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Up First from NPR

Epstein Troubles In Congress, 2016 Election Interference, Columbia Student Discipline

Up First from NPR

NPR

Daily News, News

4.552.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

House Republicans went home early for summer recess to avoid dragging out a fight over the Jeffrey Epstein saga, President Trump's spy chief published Obama-era emails claiming a conspiracy, and dozens of Columbia students are being suspended or expelled for their participation in pro-Palestinian protests.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Krishnadev Calamur, Denice Rios, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

House Republicans are breaking early for summer recess to end a fight over releasing information about Jeffrey Epstein.

0:08.2

I think that Americans want to see justice and transparency.

0:12.2

Will the controversy die down on its own?

0:14.4

I'm Michelle Martin. That's Sasha Pfeiffer, and this is up first from NPR News.

0:20.8

President Trump claims President Obama manipulated intelligence about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

0:27.4

Trump's Director of National Intelligence has released documents that she says are proof of this claim.

0:32.5

What do those documents actually say?

0:34.4

And Columbia University has suspended or expelled dozens of students for participating

0:39.4

in a pro-Palestinian protest last spring. The university is still in talks with the Trump

0:44.4

administration to try to get its federal research funding restored. Stay with us. We'll give you

0:49.4

the news you need to start your day.

1:00.8

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1:06.7

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1:08.4

no markups or hidden fees.

1:13.2

Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply.

1:20.0

Today, House Speaker Mike Johnson is sending lawmakers home early for their annual August recess.

1:27.3

Johnson is trying to avoid dragging out a fight among Republicans over releasing the details of federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein,

1:32.5

and Johnson defended the decision to shut down the House floor during the fight to release the records.

1:37.8

We have a moral responsibility to expose the evil of Epstein, and everybody was involved in that.

1:43.0

Absolutely. And we're resolved to do it. But we also have an equal moral responsibility to protect the innocent.

2:00.9

Republicans hope the controversy will die down while they're away, but some are betting that won't be the case. NPR, congressional correspondent Claudia Krasales, has been following this, and is with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Claudia. Good morning, Michelle. So the Republican-Lid House was due to leave Thursday for more than a month. they've already voted on some of their biggest priorities, and they were planning to get out of town by the end of the week anyway. Is leaving

2:05.6

a day early really a big deal? It really is. It's pretty rare to see the house floor

...

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