July 24, 2025

House GOP Runs From Epstein Vote,

Show Notes
Transcript

The Justice Department wants to meet with Jeffrey Epstein's partner in crime, Speaker Johnson sends Congress home early to avoid an awkward vote, and Trump calls the Marcos family "highly respected" - apparently forgetting the whole "chased out by revolution" thing.

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Callaroga Shark Media from Washington, DC, where seriously released the

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Epstein files. Already, this is ballance, that's right, and I'm

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about to release my own list, So let's hit this. Hi.

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I'm Patrick Gutfield, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced

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he wants to meet with Julie Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime

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associate who's currently serving twenty years in federal prison for

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sex trafficking. Blanche says he's acting on Trump's instructions to

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release all credible evidence about the case. Now, this is

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interesting timing. The announcement came just hours before a House

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committee voted to subpoena Maxwell, and just days after The

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Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent Epstein a birthday

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greeting in two thousand and three, expressing their close friendship.

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So we're moving from I barely knew the guy to

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let's interview his business partner. That's quite a pivot. Blanche

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misspelled Maxwell's first name in his announce which is either

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sloppy work or he's so unfamiliar with the case he

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doesn't know how to spell the defendant's name. Either way,

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not great, or maybe he's a genius who wants us

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to think he's going to interview that in Maxwell, but

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actually just going to meet with someone with a similar name,

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like wanting to interview Michael B. Jordan. But then the

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guy from the Chicago Bulls shows up. Pretty crafty move

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there by, Todd Blanche. Maybe I will start releasing the

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Epstein files. Epstein spelled with two e's. The first name

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in those Epstein files with two e's is a guy

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named Donald Trump, who spells his last name with two

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ms and is clearly a parody. Cowardly speaker Mike Johnson

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just sent the house home early to avoid voting on

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releasing Jeffrey Epstein files. He cut the legislative week short

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and scheduled recess for Wednesday afternoon, which is the political

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equivalent of faking a headache to get out of a

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dinner party. Johnson said, we're done being lectured on transparency

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at a news conference where he looked about as comfortable

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as a vegetarian at a barbecue contest. He complained about

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endless efforts to politicize the Epstein investigation while simultaneously politicizing

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the Epstein investigation by refusing to hold a vote on it.

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Here's what happened. Democrats on the House Rules Committee kept

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demanding votes on releasing Epstein files. Republicans didn't want to

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go on record because they're afraid of their own voters

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who actually want these files released. So instead of facing

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their constituents, they're just going home. That's leadership. The House

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was supposed to vote on immigration measures, permitting bills, and

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rolling back Biden regulations, but they can't do any of

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that because the Rules Committee is paralyzed by the Epstein issue.

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So rather than deal with it, they're taking a five

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week vacation. Must be nice. Representative Marjorie Taylor Green said

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crimes have been committed. If there's no justice and no accountability,

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people are going to get sick of it, which is

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probably the most reasonable thing she said in years, and

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that should tell you something about the situation. Representative Ralph

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Norman from South Carolina criticized his own leaders for stalling

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and said the American people deserve action, not excuses. Meanwhile,

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Representative Thomas Massey from Kentucky plans to force a vote

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in September using something called a discharge petition. Johnson's response,

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I don't know how his mind works. I don't know

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what he's thinking. Bless his heart. That's Southern for this

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guy's an idiot. But when you're avoiding a vote your

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own base once, maybe the idiot is the guy running

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away from his own members. So to recap, Republicans control

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the House, but they can't pass their own agenda because

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they're afraid to vote on something their voters actually support.

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That's not governing, that's just advanced procrastination. President Trump met

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with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Junior and called his family

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highly respected. Now, Trump says he knew the Marcos family

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back in the eighties, which explains a lot about Trump's

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judgment in the eighties. Here's what Trump didn't mention. Marcos

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Junior's father was literally chased out of office by his

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own people in a revolution. The elder Marcos was a

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dictator who was so unpopular that even the Reagan administration,

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and this is Ronald Reagan we're talking about, told him

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it was time to pack it up and go home.

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When Reagan thinks you're too authoritarian, you've really crossed a line.

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But Trump called them highly respective, that's like calling the

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Titanic unsinkable. After watching the movie. We all know how

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this story ends. The younger Marcos has become a close

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American ally, mainly because China keeps trying to claim Philippine's territory.

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So now we're in this awkward position where we need

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the son of a dictator to help us deal with

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another authoritarian regime. International relations is just one big dysfunctional

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family reunion where everyone's pretending the weird uncle isn't weird.

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During their meeting, while Trump was busy attacking his political opponents,

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Marcos kept steering the conversation back to their military relationship

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and America's help with the Philippines Self reliance defense program. Translation,

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we really need your help because China has votes and

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we have well, we have hope. The reality is the

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Philippines has no chance against China's military without American support.

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China has been sending coast guardships to hassle Filipino fishermen,

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which is like sending a professional wrestler to intimidate a

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kindergarten class. Not exactly a fair fight. So here we

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are Trump praising a dictator's family while trying to contain

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another dictator's expansion. Portions of today's show were made with

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the help of AI and the Epstein files