Congress Votes to Release Epstein Files

The Beat with Ari Melber

Ari Melber, MS NOW

Government, Ms Now, Versant, Versant Media, Daily News, Politics, News

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

November 18, 2025; 6pm: A major loss for Donald Trump today, MS NOW's Ari Melber reports on how Republicans went from opposing any vote to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act to joining Democrats to back it almost unanimously, and how that weakens Trump's legislative strategy. Rick Wilson, Ayanna Pressley, Alex Wagner, and Molly Jong-Fast join.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbourne. We're reporting on what is a major and now swift loss for Donald Trump today, the House and Senate agreeing on a bill to force the Trump administration to release the full Epstein files. Here's how that action played out in the House.
0:17.8	The bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
0:26.1	That's how it went down. Congress united against President Trump, forcing him and his administration to release the files that they have been withholding.
0:34.4	The push began earlier this year with Democrats using a rare method to override the
0:39.2	Republican Speaker. They picked off some Republicans against Trump. Tonight we can see how that
0:43.4	strategy worked. Republicans retreated, going from opposing any Epstein vote to virtually all of them
0:49.5	joining Democrats to back this within one vote of unanimously. That's in the House. And now, unanimously in the
0:56.8	Senate, more on how that vote count will weaken Trump's legislative strategy. I'll get into that
1:01.5	in a moment. Now, this is moving fast. Trump losing all control of the process, this news breaking
1:06.8	within the last hour, rocking the Trump White House. It looked unthinkable to Trump just a week ago.
1:12.7	His Republican defense is cracking in the Senate, too, where Republicans buckled and just
1:17.1	allowed Senator Schumer to bring the Epstein bill to the floor, and that's through a unanimous
1:21.2	agreement.
1:21.6	That means not a single Republican senator was left to back the strategy Trump has been using all year through this week,
1:29.9	blocking or delaying a vote.
1:31.7	And that bought him about 302 days in the House.
1:34.8	Thanks to Mike Johnson trying everything, even avoiding holding House sessions rather than facing this today.
1:41.1	Now, here's what the House voted for.
1:43.1	Using its power to force the Trump administration
1:45.1	to release all the files. Okay, that means files related to Epstein and his travel and Maxwell, his
1:55.2	convicted co-conspirator. It means that they will try to get the information about others
1:59.5	linked to Epstein's crime from people to companies.
	...

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