent out of it. Let's redact some names who are not players in this. But people who have been abusing kids potentially, they need to be exposed. This is a horrific act that supposedly happened on these islands. And I think the more transparency we have this, the better. And Kenyon, let's be honest, if there was something really bad about President Trump and this thing, I think the government would have used it, or I should say the Biden administration would have used it a long ago. They tried to go literally put them in prison many times. If they had something really bad, I think they would have released it. So you're saying by September, we should be seeing the release of those files, even if they involve President Trump's name related to those files. We have to let the cards fall as they may. And my belief is, based on what we understand, if there was something really bad about the president, the Biden administration would have used it against them. So six months in, as I noticed, I need to put to you where the rest of the country is looking at the president right now. The latest Gallup polling shows President Trump's disapproval rating

has dipped to its lowest of the term so far. It's 37%. It's just above what you call his

all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term. And that rating, Congressman, has

fallen 10 points since the beginning of this administration. What do you think is behind that?

Well, I think it's just a lack of information for this reason. You started our show today very

strongly. We passed the big budget bill. We actually kept their promises to cut taxes on

tips in overtime, let alone Social Security for people who worked for a lifetime. We had a major

strike against our longtime enemy, that being Iran. The enemy, the thorn in our

sides is 1979. The stock market is at record highs. We don't have the inflation that people thought

would happen with the tariffs. And there's a lot of good news out there. I can't wait to get

back in the district and talk about our success over the last six months. We made a set of promises

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