July 23, 2025: The Epstein crisis reaches escape velocity

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

For more than two weeks, the Jeffrey Epstein saga has blotted out the sun in Washington. But it’s only now — with the House heading out for a monthlong recess as GOP leaders adjourn the chamber rather than allow a floor vote that would hasten the release of the Epstein files — that the storyline is threatening to break out of the bubble and follow congressional Republicans back to their districts, nudged along by gleeful Democrats. Playbook contributing author Adam Wren and chief correspondent Dasha Burns talk through what that might look like, the potential pitfalls for Democrats and Republicans and what President Donald Trump finds especially frustrating about the whole ordeal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	presented by BP.
0:07.9	Hello, I'm Adam Wren.
0:09.9	And I'm Dasha Burns.
0:11.2	It is Wednesday, July 23rd.
0:13.3	And this is the Playbook podcast.
0:15.9	Without further ado, here are the topics driving the day.
0:19.4	First up, congressional Republicans are struggling to break free from the Epstein storyline. Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to send his members home for August recess early instead of letting the Epstein controversy take over the House floor. But more on that in a minute.
0:35.2	Our second item is Trump advancing a message of his own on a wholly different
0:39.4	topic, or trying to at least. Later today, the president will be speaking at the winning
0:44.3	the AI race summit hosted by the All-In podcast and the Hill and Valley Forum. The summit is being
0:51.8	touted as a chance to, quote, highlight the opportunity for AI to reshape the
0:55.5	American industry, the global economy, and the important role the government will play in
1:00.1	supporting the transition to an AI economy. Dasha, if I'm not mistaken, this is the second AI
1:05.7	related event with the White House in his many weeks. The second in two weeks, that's right. This
1:10.4	really is a massive priority for the Trump administration.
1:13.8	This is something he wants to see the U.S. really lead on a global stage, particularly when
1:19.2	it comes to our competition with China.
1:21.5	He was in Pittsburgh last week with Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick and a whole
1:26.3	bunch of industry leaders. And AI really did
1:29.2	dominate that conversation about energy and pretty much everything else. So expect him to really
1:35.7	tout how much this administration is going to do to help accelerate innovation in the AI space.
1:41.6	Do you think that Trump's AI and crypto czar, David Sacks,
	...

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