July 16, 2025: Trump’s Epstein conundrum

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Government, Politics

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

There’s a glut of action from Republicans throughout Washington — from new economic messaging from the White House to a big rescissions vote in the Senate to a new crypto bill in the House. But the big topic of conversation in D.C. continues to be the DOJ’s non-release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. That’s frustrating President Donald Trump, who has grown accustomed to being able to change the topic du jour when it doesn’t suit him, as POLITICO White House reporter Megan Messerly tells Playbook contributing author Adam Wren. It’s delighting Democrats, who continue to troll the GOP over it. And it’s splitting Republicans, including many prominent members of Congress who are calling on the Justice Department to release the files. Where do things head from here? Megan and Adam talk through the potential political implications.

Transcript

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0:00.0	presented by BP.
0:08.4	Hello, I'm Adam Wren.
0:10.3	And I'm Megan Messerly.
0:11.7	It's Wednesday, July 16th.
0:14.0	And this is the Playbook podcast.
0:16.9	And as you can hear, we have Politica White House reporter extraordinaire Megan Messerly here with us today in Dasha's Stead.
0:24.7	Great to have you, Megan.
0:25.9	Thanks so much for taking time.
0:27.7	Yeah, thanks for having me, Adam.
0:29.4	So without further ado, here are the topics driving the day.
0:33.7	First up, the battle for the future of the Democratic Party will come into sharp focus in Washington
0:39.4	today on a few different fronts. There is, of course, the progressives versus moderates
0:45.5	fight. This morning, Zoran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, comes to
0:51.3	D.C. for a breakfast event being hosted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio
0:56.5	Cortez. Bernie Sanders is also expected to meet with Mom Dani. Megan, this comes as Democrats and
1:03.2	primaries throughout the nation are battling it out right now over whether the party should take a more
1:08.6	progressive populist approach. What are you hearing from
1:12.2	your sources? It seems like there's a real conversation happening between sort of elites and
1:17.8	populist here and the background. Yeah, there absolutely is. And I mean, this is sort of a tale as
1:23.3	oldest time, but I think we're seeing the latest iteration of this fight come into sharp relief
1:28.6	here. On the Trump side of the equation, I think the White House and the president are more than
1:33.6	happy to see the Democrats lean in on the progressive side. That's partly what the president
	...

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