Transcription
Today we learn just what this administration considers a crisis worthy of their attention. A bombshell new report today in the New York Times details how top Trump officials spent multiple days, starting last summer, meeting in the Situation Room, trying to figure out how to deal with the political fallout from their botched handling of the Epstein files.
Now, that reporting includes a number of completely bananas details, including how the guy who is next in line to the presidency, yes, Manchurian J.D. Vance, proposed asking Tucker Carlson to bail them out by interviewing Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. One official described one of the Situation Room meetings as surreal after the whole thing devolved into a lengthy discussion about nipples. Again, this is a meeting that took place in the part of the White House where Barack Obama watched the strike that killed Osama bin Laden. And Trump's team used it to talk about nipples, which tells you kind of everything you need to know. And I'm going to have much more.
We've suspected for a long time that Todd Blanche had an ulterior motive when he made the highly unusual decision last summer to personally interview Ghislaine Maxwell. As Jeffrey Epstein's partner in crime, Maxwell was, and still is, serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking and conspiracy. And people like that don't typically get high-profile visits from top DOJ officials, especially not from a sitting Deputy Attorney General. But when you consider that Blanche's last job was defense attorney to Donald Trump, it makes a lot more sense because his interview with Maxwell sounded less like an effort to find the facts and much more like an attempt to clear Trump's name.
"What did you observe as far as President Trump and his relationship with you or Mr. Epstein? Did you ever observe President Trump receive a massage? When's the last time you think you saw in person President Trump? Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world? Do you remember one way or the other whether President Trump submitted a letter for his 50th birthday?" I mean, it certainly felt like Blanche was prodding Maxwell to absolve his former client, didn't it?
And now new reporting confirms that that was indeed the point of the whole interview. And a story excerpted from their upcoming book, for which they spoke to over 1,000 people, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reveal how Blanche's interview of a notorious predator was the White House's solution to Trump's PR nightmare over Jeffrey Epstein. Of course it was.
And I just want to note again that normal presidents use the Situation Room for national security purposes. I mean, remember the famous photo of President Obama watching the bin Laden raid unfold from the Sit Room in 2011? That's kind of the idea. That's what it's intended for. But this White House decided to use the Situation Room for damage control over the Epstein files. Including one meeting at the time The Wall Street Journal revealed the existence of Epstein's infamous birthday book. That's where they were in the Sit Room discussing the Epstein files.
Now, according to the reporting, Vice President J.D. Vance took a seat at the head of the table and told the senior officials in the room that, "This is a huge problem." Folks, insiders said the Vice President appeared panicked before he proposed what The Times dubbed an "extraordinary PR gambit" that the White House enlists Tucker Carlson to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison. The thinking was that it might help the President if Maxwell was willing to state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing with Epstein. That was all described in the reporting. So the goal from the beginning was to get Epstein's accomplice to vouch for Donald Trump. And I'm sure everyone probably knew she would never implicate the guy who had the power to pardon her, of course not.
So all of that was problematic enough even before Todd Blanche proposed his own twist on Vance's idea. Blanche's pitch was to have Justice Department lawyers question Maxwell and publicly release the transcript. Blanche even offered to "interview Maxwell himself." What is also quite revealing is that from the earliest discussion of the idea, Blanche noted the potential for a quid pro quo. Now, according to the Times, Blanche raised the possibility that Maxwell's lawyer might expect something in return for her candor. Now, we don't know whether Maxwell's team actually asked for anything or if that point was discussed any further from the reporting to date. But what we do know is the timing was very freaking suspicious. I mean, Blanche shut down with Maxwell on July 24th and 25th of last year. Just one week later, on August 1st, the FBI confirmed Maxwell had been transferred to a minimum-security prison in Texas. That's the one where a whistleblower told the House Judiciary Committee that Maxwell has since been able to enjoy things like customized meals and time with puppies.
Now, I should note that the White House didn't respond to the substance of the article but insisted that Trump has done more for Epstein's victims than anybody before him, anyone before him. Yet we still don't have justice for the survivors at all, and we may not even have all of the files. We don't. Now, I guess we might now have an explanation for the puppies, though, perhaps.
Joining me now is Congressman Robert Garcia. He's the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Okay, I just summarized part of Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's reporting that is out today, an excerpt of their book. What did you make of it?
I mean, honestly, it was a bombshell, and it was just really interesting to read. Look, a few things really stood out to me. One is it was the first time we really got an idea that Vice President Vance has actually been involved in the strategy around Epstein, providing ideas, giving directions, holding court in the Situation Room, which should never be used for these types. We have been saying from day one that this is a White House cover-up, and now it's very clear that the Vice President is a large part of that cover-up. That the White House, the cover-up. So the amount of questions that we now have, and certainly I hope all Republicans on the Oversight Committee can agree that we've got to talk to the Vice President because he's over here giving some crazy ideas about how to essentially protect President Trump. And it's clear that all of these senior admin officials, we're talking about the top of the Trump administration, they are now meeting in the. We are talking about how to protect Donald Trump from our Epstein investigation and to deny justice for these survivors. So I think that stood out to me, and I think in a way that that was shocking. And everything else you mentioned, the suggestions, Tucker Carlson interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell, give me a break. This also confirms that the whole transfer, the whole idea about going to Ghislaine Maxwell was all about protecting Donald Trump. So again, this has exposed so much more, and we're just beginning to begin to to what really is driving the administration and why they're protecting the President. I mean, I have so many questions like you do here. I want to talk about Blanche for a second because Blanche, I think it's a little bit of I think it's a little bit of the potential for quid pro quo here, that Maxwell might ask for something according to the reporting from this meeting. And then the timeline, which I just described, is quite eye-popping. I mean, it was a week. We all know that between when she was interviewed and when she was transferred. What questions do you have? You've long had them for Country for Blanche. I should ask more. What accountability should there be for Blanche? He is currently the nominee to be the Attorney General. This reporting has really opened up so much. I don't think the transfer was involved, who was involved, who the central players were, why the transfer was actually presented. And look, it's clear that they've been talking about this pardon. They are talking about what the impact of a pardon could actually be. They are literally focused right now on protecting the President and using Ghislaine Maxwell as a way of protecting the President's defense attorney, regardless of the job that he is in, and he is about to be sent to the Senate for confirmation. So Todd Blanche is clearly serving as the President's defense. The transfer happened. She was not involved with the Epstein investigation, and this reporting, it appears that she is involved in some of these conversations. Some of these conversations. She is actually on the phone while others are. I think this is beginning to unravel for the White House. For the White House. And I will add that this reporting obviously paid a clear picture of this cover-up, but there's clearly so much more that we don't know. And I have to go back to the Vice President. For the first time, we now know that the Vice President has been involved in this cover-up and in trying to protect the the President. He is going to be a President. So speaking with him, getting more information from Vance in particular is going to be very important to our committee moving forward.
How are you going to do? Well, look, I think one is we've been building and continue to build enormous amounts of pressure for folks to come speak to us. We're going to request Comer and request the Vice. We are going to be able to. President to come in front of our committee. We also intend to win the majority and get subpoena power and force people to come in front of our committee. Todd Blanche, for weeks, in recent weeks, James Comer said he was not interested in bringing in Todd Blanche. We made that request weeks ago. Just today, James Comer flip. Thank you for joining us. He said, yes, we should hear from Todd Blanche. So I'm glad now that Republicans choose to follow our lead. Todd Blanche is the first person we should get in front of our committee. But now we. These are all folks that we now know, thanks to this reporting, have all been involved in this strategy and trying. We are going to participate. Donald Trump and involve in this White House cover-up. It raises more questions than it answers, as always, but quite eye-popping reporting. Congressman Robert Garcia, thank you as always. Thank you. Okay, after Donald Trump said today.