Welcome to the beat, everyone. I'm Ari Melbert. We begin with the Epstein uproar continuing new details

today that undercut White House claims as well as fueling more questions. NBC News reporting top

officials did huddle last night specifically to discuss the Epstein scandal and what they will do

about ongoing questions and transparency, something that VP Vance basically all but denied yesterday.

Maybe Trump officials are rattled. Maybe they don't have one story to tell. The meeting followed

that messaging from the president who handed the ball, handed the mic to vice president,

Vance, who said they weren't going to be doing that kind of meeting, call that fake news.

But the reporting says that Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel of meeting, call that fake news. But the reporting says that

Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel were there and that this occurred different than

some of the initial reports ultimately at the White House. Now, if the location changed, but the

topics and meeting participants stayed the same, it looks like basically the core point of the early reporting that

they were so quick to deny that there was a kind of high-level emergency Epstein meeting still

happened. Now, here's Vance and Trump, as mentioned.

It's completely fake news. We're not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation. And I think

the reporter, it reported it needs to get

better sources. Look, the whole thing is a hoax. It's put out by the Democrats because we've had the

most successful six months in the history of our country, and that's just a way of trying to

divert attention to something that's total bullshit.

The president there, who has increasingly sounded disinhibited in this second term,

swearing in public, not something we usually see from presidents,

but more important in the rhetoric are the underlying facts.

That contrary to the denials, there is evidence in reporting, there is a meeting,

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