Have the Epstein Files Broken MAGA?

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News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

You can’t really blame Donald Trump for thinking he could just handwave away the Epstein Files. But for the first time in what feels like forever, his base, the GOP, and his own desires don’t quite align. Guest: Will Sommer, senior reporter at the Bulwark. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just for a moment, I invite you to consider the wild journey we've been on over the last week
0:12.4	when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein.
0:17.8	Epstein is, of course, a wealthy investor, notorious for trafficking teenage girls.
0:23.8	For years, he was close with Donald Trump.
0:26.9	As president, Trump has faced increasing pressure to release investigatory files into his old friend.
0:35.0	Last Wednesday, it seemed the dam was beginning to break.
0:41.4	This is CNN breaking news.
0:45.2	All right, we do have breaking news in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
0:50.8	First, House Democrats released a few choice emails they had in their possession.
0:58.0	This is one from April 2, 2011.
1:00.9	And in this email, Jeffrey Epstein writes to Galane Maxwell and says, quote,
1:04.7	I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is Trump.
1:09.7	And then in a separate email, years later, with author Michael Wolf in 2019, Epstein said
1:16.6	explicitly that Donald Trump, quote, knew about the girls as he asked.
1:21.0	After that, House Republicans released tens of thousands of pages more, which put the White House on the defensive.
1:29.5	These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.
1:35.8	And what President Trump has...
1:36.7	Will Sommar over at the bulwark says these messages have gone off like a bomb in Maga World.
1:43.7	This is sort of a situation that is haunting the Trump administration in a way that I don't
1:48.5	think anyone predicted.
1:50.1	The CBC reported Trump's name is in here 1,500 times. It's a lot.
1:54.2	It's crazy. I mean, you have people like Steve Bannon appearing in the names as well.
	...

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