Senator Van Hollen On Epstein: Release The Damn Files!
What A Day
What A Day
4.6 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
Congress is back. It’s back and it has a lot of work to do. If Congress doesn’t fund the government by the end of September, the government will close up shop. And while Democrats have demanded meetings with President Donald Trump and his loyal GOP to drum up a bipartisan spending bill, Republicans don’t seem too inclined to work with their colleagues across the aisle. But preventing a shutdown is just one bullet point on Congress’ agenda. On Wednesday, survivors of convicted sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein spoke on Capitol Hill in an effort to get answers and more information on his crimes. It came a day after the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 documents related to the Epstein investigation. So, for more on Epstein, and a potential government shutdown, we spoke with Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.
And in headlines: Florida’s Surgeon General tries to connect vaccine mandates to slavery, Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey tells the Washington Post she's going to keep working after the House rejected a resolution to censure her, and rumors are floating around that the Trump administration might offer New York City Mayor Eric Adams a new gig.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Thursday, September 4th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Waddey. |
| 0:06.0 | The show is celebrating Newsmax for its lawsuit against Fox News, because Fox News is dominating the, quote, right-leaning pay TV news market. |
| 0:15.2 | Yes, Newsmax, please spend lots of money on a lawsuit against Fox News because there can only be one winner in the |
| 0:22.4 | right-leaning pay TV news market. Have fun. On today's show, Florida Surgeon General very |
| 0:33.6 | proudly announces that the state is working to end vaccine mandates. And rumors are swirling about the possibility of the Trump administration |
| 0:40.0 | offering New York City Mayor Eric Adams a job to get him out of the mayoral race. |
| 0:45.3 | But let's start with Congress. |
| 0:47.1 | Remember Congress? |
| 0:48.5 | Well, like school, autumn and the backstreet boys, Congress is back in session. |
| 0:55.1 | And there's a lot to do. |
| 1:00.0 | Let's start with the potential for a government shutdown. If Congress doesn't fund the government by midnight on September 30th, the government will close up shop. Democrats have demanded meetings |
| 1:05.7 | with President Donald Trump and the GOP to create a bipartisan spending bill. That's because |
| 1:10.5 | the Republicans need the Democrats, at least seven of them in the SenateP to create a bipartisan spending bill. That's because the Republicans need |
| 1:11.7 | the Democrats, at least seven of them in the Senate, to pass something. But Trump and the GOP don't seem |
| 1:17.3 | inclined to do any dealmaking, even if that means the government shuts down. And House Speaker Mike |
| 1:22.2 | Johnson made his thoughts clear on that possibility Wednesday. If the government shuts down, |
| 1:26.9 | it'll be because congressional Democrats rejected common-sense |
| 1:30.4 | solutions to fund the government and instead caved to their far left base. |
| 1:34.9 | That's right. Sure, the GOP has the majority in the House and Senate, but really it's the fault |
| 1:38.8 | of Democrats for everything. But preventing a shutdown isn't the only task ahead of Congress. On Wednesday, |
| 1:46.1 | survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein spoke on Capitol Hill, demanding answers |
| 1:50.6 | and more information on his crimes. We'll talk more about that press conference later in the show. |
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