Trump Loses Monthslong Bid to Stop Epstein Vote

The Beat with Ari Melber

Ari Melber, MS NOW

Government, Ms Now, Versant, Versant Media, Daily News, Politics, News

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

November 17, 2025; 6pm: MSNBC’s Ari Melber hosts The Beat and reports on Trump's apparent reversal of stance on the release of the Epstein files. Maya Wiley, Gretchen Carlson, and Bill Kristol join. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're watching The Beat with Ari Melbaugh on MS now amid the countdown to Congress voting on releasing the Epstein files.
0:08.7	The vote is expected tomorrow.
0:10.1	Anything can happen, but that's the current congressional guidance.
0:13.1	The plan is for the House to vote on a bipartisan measure to release the Epstein files that the Trump administration, the DOJ specifically, has been holding and refusing to release.
0:23.8	Now, I'm going to walk through this with you because I've heard a lot of stuff about the Epstein files, frankly for years, but especially today.
0:30.9	And so let's start with the facts.
0:33.3	The Trump administration has now had about 300 days in office and has refused to release any of the Epstein files in that time.
0:42.5	Trump has also spent the better part of this year refusing to release the Epstein material.
0:47.8	The issue has come up in many ways.
0:49.3	He has been asked about it.
0:50.6	In public, he has been pressed about it by journalists, and he has, of course, watched as the Congress move towards wanting to do this. His DOJ can release these files within
1:01.4	the law any time. There may be some technicalities, victims' names, grand jury material,
1:06.8	certain things that are protected. But they have the material, and they can release the bulk of
1:10.5	it anytime, and they haven't. So we know Donald Trump opposes actually releasing the files
1:17.5	because he has not released the files. Sometimes this stuff gets pretty simple. There's also reporting
1:24.4	that he specifically barred his attorney general from releasing the files per Axios,
1:29.6	but even without those internal specifics, the buck stops with the president, and he won't release the files.
1:36.1	And that has been the state of play all year. And whether you follow the news all the time,
1:42.5	daily news, watch TV, get it on your phone and internet, or just
1:45.9	checking occasionally, you probably are aware of that baseline. So you say, okay, Ari, got a big vote
1:51.4	tomorrow, what's the big deal? How do we get here? Well, just remember because Trump is now in
1:57.4	retreat. So there has been some spin and some other talk. But remember, the Trump secrecy,
	...

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