Sept. 3, 2025 - The Benny Show - Benny Johnson
02:14:44
Participants
| 
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| The White House sharing this dramatic video of a U.S. strike blasting that boat. | ||
| It was carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing 11 suspected Trende Aragua members in the Caribbean Sea. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we saw this yesterday. | |
| Lucas Tomlinson is live in Washington. | ||
| Lucas, this could just be the beginning. | ||
| There's no question about it, Brian. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| When the Pentagon deployed that armada to the Caribbean, including an attack submarine, officials say it was not just going to be doing donuts in the water. | ||
| This plan has been in the works for weeks. | ||
| It's the first lethal operation since the American warships arrived on station. | ||
| This unclassified drone footage shows a GoFaster speedboat getting annihilated, killing all 11 on board. | ||
| For years, the U.S. military would shoot out the engine block or a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment would jump on board and detain the crew. | ||
| We used to run that tape. | ||
| No longer. | ||
| The Pentagon now given orders to kill. | ||
| The president spoke about it yesterday. | ||
| We just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat. | ||
| A lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time. | ||
| And we just, these came out of Venezuela and coming out very heavily from Venezuela. | ||
| A lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. | ||
| The goal of the operation is to deny revenue to the Maduro regime in Venezuela, which receives over $8 billion from selling drugs on American streets and college campuses, the bulk coming from cocaine sales, as you see. | ||
| Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke in Miami yesterday en route to Ecuador. | ||
| President's been very clear that he's going to use the full power of America and the full might of the United States to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they're operating from and no matter how long they've been able to act with impunity. | ||
| Those days are over. | ||
| We are going to wage combat against drug cartels that are flooding Americans' streets and killing Americans. | ||
| So we might need a new cocaine price index, or it might be a good time to dust off your copy of Clear and Present Danger or watch the movie. | ||
| I hope I'm not dating myself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Guys, if you | |
| only knew the level of meme ception. | ||
| Okay, if you're a real one, and by the way, a heart's out to the chat. | ||
| Freaking love you all. | ||
| And thank you. | ||
| We're so excited to be back. | ||
| And thank you all for your support. | ||
| And I appreciate you understanding like a dad just wanting to take some time with his kids. | ||
| That's just what it's about, man. | ||
| And there's no such thing as a vacation, by the way. | ||
| It's just a family trip. | ||
| When you have four kids that are under the age of five years old, it's a family trip. | ||
| There's no vacations. | ||
| People are like, I hope you enjoyed your vacation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's like the kids enjoyed it, I think. | |
| It's like, we're just being parents, right? | ||
| We're just herding cats. | ||
| But it's, man, it's the thing that life is made out of, right? | ||
| And anyway, I just wanted to say, shout yourself out in the comments if you understood that entire meme. | ||
| That is memeception. | ||
| It's something that is a very skilled surgical attack. | ||
| And we're going to talk about a number of those today by our in-house meme maker, the only show in the entire worldwide internet that has an in-house meme maker, the famous Jerry. | ||
| You can find him in the chat. | ||
| Jerry, D-A memes, is someone who is able to just kind of deliver this layered approach. | ||
| It's kind of like insomnia, right? | ||
| The dark night, okay? | ||
| It's just a good Christopher Nolan level of meming. | ||
| But if you understand all those memes, shout us out in the comments. | ||
| You are one of the real ones. | ||
| We have a real one today. | ||
| The most stacked show in the history of our programming. | ||
| Why not hit the ground running? | ||
| The most stacked show in the Benny show history. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, get your salt shakers ready. | ||
| We are going to be dropping salt today, Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025, House Oversight to hold a press conference with Epstein victims live on our show here. | ||
| Why is this important? | ||
| Well, it certainly was the song of the summer. | ||
| And it seems like that song perhaps may be leading to a conclusion. | ||
| And we want to make sure that we stay locked in to something that we've been covering for so long and not let the bag drop, right, or the ball drop. | ||
| So we're going to cover that live. | ||
| It'll be happening here in moments. | ||
| Along with a man who has just deposed a number of these Epstein victims. | ||
| His name is Tim Burchett. | ||
| He's one of our favorite members of Congress. | ||
| He'll be joining in minutes. | ||
| So we got a rip roar here. | ||
| Senator Eric Schmidt's also on the program. | ||
| Eric Schmidt is the man. | ||
| Chip Roy is on the program as well. | ||
| He's running for state office in Texas. | ||
| Texas in the chat. | ||
| Shout yourself out if you're from the great state of Texas doing incredible work. | ||
| Well done on redistricting. | ||
| Now it's time to get that done in Florida. | ||
| Now, little birdies in Tallahassee tell me that we're going to add up to four seats in the state of Florida. | ||
| Byron Donalds, the next governor of the state of Florida, will be live on the program. | ||
| What a rip-roaring show. | ||
| Kara R. Booker is incredible. | ||
| You know who also will be live on the program? | ||
| Donald Trump. | ||
| President Trump's going to be doing a live Oval Office. | ||
| He'll be on the show eventually, okay? | ||
| Everyone's always asking. | ||
| He'll be on the show. | ||
| We're working on it. | ||
| We're working on it. | ||
| We've done the JD Vance interview. | ||
| We've interviewed pretty much everyone in the administration, everyone in the administration, working our way all the way up to the big man. | ||
| Don't you worry. | ||
| We got you set and locked in. | ||
| But President Trump will be live on the show from the Oval Office with the president of Poland. | ||
| Talk about a country that probably has better security than any nation on earth. | ||
| And then maybe Donald Trump will have a rip-roaring good time with. | ||
| A lot of news out of Poland and with Poland in that region of the world. | ||
| So we expect that to be raucous. | ||
| That'll all happen live on the show right now. | ||
| Are you locked in? | ||
| My name is Benny Johnson, and this is The Benny Show. | ||
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| All right, here we go, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| I want to start with something that we probably won't get a chance because we're going to be doing a lot of lives. | ||
| We're going to do a ton of live interviews. | ||
| We're going to do a ton of live press conferences on this program, on the stream. | ||
| Just real quick, President Trump has yeeted Trendearagua terrorists in the Gulf of America. | ||
| The Caribbean, I guess. | ||
| I don't know what you want to call it. | ||
| I'm just going to call it the Gulf of America. | ||
| F'd around and found out here's the boat that got yeeted trying to smuggle drugs into the country. | ||
| Do you got the footage? | ||
| They released the footage yesterday. | ||
| That's pretty great. | ||
| Here you go, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| What do you think about this? | ||
| We had a piece this weekend that is fascinating. | ||
| These are all Venezuelan terrorists. | ||
| The odds are, I mean, I don't really know what the odds are because, and here's the yeeting. | ||
| I mean, don't F around. | ||
| Don't F around in our hood. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| These are boats that are filled with fentanyl and all manner of American killing opioids and horrible narcotics. | ||
| They're being smuggled in here to fund criminal gangs. | ||
| Oh, boy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chairman Commer needs to leave. | |
| So I'm going to yield. | ||
| Okay, this was quick. | ||
| Here is the press conference for the Epstein. | ||
| Yesterday, Speaker Johnson and members of the House Oversight Committee met with several survivors of the horrific crimes committed by Epstein and Maxwell. | ||
| The abuse these survivors endured is both heartbreaking and sickening. | ||
| They were not only victims of unspeakable crimes, but were also betrayed by their own government, which failed to deliver justice and accountability. | ||
| The House Oversight Committee is committed to providing transparency and accountability for these brave survivors and for the American people. | ||
| Over the past six weeks, the oversight committee has worked tirelessly to obtain documents and testimony related to Epstein and Maxwell. | ||
| We have subpoenaed Maxwell for a deposition. | ||
| We have subpoenaed the Department of Justice for documents. | ||
| We have issued subpoenas to 10 former federal officials for depositions. | ||
| We have requested documents from the Epstein estate. | ||
| And we have secured a transcript interview with former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. | ||
| This is the most comprehensive investigation into Epstein and Maxwell to date, and we're already getting results. | ||
| We have already deposed former Attorney General Bill Barr. | ||
| The DOJ has produced nearly 34,000 pages of documents with more to come. | ||
| These documents are now accessible on our website. | ||
| Put every single document on the website. | ||
| The Epstein Estate will begin producing documents on September 8th. | ||
| The committee is operating at an unprecedented pace and doing the work the right way. | ||
| What we heard yesterday from the survivors is that they support these efforts and they support the pursuit of transparency and accountability. | ||
| We will continue working tirelessly for these survivors and for the American people. | ||
| I want to thank Speaker Johnson and its leadership team for giving us all the tools we need to get all the information that the American people want and that the survivors deserve to be able to finally give them some accountability. | ||
| And I want to thank the Trump administration for working with us and turning over 34,000 documents so far. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Chairman Comer. | ||
| And thank you for all the hard work on this issue. | ||
| With that, I want to welcome you all back to a safe DC. | ||
| I know that sounds crazy, but rather than applauding President Trump's decisive action to actually restore law and order and reduce crime in America, Democrats have defended gang members, thieves, and lawbreakers. | ||
| Can you guys believe that? | ||
| That sounds odd, right? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So this is now Republican leadership that is going to be talking about other things, which are very important, obviously. | ||
| But now it's going to sort of devolve into a press conference about these things. | ||
| My entire production team, the best producers on the internet, are going to be monitoring this and making sure that we don't miss anything. | ||
| Obviously, you have all the entire slate of Republican leadership there, Mike Johnson and Scalise, Salazar. | ||
| And so they're going to be doing like a leadership press conference. | ||
| So those are just the Comer Stinger. | ||
| Thank you for monitoring that. | ||
| That's what Comer had to say. | ||
| The victims that have been deposed in Congress are allegedly going to be speaking in about 30 minutes. | ||
| So we'll see. | ||
| We'll see, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| We have Tim Burchett, by the way, locked in and ready to go soon. | ||
| He's one of our absolute all-time favorite congressmen who made himself quite famous by talking on this program about how they get you in Washington, D.C., how you end up naked in a room with all the cameras on you, and they say, oh, we got you. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Really, really interesting at this point. | ||
| It looks like Alex is saying that the Epstein victims are going to be speaking. | ||
| And we're going to tune in to hear that, obviously. | ||
| Producers, let me know when Burchett is ready to rock because I want to chat with him because he's actually deposed them. | ||
| So maybe he can like, maybe he can tell us what's about to happen. | ||
| He typically does. | ||
| All right, back to the yeeting. | ||
| Back to the yeeting, ladies and gentlemen, of the Venezuelan gangs. | ||
| The White House actually used a meme template that we called yesterday. | ||
| The instant that this happened, if you were watching yesterday live, President Trump held a press conference where he moved Space Force to Alabama. | ||
| It's a really smart move. | ||
| Obviously, it shouldn't be in Colorado anyway. | ||
| Colorado is a failed state. | ||
| Sorry if you're watching from there, but you need better leadership. | ||
| Something horrible has happened in Colorado. | ||
| There needs to be like a Florida or Pennsylvania style remaking of the state, right? | ||
| Where you claw it back from the left. | ||
| But President Trump has moved, moved Space Force and the rocket building to Mobile, Alabama, where actually an enormous amount of rocket building happens, an enormous amount of Space Command happens there. | ||
| It's very cool. | ||
| Anyway, during that time period, during that press conference, Peter Ducey of Fox News goes up and shows Donald Trump a still unexplained video of the White House, of something being dumped out of a window of the White House. | ||
| And that turned into a meme template. | ||
| So here we go. | ||
| Adios. | ||
| This is the White House. | ||
| This is the White House posting this. | ||
| Terrorist eliminated. | ||
| Adios. | ||
| It's a beautiful thing. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| Look at that engagement too, by the way. | ||
| Millions of views, 5,000 likes, and an absolute, total dominance of the seas around America. | ||
| I believe that these kind of things are really good to be used as warning signs, right? | ||
| Back in the day, they would do the hangings of criminals outside of the town. | ||
| So criminals entering the town could see that this isn't a place that you F around. | ||
| And I like it. | ||
| Now, is this going to lead to war with Venezuela? | ||
| That's a big question. | ||
| The Venezuelan dictator is out saying, like, please don't go to war with us. | ||
| They're doing military rallies and so on. | ||
| Maduro has a $50 million bounty on his head. | ||
| And whenever you hear of something horrible happening in America, a good one name that comes to mind is Lake and Riley, who was murdered by a Venezuelan gang member who was led out of jail again and again and again to commit more and more heinous crimes. | ||
| And now Lake and Riley, a beautiful American nursing student, is of course dead in the worst possible, I mean, like, again, like read the murder report. | ||
| Like this Venezuelan was sent here from the prisons of Venezuela to terrorize our country. | ||
| How is that any different than what we would call terror? | ||
| I mean, how is that any different than what we would call like terrorism? | ||
| So, so a member of ISIS, you know, hijacks a car or a plane and does some horrible act of terrorism. | ||
| We're like, oh, it's terrorism. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look at that. | |
| It's awful. | ||
| But a member of a terrorist group from South America comes into our country and does the exact same thing with Lake and Riley. | ||
| He like bludgeons her to death in the middle of the day while she was out jogging after foisting himself on her like an animal. | ||
| I think he used, I think he used a big rock. | ||
| You'll have to check me on this, but like in the murder, it's like, I mean, it's like caveman level, third world, rampant brutality and evil. | ||
| And we somehow don't call that terrorism. | ||
| It is, of course, an act of terrorism. | ||
| And what Venezuela has done is terrorize our nation. | ||
| They are a terrorist narco-state. | ||
| They've sent hundreds of thousands of gang members. | ||
| The Obama administration welcomed them with open arms, the Obama-Biden administration. | ||
| And it needs to be asked, like, why don't we classify it as that? | ||
| Because that's what it is. | ||
| We would do that if it was ISIS or al-Qaeda, but for some reason, we only apply it if they like they come from the Middle East. | ||
| No, that's like, there's terrorism from all over the place. | ||
| And so this is President Trump yeeting the terrorists there, and he's moved a huge strike force into the Caribbean and into the Gulf of America in order to make sure that this doesn't happen again, but also to make sure that there is a, let's just say, a deterrence, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Now, I know that if you really wanted to deter the criminal alien border crossers, what you'd do is you'd put Tim Burchett on a skateboard with a shotgun down on the border. | ||
| That's what you'd do. | ||
| You'd have Tim Burton, you'd create a sidewalk, maybe a ramp, a couple of rails that Tim Burchett could ride on his skateboard, on his longboard, and you'd give that man a shotgun, 12-gauge double barrel with vest of shells, and you just let him zip around. | ||
| You just let them go up and down the border. | ||
| And that's what we know. | ||
| That's how we know. | ||
| When that happens, we'll know that the government is really serious about locking our border down. | ||
| Lucky for us, the great congressman from Tennessee is here to join us to explain that he's ready to become the head of ice on skates. | ||
| Ice skates. | ||
| Here we go, Tim Burton. | ||
| I apologize. | ||
| That was the most ridiculous intro for any member of Congress ever. | ||
| And we're just in a good mood today. | ||
| Just happened to be in a good mood today, Congressman. | ||
| Thank you, brother. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So let's talk quickly about what you learned yesterday in the hearing with the Epstein victims. | ||
| The floor is yours, Congressman. | ||
| Well, thank you, Benny. | ||
| Thanks for having me back on the show. | ||
| It's always good. | ||
| People in Tennessee and throughout this country love you because you're pretty much direct and to the point, and they dig that. | ||
| Irregardless of my incredible intro there, I'll have to clip that for later viewing. | ||
| Yeah, we, there were several ladies in there and they had their attorneys. | ||
| And what struck me is that one of the ladies had, they all had their name, their full name, but one of the ladies just had her first name. | ||
| And she was, it was emotional. | ||
| They talked about their experience and what went on. | ||
| And the one lady, she just had one name and her first name, I assume was her first name. | ||
| And that was probably, that was to protect her. | ||
| You know, she was just not really sure about being there and all that. | ||
| And I get that because they had, as they documented, they've been victimized not by alone, just by Epstein and Maxwell, whatever her name is, and they, and the other dirtbags that had their way with them, they were, they were abused by the justice system. | ||
| The justice system did them wrong multiple, multiple times, you know, and they get built. | ||
| I mean, it's been 10 years since they filed their original lawsuit, and now they're seeing it bear some fruit, so to speak. | ||
| And I asked the question because she said, I want this to go, you know, I want to get to my files, but I can't get to them because she had blacked out all that from her memory of what had occurred to her. | ||
| And she would like to know what exactly had been done to her during that time period. | ||
| And I asked the question, it wasn't a QA type thing, Benny, but I said, hey, I said, no, wait a minute. | ||
| You do not want those files released? | ||
| And they said, no. | ||
| And the attorney said, thank you so much for asking that question because no, we do not want those files released. | ||
| And in our rush to judgment to release everything, which is what the press all of a sudden, after four years of the Biden administration holding on to this thing, have finally decided they want to bring it out. | ||
| That said to me, we need to put the brakes on just the mass file dumping that was that I'm afraid that the discharge petition could cause. | ||
| And there is some legal precedence in that discharge petition that some legal verbiage that could, in fact, I'm afraid, release the identities to some of these folks. | ||
| And that bothers me. | ||
| So I'm glad we're going about it. | ||
| I'm glad Chairman Comer is going about the way he's doing it by having the files, you know, gone over before we do that, because there is a real, that's a real, that's a real issue. | ||
| You got nearly a thousand. | ||
| There were little girls. | ||
| Now they're women that are in those files that were abused by those dirtbags. | ||
| So I would hope that we could remember that in this rush to so-called judgment. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So you're famous, obviously, for spitting true facts for saying that if people are found guilty of doing these kind of heinous acts, they should be hung from the nearest tree. | ||
| And also on our show, which is something that is aged like a very fine wine, Congressman, you describe blackmail ops that are often run in the political arena. | ||
| And so is there anything like that that was revealed? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, and one of the ladies said that prior to her coming forward, she received a phone call and she has a young daughter. | ||
| And I know you have young children like I do. | ||
| And they said that, you know, some despicable acts were going to be done to her daughter if she were to come forward. | ||
| And so I think you're saying this thing has really touched a nerve. | ||
| And you've got some real, I think, influential people that are involved in it. | ||
| I think we need to make sure justice is done to them. | ||
| But I do think we need to remember the wishes of these young ladies. | ||
| And I'm just afraid they will be used again and then tossed aside once the political will is used to go after somebody that probably is innocent. | ||
| So I would just urge people to use a little bit of caution in this thing. | ||
| It's not a one-size-fits-all type situation. | ||
| Do you believe that there are going to be any other individuals indicted? | ||
| I think there will be. | ||
| I mean, we're calling in, I mean, we're casting a pretty broad net in the in our committee, but I think the Trump Justice administration is going to go after a lot of these people. | ||
| And I hope they do because they have done some pretty despicable things. | ||
| But who's these, who's these people? | ||
| Because right now, right now, the total, right now, the total, and yeah, the preview is good, guys, but real quickly, I want to get to something with the congressman. | ||
| Right now, the total conversation has been that it's just like it's just Epstein. | ||
| There was no abuse outside of Epstein. | ||
| And it was like the entire harem of thousands, the entire harem of thousands of women and people abused is just was just for Epstein. | ||
| And there was no blackmail ever. | ||
| And nobody else ever touched another, the hair on another one of them. | ||
| I can't imagine that. | ||
| I can't imagine that. | ||
| I think it just goes too deep. | ||
| I think his money and his influence went a little deeper than that. | ||
| I think you're going to see a lot of people that don't want these files released just because they're going to be in those files that just did business with Epstein because he was a money man. | ||
| He was not, you know, it didn't have anything to do with his, you know, it didn't have anything to do with all of it, with any of the sex trafficking or whatever you want to call it. | ||
| I think that's where the lines get a little hazy. | ||
| And I think we need to be really careful there as well. | ||
| But yeah, I think it was a pretty deep web. | ||
| I think he used it. | ||
| I think there's tapes probably that were taken at the residency in New York. | ||
| I would like, I don't want to see them, but I think that that needs to be evaluated further. | ||
| I really do. | ||
| Yeah, there was a whole trove of documents that were released yesterday. | ||
| And I know that people are looking through them and people, I mean, I certainly appreciate the transparency here. | ||
| Any other revelations that you have learned? | ||
| No, there was talk that there was some names mentioned, but I didn't hear any. | ||
| I had to go to another meeting afterwards. | ||
| So I was kind of, they scheduled this a little late. | ||
| And I had some people that had come in from Tennessee. | ||
| So I had to leave. | ||
| But I didn't hear any names. | ||
| That's what I'd like. | ||
| I'd like them to get to the names, start naming some people. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So shifting gears here, you mentioned Tennessee. | ||
| You're from Tennessee. | ||
| You're probably the most Tennessee Tennessean that's ever existed, Congressman. | ||
| And so I want to shift gears to something that happened in your backyard with Cracker Barrel over the last couple of weeks. | ||
| I know that this is obviously something that took the world by storm. | ||
| The woke rebrand of the most unlikely possible brand. | ||
| And given the fact that this is a Tennessee company and their headquarters in Tennessee, I'm sure you have some thoughts on it. | ||
| I just want to give you your opportunity to sound off. | ||
| I think they started going downhill when they started serving alcohol as a family restaurant. | ||
| I don't think it added anything to it. | ||
| I can't imagine it added much to their bottom line. | ||
| I've always enjoyed going to Cracker Barrel. | ||
| Everybody, when it came out, I can remember, oh, you need to go there. | ||
| And I said, and I went there and it was just like eating at home, really. | ||
| I mean, it wasn't much different. | ||
| And in that regard, it's sort of like the Waffle House. | ||
| You can go in anyone across the country and guarantee the waitress is going to call you darling. | ||
| So it's a pretty cool thing. | ||
| But yeah, they try to rebrand. | ||
| It's another one of these. | ||
| They brought in a bunch of liberals, probably Northeasterners. | ||
| No offense to Northeasterners, unless you are one, then I guess offense is to be taken. | ||
| But the truth is they tried to, you know, they think, oh, we're going to show these folks how it really should be. | ||
| And I think they got a bunch of lunatic influencers to advise them on what was going on. | ||
| And it's not what was going on. | ||
| And America responded overwhelmingly. | ||
| You know, I don't know if they'll ever regain because just the whole thing is just ridiculous. | ||
| And people are fed up. | ||
| It was a conservative Tennessee-based company and they just started changing everything about it. | ||
| And I said they took all the Americana out and put up a bunch of cheap Chinese knockoffs on the inside. | ||
| And that's exactly what they did. | ||
| And, you know, they start changing the menu to some foo-foo stuff. | ||
| God damn it. | ||
| That's not what people want. | ||
| If it ain't broke, don't fix it. | ||
| Again, this is, you know, what's next? | ||
| Is Chick-fil-A going to start opening on Sundays? | ||
| I don't know, but I'm over it. | ||
| We're not going back. | ||
| We were on the road a lot during when all that was going on. | ||
| And we'd looking at the Cracker Barrel parking lots because that was our, because Kelly and I, that's where we'd always stop was Cracker Barrel. | ||
| You know, we had, we'd travel, go to the beach or something, we'd always stop at a Cracker Barrel two or three times. | ||
| You know, we'd go for breakfast and supper. | ||
| And not this trip. | ||
| We didn't do it this trip. | ||
| And we drove by and looked at the parking lots and they were empty. | ||
| So I think people, as my economics professor, would say they are casting their dollar votes elsewhere. | ||
| So, yeah, I guess the equivalent would be Chick-fil-A going all vegan, right? | ||
| Like that would be the equivalent is like the vegan Chick-fil-A sandwich now. | ||
| It was a nightmare. | ||
| I just don't understand what's wrong with that. | ||
| They already have a good thing going, and Americans are so sick of our culture, especially middle Americans, especially people like Heartland Americans and Heritage Americans. | ||
| We're just so sick of elitists and globalists coming in and ripping the heart out of it all. | ||
| And it's like we've reached, it's been enough. | ||
| Like we just said enough. | ||
| Yes, you're right. | ||
| They're like locusts, man. | ||
| They come in, just strip everything, and then they leave. | ||
| And, you know, and then you're going to see you want to drive by there and look at those parking lots one day and go, What used to be there? | ||
| Oh, that was Cracker Barrel, you know, and they'll be like, It's like all these Mexican restaurants, they were always something else before then. | ||
| You know, you can always figure out what they were before then. | ||
| And the reason is the Mexican restaurants are giving people what they want. | ||
| So, are you going to advise Cracker Barrel? | ||
| Are you going to like you're from Tennessee? | ||
| The headquarters probably isn't terribly far from you. | ||
| Are you going to throw your hat into the ring for the new CEO of Cracker Barrel? | ||
| No, no, I think it's a dead dog. | ||
| They're going to have to bring somebody else in that's kind of true. | ||
| They're going to, man, it's pathetic. | ||
| And what would you advise them? | ||
| What would you advise them quickly, Congressman? | ||
| Uh, get back to your original menu, lower your prices, and get going. | ||
| Take a little hit on the front end and get people back in there. | ||
| That's what I would say. | ||
| Go find your original menus because you know they've switched out of everything. | ||
| Heck, they don't even have the good French dressing anymore. | ||
| So, what do you do? | ||
| The great Congressman from Tennessee, Tim Burchett, a man who you must follow on social media if you don't already. | ||
| You're crazy. | ||
| Here he is, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| This is Tim Burchett with nearly 400,000 subscribers. | ||
| And, well, I guess I could just call him. | ||
| I'm just going to call him the straightest shooting member of Congress. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| Dad got the mini bump every time I'm on. | ||
| Man, I'm on everything too. | ||
| I'm on Facebook, Instagram, all that stuff. | ||
| So, if y'all are out there, follow me. | ||
| Um, I don't try to be entertaining, but I, but apparently, I am. | ||
| If there's one man that deserves a reality show in Congress, it's it's you. | ||
| Uh, thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much, Congressman. | ||
| You're the man, Benny. | ||
| Love you, brother. | ||
| Hey, Benny, my love for you is unconditional, and in Tennessee, it is possibly unconstitutional. | ||
| You're the man in Florida. | ||
| It's definitely illegal, that's for sure. | ||
| Yes, that's right, right. | ||
| There's the clip. | ||
| There's the clip. | ||
| Media matters. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you, Congressman. | ||
| Love you, Benny. | ||
| See you, brother. | ||
| all right ladies and gentlemen here we are Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking. | ||
| I heard this woman tell us yesterday since 1996, and they have carried with them shame. | ||
| But I want to tell you something. | ||
| The shame does not fall on these brave, courageous women. | ||
| The shame falls on every single person that coldly turned a blind eye to their abuse. | ||
| The shame falls on every single person that enabled it. | ||
| The shame falls on every single person that took money to continue it. | ||
| And the shame falls on the people in power over the past several decades that protected the monster, Jeffrey Epstein, and his cabal that continued a nightmare. | ||
| Those people deserve the shame. | ||
| And today, we are coming forward and we are going to fight like hell for these women because we have to fight like hell for those that are enduring sexual abuse and are living in a prison of shame. | ||
| Anyone that is being abused, it is not your fault. | ||
| You should live with no guilt or fear or shame. | ||
| All of the fault belongs to the evil people that do these things to the innocent. | ||
| This is the most important fight we can wage here in Congress is fighting for innocent people that never received justice and the women behind me have never received justice. | ||
| And do you want to know why? | ||
| It's because Jeffrey Epstein somehow was able to walk among the most rich, powerful people, not only in America, but foreign countries. | ||
| Yesterday, I heard countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and even Israel and other countries. | ||
| The truth needs to come out, and the government holds the truth. | ||
| The cases that are sealed hold the truth. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein's estate holds the truth. | ||
| The FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA holds the truth. | ||
| And the truth we are demanding come out on behalf of these women, but also as a strong message to every innocent child, teenager, woman, and man that is being held captive in abuse. | ||
| This should never happen in America, and it should never be a political issue that divides us. | ||
| And I want to thank Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey for doing something brave, crossing political boundaries for a very important fight. | ||
| And I'm honored to join both of them. | ||
| And I'm honored that Nancy Mace and Lauren Bobert signed the discharge petition along with myself. | ||
| And I asked my Republican colleagues not to choose just one path for justice and transparency and accountability, but I asked my Republican colleagues to choose every path for justice and accountability and transparency. | ||
| And with that, I'd like to bring back Congressman Rocana to start this important press conference. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you, Congresswoman Green, for your courage and for being here. | ||
| And thank you again to Congressman Massey for co-leading it. | ||
| I now would like to introduce two people who have been fighting this for decades. | ||
| They haven't had their voice heard. | ||
| The victims haven't been heard. | ||
| They haven't just been on this in the last few months. | ||
| They've been doing this in the wilderness for years, and they are really models of courage. | ||
| Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson, who are the attorneys for the victims. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Thank you, Roe and Thomas Massey. | ||
| I really appreciate you putting forth this discharge petition. | ||
| It's tough to understand that we have to be here because this doesn't seem like a partisan issue. | ||
| This is an issue. | ||
| Sex trafficking and sexual abuse transcends politics. | ||
| We as Americans expect equal protection under the law and there can be no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein received far greater protection than any of the victims that he abused for years. | ||
| In 2008, Courtney Wilde walked into my office because she was a part of a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, where all she wanted was the government to talk to her. | ||
| Little did she know the government had worked out a secret immunity deal for Jeffrey Epstein, and we had to file Jane Does versus United States of America to prove that Jeffrey Epstein worked out an illegal non-prosecution agreement with the government. | ||
| That was 2008. | ||
| It took us 10 years battling the government pro bono for the judge to ultimately determine that the victims' rights were violated. | ||
| The government has mistreated them after Jeffrey Epstein mistreated them. | ||
| We then filed civil lawsuits against Gillen Maxwell, which has resulted in her being in prison. | ||
| Our civil lawsuits led to her prosecution. | ||
| We filed lawsuits against Jeffrey Epstein against his estate and against two financial institutions, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, that proved that they provided, knowingly provided the financial infrastructure for a sex trafficking operation. | ||
| Unfortunately, all of the documents and evidence that we have worked so hard to gather hide behind protective orders, confidentiality agreements, and bank secrecy laws. | ||
| That is why this discharge petition is so important. | ||
| While we have seen the documents, you have it. | ||
| And when you see the documents, you're going to be appalled. | ||
| And the American people deserve to see everything. | ||
| When you sign this discharge petition, it should mean nothing is off limits. | ||
| That means the documents in the possession of the CIA should be made available. | ||
| Those in possession of the FBI going back decades should be made available. | ||
| The SEC, financial records in the possession of FinCEN should be made available. | ||
| Everybody knows that evil, evil flourishes in the darkness. | ||
| Corruption flourishes in secrecy. | ||
| It is time right now to make a difference for the women that are behind me right now. | ||
| They have been courageous and fought through this whole thing. | ||
| Whether you're a Republican or you're a Democrat, this one is an easy call. | ||
| You're an American who cares about equal rights and equal protection under the law. | ||
| If you care about these women, if you care about our country and you care about this issue, this should pass with flying colors. | ||
| I really appreciate everybody being here. | ||
| All right, good morning. | ||
| My name is Brittany Henderson, and I think, in addition to thanking the wonderful congressmen and women who are here today, we need to thank the women and not just the women who are going to speak, but the other women who are standing behind them, along with other lawyers, Sigrid McCauley, and people who have been fighting for a very, very long time for the world to give this kind of attention to an issue that it should have had forever. | ||
| This administration has the opportunity to do what the past administrations did not do. | ||
| This administration can either stand with the victims and stand for the victims, or it can continue to hurt the victims like has happened in the past. | ||
| We aren't here just to ask for transparency, though. | ||
| We're here to ask for protection. | ||
| The women here represent hundreds of other women who we have spoken to, many of whom were trafficked from other countries, from Eastern European countries, where women don't have the rights that we have here. | ||
| Women don't have the protections that we have here. | ||
| And those women are terrified that their names will be released in these files. | ||
| The government won't know that they're victims to redact and protect them. | ||
| So we ask that you please, whoever is going to be in charge of redacting these files and in charge of this transparency, do it in a way that protects the women brave enough to be here, but also protects the women who are terrified that every day when they turn the TV on, something bad is going to happen to them in Ukraine, in Russia, in whatever country they live in, because no one is listening to them there. | ||
| So thank you for being here. | ||
| Thank you for listening. | ||
| And please protect these women while we seek transparency. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| My name is Anushka DiGiorgio and I stand before you today as a survivor of both Jeffrey Epstein and Gillen Maxwell. | ||
| I want to thank Congressman Massey and Connor for their role in putting together this very, very important bill. | ||
| Every day of this journey toward healing has come at a profound cost to my mental health. | ||
| But I am here. | ||
| I chose to come because this bill really matters. | ||
| I speak today not only in service of my own recovery from trauma inflicted by Maxwell and Epstein, but to honor the lives, the courage and sacrifices of Virginia Duffray, Caroline Andreano And others who could not continue. | ||
| Their voices mattered. | ||
| Their stories must not be forgotten. | ||
| Accountability is what makes a society civilized. | ||
| Equal opportunity and equal consequence for all. | ||
| Consequences are not about punishment alone. | ||
| They exist to deter future harm, to protect vulnerable and to set a standard of justice. | ||
| If Gillen Maxwell were pardoned, it would undermine all the sacrifices I made to testify and make mockery of mine and all survivors' suffering. | ||
| That is why the Epstein Files Transparency Act is so essential. | ||
| It requires the Department of Justice release all the records related to Epstein and Maxwell investigations, flight logs, immunity deals, internal communications, and even the records surrounding Epstein's detention and death. | ||
| And crucially, it forbids withholding documents simply because of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity. | ||
| This is about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root. | ||
| But transparency alone is not enough. | ||
| Survivors need protection, resources, and legal support. | ||
| If this Congress is serious about justice, then let this moment also affirm your commitment to provide victims with the legal aid they need to confront abusers, to navigate complex systems and to reclaim their power. | ||
| Transparency must be matched by support, or else too many victims will remain silent out of fear and lack of access. | ||
| The statistics demand action. | ||
| Nearly one in five women in America will experience rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. | ||
| Every 74 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted. | ||
| Every nine minutes, that person is a child. | ||
| These are not numbers, they are people. | ||
| They are your daughters, your sons, your constituents, your friends. | ||
| Statistically, one in five of your families will face this nightmare. | ||
| The days of sweeping this under the rug are over. | ||
| We, the survivors, say no more. | ||
| I want to help create a world where survivors of sexual abuse and abuse of power can come forward safely. | ||
| And I ask Congress to join me in that effort, not only by passing this bill, but by ensuring that those who step forward have legal support to face their abusers and see justice done. | ||
| When Judge Berman gave Epstein survivors the chance to finally speak, the world listened. | ||
| After so many years, survivors were heard. | ||
| That moment was historic. | ||
| And so is this moment. | ||
| For me, the turning point was when I had my daughter. | ||
| And on the day she was born, I knew I had a responsibility to protect her and to protect all children. | ||
| I have to use my voice, the voice that had been silenced by fear and shame for so many years. | ||
| Make no mistake, my polished exterior is a shield hiding a wound that still bleeds. | ||
| But through this wound, I have found purpose to be part of lasting change in how we confront exploitation and abuse. | ||
| And to be clear, the only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing. | ||
| You have a choice. | ||
| Stand with the truth or with the lies that have protected predators for decades. | ||
| I am no longer weak. | ||
| I am no longer powerless and I'm no longer alone and with your vote neither will the next generation be. | ||
| President Trump, you have so much influence and power in this situation. | ||
| Please use that influence and power to help us because we need it now and this country needs it now. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My name is Annie Farmer and I was 16 years old when I was flown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein and Maxwell. | ||
| That same year, 1996, my sister, Maria Farmer, reported what happened to me there, along with reporting her own assaults at their hands and their theft of sensitive photos of herself, of me, and our younger sister that she had taken for her work as a figurative painter. | ||
| I am now 46 years old. | ||
| 30 years later, we still do not know why that report wasn't properly investigated or why Epstein and his associates were allowed to harm hundreds, if not thousands, of other girls and young women. | ||
| We have never been told whether those images were found when they discovered a large amount of child sexual abuse material on his property. | ||
| As a psychologist, I understand that when the systems meant to protect us recreate the abuse cycle, the betrayal that occurs can be just as damaging as the original trauma. | ||
| This happens when survivors of these crimes are not believed, when our well-being is not weighed as heavily as those who have more resources or more privilege, and when perpetrators of these crimes are given a platform rather than the survivors of them. | ||
| For so many years, it felt like Epstein's criminal behavior was an open secret. | ||
| Not only did many others participate in the abuse, it is clear that many were aware of his interest in girls and very young women and chose to look the other way because it benefited them to do so. | ||
| They wanted access to his circle and his money. | ||
| Their choice to align with his power left those of us who had been harmed by this man and his associates feeling very isolated. | ||
| I could never have imagined being here today and this chorus of support that we have all received. | ||
| I have been sent so many notes and messages from people with no direct connection to this case who've expressed their solidarity with us. | ||
| And I believe that is because in part, as Anoush Casteau explained so well, this is an extremely widespread issue of child sexual abuse, of sexual exploitation, of sexual violence. | ||
| This affects almost every family in some way. | ||
| From my conversations with women in these last few days and from all of the support that we've received, it's very clear to me that we are not going away, we are not going to be quiet, and we are not going to give up. | ||
| And I ask the American public to stand with us and not give up. | ||
| At a time with record high levels of distrust in our institutions and a perception that there are two Americas, one for those with power and privilege and one for everyone else, passing this Epstein transparency bill is one important step that can be taken to prove to Americans that the government does not side with sexual perpetrators. | ||
| A thorough public review of this information is an important step in presenting in preventing the type of systemic failures that have occurred in this case and harmed all of us. | ||
| An important step towards healing for those involved. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Hello, everyone. | ||
| I'd like to say thank you everyone for being here today on this very powerful and special day for all of us here. | ||
| My name is Marina Lacerda. | ||
| I was minor victim one in federal indictment of Jeffrey Epstein in New York in 2019. | ||
| I was one of dozens of girls that I personally know who were forced into Jeffrey's mansion on 9 East 71st Street in New York City when we were just kids. | ||
| Today is the first time that I ever speak publicly about what happened to me. | ||
| I never thought that I would find myself here. | ||
| The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people who matter in this country finally care about what we have to say. | ||
| As an immigrant from Brazil, I feel empowered knowing that the little girl struggling to get by at 14 and 15 years old finally has a voice. | ||
| For the first time, I feel like I matter as an American. | ||
| I was only 14 years old when I met Jeffrey. | ||
| It was the summer of high school. | ||
| I was working three jobs to try to support my mom and my sister when a friend of mine in the neighborhood told me that I could make $300 to give an older guy a massage. | ||
| It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare. | ||
| Jeffrey assistant Leslie Groff would call me and tell me that I needed to be at the house so often that I ended up dropping out of high school before ninth grade. | ||
| And I never went back. | ||
| From 14 to 17 years old, I went and worked for Jeffrey instead of receiving an education. | ||
| Every day I hope that he would offer me a real job as one of his assistant or something, something important. | ||
| I would finally have made it big, as like we say, the American dream. | ||
| That day never came. | ||
| I had no way. | ||
| I had no way out. | ||
| I was until he finally told me that I was too old. | ||
| There are many pieces of my story that I can't remember no matter how hard I try. | ||
| The constant state of wonder causes me so much fear and so much confusion. | ||
| My therapist says that my brain is just trying to protect itself, but it's so hard to begin to heal knowing that there are people out there who know more about my abuse than I do. | ||
| The worst part is that the government is still in possession right now of the documents and information about that could help me remember and get over all of this maybe and help me heal. | ||
| They have documents with my name on them that were confiscated from Jeffrey Epstein's house and could help me put the pieces of my own life back together. | ||
| But I don't have any of it. | ||
| And I know the same is true for many of these women. | ||
| We are here to support this bill today, not only for transparency, but for the American people. | ||
| But if the government is going to release these documents to the public describing the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and others, the least that they can do is give me my documents that they have about me. | ||
| The other survivors deserve the same respect from our government. | ||
| While our identifying information must be redacted to the public, it is equally important to provide the victims themselves with unredacted information. | ||
| I will never forget when the FBI agents showed up in my door in 2008. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein hired a lawyer to represent me, or more like to represent him, I'd like to say. | ||
| I couldn't ask any questions, and I had no idea what was going on. | ||
| I was terrified. | ||
| Until today, I think most of us are still terrified. | ||
| I thought somebody was going to kill me. | ||
| I thought something was going to happen to my sister and my mother. | ||
| It went further out to even maybe thinking something would happen in Brazil with my family. | ||
| And then one day, the lawyer said that everything was just going to go away. | ||
| Like nothing happened. | ||
| I didn't need to testify. | ||
| When I asked him why, he gave no explanation. | ||
| That was it. | ||
| So why? | ||
| Why was I never called to testify then? | ||
| We could have saved so many women. | ||
| We could have saved so many lives from being abused. | ||
| Why did he get away with it in 2008? | ||
| Why was he able to go on in the abuse with hundreds of girls after the Florida investigation? | ||
| Why didn't they let me testify to help stop him? | ||
| Our government could have saved so many women, but Jeffrey Epstein was too important and those women didn't matter. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Well, we matter now. | ||
| We are here today and we are speaking and we are not going to stop speaking. | ||
| Today, I stand here with the women who have really helped me to find the strength to come out and come forward to share my story for the very first time. | ||
| Together, we are stronger than ever. | ||
| While she may not be with us, Virginia Roberts, we will continue to use our voices to strengthen yours always. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Hi, my name is Courtney Wilde. | ||
| I just wanted to take a second and just have a moment of silence for all the women survivors that aren't here with us today that passed away due to anxiety, depression, trying to keep up with this case. | ||
| A moment of silence, please. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My name is Courtney Wilde. | ||
| I was only 14 years old when I was introduced to Jeffrey Epstein by a 13-year-old friend of mine. | ||
| The details of the abuse that he inflicted on me for years is not important today. | ||
| In 2028, I was cooperating with the federal government and the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| They sent me a letter telling me to be patient because this was going to be a lengthy investigation, but at the same time, they refused to talk to me and tell me what was going on. | ||
| So I hired an attorney, Brad Edwards, because I was hopeful to get some answers. | ||
| When I walked into his office at 19 years old, Brad sued the government for refusing to tell me what was going on under the Crime Victims Rights Act. | ||
| The only reason anyone ever found out that the government had already given Jeffrey Epstein immunity through the non-prosecution agreement was because our lawsuit forced the government to tell us. | ||
| Otherwise, nobody would even know that today. | ||
| Sometimes it's hard to believe that I had to sue the United States just to learn that my abuser was given immunity. | ||
| I started as Jane Doe, but I decided to, I was proud enough to take on our country and I was on the right side of history. | ||
| We fought the government for 10 years to prove that the government violated our rights as crime victims and the crime victims' rights in order to protect a pedophile. | ||
| We had to win the 11th Circuit Court appeals to force the government to turn over thousands of pages of emails between Jeffrey Epstein and the government. | ||
| Those emails provided the proof that the government worked very hard with Jeffrey Epstein to violate our rights. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why did the government work so hard to protect Jeffrey and not so hard to protect me and my other innocent friends? | ||
| Why was Jeffrey so important to the government and why was I so insignificant? | ||
| Why did nobody but our lawyers care before now? | ||
| It seems people have only started to care because of Twitter and politics. | ||
| But I would like to say this has nothing to do with politics. | ||
| This is not a blue thing or a red thing. | ||
| This is an everyone thing. | ||
| We can all agree on this. | ||
| The injustice that has happened here, multiple over and over. | ||
| Everybody that talks about this just seems to make it worse. | ||
| We need transparency. | ||
| It's time for us to see beyond the curtain. | ||
| Why was Jeffrey Epstein so protected? | ||
| Who is still being protected? | ||
| And who protected them all? | ||
| So the world can understand how Jeffrey was able to abuse so many of us for so long. | ||
| I was lucky to have Brad Edwards, Brittany Henderson, and Paul Cassell take on my case pro bono and fight fearlessly over 20 years' time. | ||
| I would like to thank them and I'd also like to ask the Trump administration to please sign off on the Crime Victims Rights Reformed Act, the Courtney Wild Crime Victims Rights Reformed Act that we're trying to get passed here so we can close the loopholes in the CVRA case that Epstein's attorney used to their benefit to get to get away with this. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| First and foremost, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to Brad and Brittany Edwards, Congressman Massey and Conna, and above all, the brave survivors who have entrusted us with the privilege of speaking today on behalf of Virginia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Robert Duffrey as her family. | |
| We are here today because we support H.Rez.581, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, in its entirety. | ||
| But as much as this bill is about shining a light on truth, it's not just about the bill. | ||
| This is about justice. | ||
| This is about survivors. | ||
| This is about justice against the rich and powerful who have stolen something from these women and many children at the time. | ||
| Their freedom. | ||
| The freedom to live their life without mental and physical scars that have been inflicted upon them by those who thought they were untouchable. | ||
| The same freedom that these monsters took from these survivors, they should never be afforded. | ||
| They should never be allowed to continue their lives with impunity. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| This is not a political issue. | ||
| This is not about left or right. | ||
| This is about humanity. | ||
| This is about doing what's right. | ||
| And this is about ensuring that the future we leave behind isn't one where the powerful can hide behind their wealth, their influence, and their money to evade justice. | ||
| Our plea to you, whether you're a dad, a mom, a brother, or a sister, look your young ones in the face. | ||
| Look them in the eye and tell them you didn't stand against the very people who raped, molested, and preyed upon children and young women. | ||
| Tell them you are willing to negotiate a deal. | ||
| Money should never be what makes something right or wrong. | ||
| If you vote no, your stance will be clear. | ||
| You will be choosing to stand on the side of the rich and powerful, allowing money to buy your way out of the consequence. | ||
| But here's my one ask. | ||
| Look these survivors in the eye and tell them why. | ||
| Then look the people of the United States in the eye and tell them why. | ||
| And then, when you're alone, look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why. | ||
| Virginia said it best, and I quote: I have physical and mental scars that will never heal. | ||
| I have memories that will never go away. | ||
| They say time can heal, but this won't. | ||
| Not until the justice system makes an example out of these people with so-called privileges. | ||
| I just call it money. | ||
| The only time I can begin to heal is when their freedom is taken from them, just like they did to me and literally thousands of other victims. | ||
| The survivors of this horrific abuse are watching. | ||
| The American people are watching, and history is watching. | ||
| Which side will you be on? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My name is Jenalisa Jones, and I was only 14 years old when my friend brought me over to Jeffrey Epstein's house in Palm Beach in 2003. | ||
| I had a terrible home life, but I was such an innocent kid then. | ||
| I always did my best in school, and I had such a positive outlook on life. | ||
| Until that day that I met Jeffrey, I have never been more scared in my life than I was that first time that he hurt me. | ||
| I remember crying the entire way home, thinking about how I couldn't ever tell anyone about what actually happened in that house. | ||
| This guy was so rich and had so many pictures with so many famous people, and no one would have ever believed me if I told them. | ||
| I want to thank Congressman Rowe and Congressman Thomas Massey for having me here today. | ||
| It was really hard for me to find my voice and to become strong enough to speak about my abuse. | ||
| I didn't come forward until 2019. | ||
| And even when, and even then, it was like I was afraid of a ghost. | ||
| I know that I was just a little kid, but sometimes I still feel like it is my fault that this happened. | ||
| Being given the opportunity to speak at the United States Capitol building about something that is so important, not just to me and the women before you, but to the entire country. | ||
| Together, we can finally make a change. | ||
| And that is thanks to the people like these two congressmen and their teams who actually care about the victims. | ||
| If you are a member of Congress and you are listening to all of us speak here today, please really listen to us. | ||
| Please vote for this bill to be passed. | ||
| Please recognize how important it is for transparency relating to Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, this does not matter. | ||
| This is not about sides. | ||
| You are an American, and you are a person who has chosen to serve in an elected position to stand up for those you represent who cannot always stand up for themselves. | ||
| We are those people. | ||
| We are the Americans that you promised to protect. | ||
| And we need your help. | ||
| Please, President Trump, pass this bill and help us. | ||
| Make us feel like our voices are finally being heard. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
| My name is Haley Robson. | ||
| I was a 16-year-old high school student athlete who made good grades and had high aspirations for college when I was recruited and asked by a classmate of mine alongside with a 20-year-old male if I wanted to give an old rich guy a massage. | ||
| But what high school girl would not want to do that? | ||
| That day changed my life forever. | ||
| And when I got into the massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him. | ||
| My eyes welled up with tears, and I have never been more scared in my life. | ||
| When it was over, he made me $200 and requested in exchange that I bring a girl each time to make another $200. | ||
| I told him I did not want to do that, and then he gave me an ultimatum: either you come here and massage me when I call you, or you bring me friends of yours to massage, and I will give you $200 per girl for each time she comes. | ||
| I felt and hoped to never hear from him again, but he called me every day. | ||
| He was so wealthy and powerful, and he would not let me go. | ||
| I felt I had no choice. | ||
| If I disobeyed him, I knew something bad would happen. | ||
| So, knowing I did not want to be sexually abused, I'm sorry, I started to bring him other girls from my high school, and he paid me $200, $200 for bringing them. | ||
| I just hoped each time it would be the last time. | ||
| One day, the stepmom of one of the girls brought him and called the police on Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| The police then called me, called me in for questioning. | ||
| I had told them the truth, despite the fact that I was a teenager and a minor, and I was able to tell the police the names of all the other victims. | ||
| The police treated me like a criminal. | ||
| I had by this time turned 18. | ||
| I had been with Jeffrey since I was 16 and for two years. | ||
| So they had told me I distribute to the so they told me I was going to be arrested. | ||
| My name was then distributed to the press as a co-conspirator of my abuser, who I detested. | ||
| My entire world was crashing in around me, and I started being threatened and bullied, till this day, still receiving death threats. | ||
| I was singled out, and for many years, had to suffer a smear campaign of lies about me because of the way that I was portrayed by the press. | ||
| The press made me out to be a predator when I was just a 16-year-old little girl who was sexually abused by a powerful man and an evil man. | ||
| For years, I had no friends. | ||
| My boyfriend was murdered, and there was nowhere to turn. | ||
| The government, after investigating more, learned that I was true a victim, but the damage was done and it was too late. | ||
| There was no way to undo the harm the press had caused me. | ||
| In 2019, I met Brad and Brittany, I met Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson. | ||
| They changed my life and they believed in me and have helped me to finally heal. | ||
| Healing is a process and I may never get there. | ||
| But the passage of this bill requiring the government to produce all the evidence that it has gathered on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghelene Maxwell is a huge component of healing for me and for the many other women who have suffered for so long. | ||
| For many reasons. | ||
| First, we and the rest of the world need answers. | ||
| Why was he so protected? | ||
| And why didn't anyone ever care to stop him? | ||
| It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that if he is spending thousands of dollars a day paying high school girls he abuses and other access to and had a lot of access to cash. | ||
| I learned through my attorneys in the JPM JP Morgan class action case that there were years when his staff withdrew over a million dollars in cash a year. | ||
| Was that not a big enough red flag? | ||
| There were riot transfers to other victims and the government and the government did not protect us. | ||
| The banks did not protect us. | ||
| So lift the curtain on these files and be transparent. | ||
| Every single time a new conspiracy gets circulated in the media, whether he is still alive, what powerful person had him murdered, who was on the Epstein client list, and there are names going around on TikTok and Instagram. | ||
| We, the survivors, are suffering severely. | ||
| We take our kids to school and everyone is talking about it. | ||
| We can't read the news or do anything without hearing crazy stories that are only able to live on because the government continues to hide the evidence and the truth. | ||
| So people just make up stories. | ||
| Those stories hurt. | ||
| They hurt real people, real people who have already been hurt. | ||
| And we have lost so many Epstein victims to suicide, and maintaining the real truth and secrecy only allows for conspiracy theorists to tell lies that drives up our anxiety and fears and will continue to lead to more pain, more suffering, and honestly, more deaths of innocent victims. | ||
| It's time you do is right by us. | ||
| Unseal all the documents. | ||
| We are requesting transparency. | ||
| And I am requesting every Congressman and woman that goes against this bill be outed. | ||
| I want to know. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Hi there. | ||
| My name is Lisa Phillips, and I'm the host of an award-nominated podcast called From Now On, a platform supporting survivors. | ||
| I want to thank all of my survivor sisters who came before me today. | ||
| I'll be very short. | ||
| In the year 2000, I was taken to Jeffrey Epstein's island while on a photo shoot on a nearby island. | ||
| Who I saw and what I experienced there was a glimpse into a very dark and disturbing world. | ||
| For years after, I tried to avoid Jeffrey, but he had introduced me to Katie Ford, the owner of the Ford Modeling Agency. | ||
| Epstein's reach went to the very top of fashion, arts, and entertainment. | ||
| This did not just happen to underage girls in Florida. | ||
| In New York City, hundreds of young, ambitious women were abused by him. | ||
| Epstein was not just a serial predator, he was an international human trafficker. | ||
| And many around him knew, many participated, and many profited. | ||
| And yet, he was protected. | ||
| So I stand here today for every woman who has been silenced, exploited, and dismissed. | ||
| We are not asking for pity. | ||
| We are here demanding accountability, and I'm demanding justice. | ||
| Congress must choose: will you continue to protect predators, or will you finally protect survivors? | ||
| And also, I would like to announce here today, us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list. | ||
| We know the names. | ||
| Many of us were abused by them. | ||
| Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who regularly and who are regularly in the Epstein world. | ||
| And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. | ||
| No one else is involved. | ||
| Stay tuned for more details. | ||
| Wow, that's the clip right there of the day. | ||
| That's something else right there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. Wow. | |
| My name is Shantae Davies, and I'm here before you today as a survivor, a survivor of decades of pain, the trauma, and betrayal at the hands of Gilan Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, and the people who enabled them, and a government that for far too long refused to help. | ||
| In 2002, I was living in California, a young woman with high aspirations of becoming an actress. | ||
| I was already beginning to make a name for myself in the industry. | ||
| A person I trusted, someone I thought was a friend, invited me to meet a powerful woman who could help advance my career. | ||
| That woman happened to be Gilan Maxwell. | ||
| I was asked to give her a massage, though I had almost no experience. | ||
| And when I did, she praised me and promised introductions to someone enormously powerful, someone who could change the course of my life. | ||
| And that man was Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| At first, I was an excited young woman on top of the world. | ||
| Epstein flew me to his private island. | ||
| He listened to my dreams, promised to help, but his promises came with a catch. | ||
| The abuse began. | ||
| He told me to keep it secret. | ||
| He manipulated me with quid pro quo I did not consent to, but I felt I had no one to turn to. | ||
| He was too powerful. | ||
| I was just one of the many young women trapped in his orbit. | ||
| I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. | ||
| In those moments, I realized how powerless I was. | ||
| If I spoke out, who would believe me? | ||
| Who would protect me? | ||
| Epstein himself was the most powerful leader of our country. | ||
| Epstein surrounded himself, I'm sorry, with the most powerful leaders of our country and the world. | ||
| He abused not only me, but countless others, and everyone seemed to look away. | ||
| The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. | ||
| He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. | ||
| It was his biggest brag, actually. | ||
| And while what I endured will haunt me forever, I live every day with PTSD. | ||
| I live as a mother trying to raise my child while distrusting a world that has betrayed me. | ||
| This kind of trauma never leaves you. | ||
| It breaks families apart. | ||
| It shapes the way we see everyone around us. | ||
| But one thing is certain: unless we learn from this history, monsters like Epstein will rise again. | ||
| There are files, government files, that hold the truth about Epstein, who he knew, who owed him, who protected him, and why he was allowed to operate for so long without consequence. | ||
| Why was Maxwell the only one held accountable when so many others played a role? | ||
| Why does the government hide this information from the public? | ||
| This secrecy is not protection, it's complicity. | ||
| And as long as the truth is buried, justice will remain out of reach. | ||
| That is why this bill matters. | ||
| Passing it will bless you. | ||
| Endure, ensure that the suffering of survivors is not in vain. | ||
| Passing it will bring accountability, transparency, and prevention. | ||
| It will help protect the next generation of predators who seek to place themselves above the law through wealth, influence, and connections. | ||
| This is not just my story. | ||
| It is about every survivor who carries invisible scars. | ||
| It's about the weight we live with daily. | ||
| It is about the families broken and the future stolen. | ||
| So, I ask you, President Trump and members of Congress, why do we continue to cover up sexual abuse and assault? | ||
| Who are we covering for? | ||
| Let the public know the truth. | ||
| We cannot heal without justice. | ||
| We cannot protect the future if we refuse to confront the past. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, she flew in a plane with Bill Clinton to Africa? | ||
| Give a round of applause for all the courage and strength that the provider is. | ||
| Like, whoa. | ||
| We now will take a few questions. | ||
| You can always get Congressman Massey, May, or Congresswoman Green in the hallways and other places. | ||
| If you have questions for us, that's fine. | ||
| But I wanted to see first if you have questions for the lawyers and the survivors, and Brad will facilitate any of the questions to the survivors. | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This question would be for the survivors, Mr. Elvis. | |
| The president has said that this Epstein issue is a hoax, is the words that he used. | ||
| Can we get your reactions to what you think when you hear him say that? | ||
| I'll answer that. | ||
| Mr. President Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican. | ||
| Not that that matters because this is not political. | ||
| However, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax. | ||
| We are real human beings. | ||
| This is real trauma. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What does it feel like emotionally to hear that? | |
| It's being gutted from the inside out. | ||
| Not that I would know what that feels like, but I imagine it's the anxiety buildup with the depression and the survival mode, and then your nervous system goes limp and ironically is shot. | ||
| And it feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody again is understanding that this is a real situation. | ||
| These women are real. | ||
| We're here in person. | ||
| To say that it's a hoax is just not. | ||
| Please humanize us. | ||
| I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us, to see us for who we are and to hear us for what we have to say. | ||
| There is no hoax. | ||
| The abuse was real. | ||
| Now, what goes on behind closed doors, I can't speak for that. | ||
| What happens around the world politically, I cannot speak for that. | ||
| But I am here with all of these women, including our attorneys, and I would be more than happy to meet with him and I will meet him halfway. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I wonder if any of the victims could respond to the news from recently about Glenn Maxwell being transferred to a lower security prison in the aftermath. | |
| Anyone ask about Clinton? | ||
| Will anyone ask about Clinton? | ||
| We were horrified to learn that she had been transferred to a prison camp. | ||
| She is someone who was found guilty by a jury of sex trafficking. | ||
| She not only, we often hear that she procured women for Jeffrey, which I think is a very sort of polite and minimizing term, she also participated in abuse. | ||
| She was a major architect of the scheme. | ||
| And the fact that she has painted herself as a victim, I think, is disgusting. | ||
| And it was horrifying, I think, to us that we were not told about her prison transfer. | ||
| We found out about it in the news. | ||
| One minute, I think the news should be. | ||
| So, Anushka DiGiorgio, I testified alongside Annie at the trial of Guillen Maxwell. | ||
| I was horrified when I found out not only had Guillen Maxwell been transferred to what's called a low security, it really is like a holiday camp. | ||
| And then afterwards, I got a notification from the Department of Justice telling me that this was going to happen when it had already happened. | ||
| this woman abused children is that the military I think there's a military flyover in DC today. | ||
| I was abused. | ||
| There's a military flyover in Washington. | ||
| That's what that was. | ||
| Elene Maxwell was present for some of my abuse at the hand of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| She was present. | ||
| She was complicit. | ||
| She was enabling. | ||
| And it is appalling and disgusting. | ||
| And it's one of my worst nightmares that she not only be transferred, but the possibility that's very much going around that she might be pardoned. | ||
| This is not okay, guys. | ||
| This is not okay. | ||
| And I just want to add that I think it sends a very dangerous message to our country, to the young people in our country, that someone that we all know is aware of these crimes could be given a pass. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just for the last one, the last survivor who got a phone is called. | |
| The last survivor who just spoke, she said that Epstein would brag about her relationship with Donald Trump. | ||
| Could she please elaborate about that? | ||
| Shut up. | ||
| It's like insane. | ||
| This is insane. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She said, let's see if we can see the planes. | |
| Let's see if we can see the planes. | ||
| My first trip to the Palm Beach residence, I drove there from the airport with Elan Maxwell. | ||
| And Jeffrey and Elen were always very boastful about their friends, their famous or powerful friends. | ||
| And his biggest brag forever was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump. | ||
| He had an 8x10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them. | ||
| Like, they were very... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| One second, one second. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You said it would be confidential, but will the public, could you clarify, will the public get to see them at once? | |
| So, Lisa, what's your envision here? | ||
| Is it going to go to the public or just about to survivors? | ||
| We're reaching out to survivors that are scared. | ||
| So, come on. | ||
| We're reaching out to survivors that are scared to come forward and that also know who they were trafficked to. | ||
| So, that's the list that we're compiling. | ||
| We're not quite sure how we're going to release that, or even if we're going to, the Department of Justice needs to release the list. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right, because for folks at home, they might be confused. | |
| You know, survivors know the names. | ||
| You've seen these powerful people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why can't you say the names? | |
| Why do we have to say the names when the government knows the names? | ||
| And we're also scared to do so. | ||
| Look what's happened to so many of the survivors that have revealed names. | ||
| I find the question about the bill. | ||
| I think it's also worth saying that having between our firm and voice chiller, hundreds of victims, and we've talked to them about the various people that they were farmed out to. | ||
| So, we've created somewhat of a list. | ||
| Most of these individuals, the victims, are very scared to say these names because they could get sued. | ||
| They're going to get attacked, and nobody protected them the first time. | ||
| And that was against one person. | ||
| So, is there a list? | ||
| There is a list, but just to dispel kind of the common theme here, every one of these women was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, and his scheme was to personally abuse women. | ||
| When they reached a certain age, he did farm a section of them, some of them, out to some of his friends. | ||
| That doesn't mean all of his friends. | ||
| With that said, I'm more than happy to assist in helping create the list behind the scenes and see what we do with it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow, go ahead. | |
| Someone's interested in prosecuting, they may have something different to say about sharing a list, but they're not sharing a list for nothing to happen. | ||
| And that's the experience that they've had for all of these years. | ||
| Ask about Clinton. | ||
| The lady said she traveled with Clinton. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The speaker and others have said that the people he met with yesterday had concerns about your names being released if this bill were passed. | |
| And some people I talked to today are not signing the discharge petition because they say you don't want them to. | ||
| Can you clarify if that is bad? | ||
| Do any of the survivors here not want the bill to pass? | ||
| First of all, our legislation, Roe Conna, and I went through this. | ||
| We talked about this, and we were very careful to make sure that there is an exception so that personally identifiable information, not just their names, but anything they could be identified by, would not be disclosed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And can you speak to that as survivors yourself? | |
| I think all of them are on the same page. | ||
| They want everything released. | ||
| Yes, unequivocally redact personally identifying information and release everything else. | ||
| Yeah, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Marina, you have stayed silent for so many years. | |
| Today, this is the first time, if you understand correctly, you have never before gone public with your story and to share this. | ||
| Can you help us understand why today, why now, and why here? | ||
| Well, it is not okay for us to be silenced. | ||
| And it's not okay for Jeffrey Epstein and everybody else to be put on a pedestal. | ||
| I think everybody needs to hear from us because we know what went on, right? | ||
| And there is not only me who's been silenced, there are hundreds of women that are silenced. | ||
| My hope is to stop this abuse for the future, right? | ||
| For people that are coming up for women. | ||
| My daughter, for example, these people have, these women have daughters. | ||
| They most definitely don't want that anymore. | ||
| And I think mainly it is, it is, this is therapy for all of us too. | ||
| You know, we want to be heard. | ||
| Nobody also has never asked me to speak. | ||
| That's also another thing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I can say for all of us here, we are here. | |
| We want this bill to pass. | ||
| It is very important. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And we need transparency. | ||
| We are tired of looking at the news and seeing Jeffrey Epstein's name and saying that this is a hoax. | ||
| We are tired of it. | ||
| We are done. | ||
| We are not going to be silenced. | ||
| And I hope that my voice will bring other survivors and other victims to come along and speak up so that we can be more of a stronger voice and louder. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so what is your message to President Trump on this line? | |
| Listen, I don't like to, I don't want to send a direct message to him. | ||
| I'm already scared enough. | ||
| Just pass the vote, listen to us. | ||
| This is not a hoax. | ||
| Like, it's not going to go away. | ||
| And like I said on my speech earlier, we are not going to be, we're not going to be silenced anymore. | ||
| We will be speaking moving forward wherever we need to be. | ||
| We will be and we need to pass this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Sarah. | |
| Jordan Conrad, Gateway Plumbed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, for years we've heard that there was an Epstein client list or some kind of relationship. | |
| Now we hear from the DOJ that there is a no list. | ||
| What do you guys think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know you're working on your own list, but do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein had a list? | |
| So there's not a list. | ||
| So here's what it was. | ||
| Just like you heard everybody today, Jeffrey Epstein created through an organization of enablers, of people that were on his payroll. | ||
| It was a complicated scheme where others should still be investigated because they helped to enable him and operate this scheme. | ||
| Without those people, he could not have done this. | ||
| But the purpose was for him to personally abuse people. | ||
| With that being said, certain of his friends, he farmed out certain of The women that he was exploiting, too. | ||
| But that wasn't the primary purpose of that scheme. | ||
| And I don't think he wrote the names of those people down. | ||
| There's not a list of, hey, here's all of the people that I sent females to. | ||
| That's just not how that organization works. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is there nobody else that Jeffrey Epstein was involved with or tied to you, the CIA, or a foreign intelligence operation? | |
| I think that the safest thing for me to say is all files should come out, whether it is for this with the CIA, FinCEN, SEC, FBI. | ||
| I'm not just making these up haphazardly. | ||
| I'm giving you a roadmap where to look. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was going to ask you, the White Hustle said that this is a discarded word of a very hostile act. | |
| What's your response and Victor's response? | ||
| And thank you all for being here. | ||
| I'll go first and then I'll let them. | ||
| They're much more important than me, but I don't understand why it's a hostile act. | ||
| I can tell you that I talked to President Clinton, I'm sorry, President Trump back in 2009 and several times after that. | ||
| He didn't think that it was a hoax then. | ||
| In fact, he helped me. | ||
| He got on the phone. | ||
| He told me things that were helping our investigation. | ||
| Now, our investigation wasn't looking into him, but he was helping us then. | ||
| He didn't treat this as a hoax. | ||
| So at this point in time, I would hope that he would revert back to what he was saying to get elected, which is I want transparency. | ||
| This about face that occurred, none of us understand it. | ||
| In fact, I don't understand how this is an issue that's even up for debate. | ||
| How do you not stand behind these women after you've heard their stories and know that hundreds of them were abused? | ||
| And it was only because files are being kept in secrecy. | ||
| The world should know who he is, who protected him, and the other people that are out there to be investigated need to be investigated. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are there any people who are currently serving in government who are named, who you know of, are in these files, who you had relations with, anything of that sort who Jeffrey Epstein connected you with? | |
| Are you willing to say yes or no? | ||
| I don't think I can answer that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Edwards, sorry. | |
| They named Clinton. | ||
| Ask about Clinton. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think she's referring to my speech. | |
| Hi, Anushka DiGiorgio. | ||
| I have been threatened. | ||
| I was threatened by phone. | ||
| My daughter was threatened when I was volunteering to participate in by means of being a witness in a civil lawsuit that Virginia Duffrey was bringing against Guillen Maxwell. | ||
| I have been followed. | ||
| I have been stalked. | ||
| I have been followed not only by journalists, but by people who do not get out of the car and do not try and talk to me and just drive behind me as I drive my daughter to school. | ||
| So the fear is very real for us. | ||
| I have also been in multiple situations with both Jeffrey Epstein and Guillen Maxwell, where they have been direct and indirect about implying and saying that if I was to talk, if I was to bring any kind of trouble, then there would be severe consequence, including death. | ||
| Just to add to that, you know, Maxwell also threatened my sister Maria Farmer. | ||
| You know, when the FBI did nothing about her initial report, you know, we did, she reported individually at that time. | ||
| And then in 2002, we spoke to a reporter at Vanity Fair telling our stories, fearful that perhaps other people were being harmed. | ||
| You know, we were not, we believed that was going to make a difference. | ||
| We believed that would be put in print. | ||
| And that story was crushed. | ||
| And it was because of their power. | ||
| And the message that we got from that was direct threats from Maxwell to my sister about her well-being and her safety and that of our family. | ||
| So there, I think, many people have similar stories of threats. | ||
| That has been a very real part of this case. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead over here. | |
| Do any of today's survivors speaking? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did anybody here ever have any connection or interaction with Epstein's alleged financier? | |
| Nope. | ||
| I just want to say one thing that's very clear: when people say, you know, please share names, there are names that are very well known, like that of Les Wexner, who everyone knows supplied an enormous amount of Epstein's financial wealth and allowed this operation to happen. | ||
| So it's, I think, confusing to many of us why there have not been more ramifications for him. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And he's been seen as a victim. | ||
| And clearly, I believe there's more to it. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Les Wexner is the reason why Epstein's a billionaire. | ||
| Les Wexner. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She actually had to repant the allegations that she made against Alan Dershowitz. | |
| She alleged that on a musician. | ||
| All right, next question. | ||
| Next question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Why is it that she should be reporting on the question? | ||
| Anybody else? | ||
| How did the victims feel about the interview that was given to Glenn Maxwell by Tad Lance? | ||
| Why? | ||
| Okay, ma'am. | ||
| think that you had a question um i don't I don't know that we're able to reveal what we've seen and what we have not seen by way of protective order. | ||
| But my point being in that circumstance was if anybody wants answers, there's an easy place to get it. | ||
| I told you where to get it. | ||
| I said the estate of Jeffrey Epstein has it, serve a subpoena on them. | ||
| They'll turn it over. | ||
| And if we had served a subpoena on them in the past, they would have turned it over and we would have seen it, which I don't usually miss subpoenas like that. | ||
| So there we go. | ||
| You know, to your question about the allegations, there's a simple answer. | ||
| Release the files. | ||
| Let the American public decide. | ||
| Instead of harassing, instead of, I gave you your say. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're hired by Dershowitz and then had to admit other counselors. | |
| You know, even he knows what I'm talking about. | ||
| You've been heard. | ||
| And even Alan Dershowitz, even Alan Dershowitz has to release the files. | ||
| Release the files. | ||
| That is the answer. | ||
| And that's what we're here for. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Goodness. Goodness. | |
| This is getting rowdy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Donald Trump gave you help in 2009. | |
| Can you elaborate on your interactions with Donald Trump back in 2009? | ||
| And for any of the victims, they never see the president, but then not president yet, but they ever ever see Trump with Epstein yet. | ||
| This is like the fifth CNN question. | ||
| I don't think that we can answer that question. | ||
| Did anybody see Trump with Epstein back then? | ||
| This is really not a political thing. | ||
| We want the passage of the bill, and this is not to call out President Trump. | ||
| Let's ask about Clinton. | ||
| He was friendly back then, did not think that it was a hoax and was trying to help. | ||
| And now it seems like all of the sudden somebody's in his ear and he's not. | ||
| So I'm hoping he'll come back to where he was back in 2009, be on the side of the victims and stand with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Teresa will step up. | ||
| I would, Teresa J. Home. | ||
| Happy to speak on that because what I will say is she got this airtime and platform. | ||
| Her voice was elevated way before our voices were elevated here today. | ||
| And that same calm, manipulative voice that she had so polite there that day with Todd Blanche was the same polite, coercive, manipulative voice that I heard as she was grooming me. | ||
| to then send me off to the home of Jeffrey Epstein where he would assault me. | ||
| So that's what she was doing for hours, speaking with me, building relationship with me, building trust with me, allowing me to believe that I was going to get this job, a dream job that I had been recruited from my college, flown across the country from Los Angeles to New York City to interview, so I thought. | ||
| So her voice that day was the same voice that sent me off to a monster. | ||
| So believe nothing can be believed from what she says because she's been charged with perjury. | ||
| I myself could sit there and listen. | ||
| And as I did, I sat there and listened to this woman's voice lie. | ||
| And there was no pushback from Todd Blanche because does he even have the facts to be able to push back on her? | ||
| We could sit there and push back. | ||
| Why didn't we get to attend that? | ||
| Why weren't we there that day? | ||
| Or why wasn't even one of us consulted prior to that day in that meeting? | ||
| And why on earth has she been moved from Florida to her, it basically is prison spa. | ||
| I mean, you know, let's be real. | ||
| None of us were consulted. | ||
| I found out just like everyone here found out through the media, through all of you. | ||
| We found out about Geelen's transfer. | ||
| So we are all, I'm very angry to sit there and listen. | ||
| The feelings that come up listening to this woman's voice is repulsive. | ||
| Yes, I would say it's triggering. | ||
| We all work very hard on healing and it still gets to us after two decades. | ||
| It's a very long answer, but it's repulsive to sit there and listen to her voice in her interview. | ||
| Can we take two more questions? | ||
| One over here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
My reporting in Benny Barrett directly led to a $100 million payment from JP Morgan to the Virgin Islands. | |
| Will you go after the DOJ, the FBI, because they're sitting on evidence. | ||
| I've held the evidence in my hands. | ||
| I think that there's nobody that's immune from us going after them if there's a legitimate action to take. | ||
| So to the extent that that evidence exists, then show it to us and we'll help in every way we can. | ||
| We stand with the victims. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Can the survivor speak to speaking up being threatened and being afraid to come forward with a story to the case of Katie Johnson who alleged that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein? | ||
| I don't think we can talk about it. | ||
| I don't think we can talk about it. | ||
| I do think it's worth saying, though, despite the comments that he made, Virginia Roberts Dufray is an American hero. | ||
| She is somebody. | ||
| She is somebody without whom we would not be able to have this voice. | ||
| She was the one who had courage to name names, speak out against people, and she was standing up against everybody at one time with an enormous amount of pressure. | ||
| And most of these women are here because of Virginia Roberts Dufrey. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm done. | |
| All right, last one. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Who one of the victims say do they think the innocent people are that he's protecting? | |
| Clearly not us. | ||
| I don't think anybody knows, but I can tell you that in the oversight committee meeting yesterday, they indicated that they were all for transparency, releasing the files, and asked us to hold them accountable. | ||
| Isn't that right? | ||
| They said, hold them accountable. | ||
| So we intend to hold them accountable. | ||
| We're going to show them where to go with it. | ||
| And as long as they're doing their job, they should. | ||
| I'm going to turn it back over to BroCon. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Let me just say this. | ||
| Let me say that. | ||
| We are going to the White House where President, so that's wrapped. | ||
| The victims have spoken. | ||
| Their lawyers have spoken. | ||
| Major takeaways there is one of them flew. | ||
| One of them has personal experience, horrifying experience with Bill Clinton. | ||
| Not any reporter asked about it. | ||
| I'm enraged at that. | ||
| I'm so angry. | ||
| CNN gets 15 questions about Trump. | ||
| And here's a lady being like, I flew on a plane and the Lolita Express with Bill Clinton to Africa. | ||
| And what happened on that plane destroyed my life? | ||
| What? | ||
| And nobody asks that question? | ||
| I feel like I'm going insane. | ||
| And then the major through line here is that the feds, like a decade ago, have been trying to stop, cover up, and protect Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| And we've known that and that has been well documented. | ||
| So I'm very glad that the committee is looking into Bill Barr, Alberto Gonzalez, Robert Mueller, who's apparently in a nursing home now, and so on, in order to figure out why that protection mechanism was put in place over Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Horrifying stories. | ||
| I'm very glad to have been able to broadcast that and to bring you that now, President Trump, inside of the White House, Donald Trump live right now. | ||
| This shot's live. | ||
| This is the Polish president. | ||
| Let's go. | ||
| We have some wonderful people, as you know, Duda, my friend. | ||
| He's a good man and still a big fan of yours, very much so. | ||
| So it's a great honor. | ||
| And we're going to talk about trade. | ||
| We'll talk about some other things. | ||
| We'll take a couple of questions from the media. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We'll American Soldiers remain in Poland. | |
| Yeah, I think so. | ||
| I mean, you know something I don't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know. | |
| Yeah, we're very happy. | ||
| If anything, we'll put more there if they want. | ||
| But they've long wanted to have a larger presence. | ||
| We have some countries that have more, not too many, but no, they'll be staying in Poland. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're very much aligned with Poland. | |
| Russia, Vizayan, you circling, we saw a dramatic picture where we saw the leaders of Russia and North Korea and China together, the first time the leaders of those three countries have been together in this sort of show of solidarity. | ||
| You said that they're conspiring against the United States. | ||
| What do you think they're conspiring to do? | ||
| And given this, is it reason why you should slap or would consider slapping secondary sanctions on Russia if they're conspiring against the U.S. now? | ||
| Well, I've already done that with regard to India and we're doing it with regard to other things. | ||
| And I put out a truth last night. | ||
| You saw that. | ||
| And I was the one that brought it up. | ||
| I said they're only doing this. | ||
| They're really there looking to, when they did what they did, I thought it was a beautiful ceremony. | ||
| I thought it was very, very impressive. | ||
| But I understood the reason they were doing it and they were hoping I was watching and I was watching. | ||
| My relationship with all of them is very good. | ||
| We're going to find out how good it is over the next week or two. | ||
| I think that we helped China very much, as you know, when they talk about freedom. | ||
| And I don't believe that, and maybe I'm wrong, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't believe that America, that the United States was acknowledged for helping China to get to gain its freedom. | ||
| But perhaps that was just a that was a sleight of hand. | ||
| I mean, I was very surprised. | ||
| I watched the speech last night. | ||
| President Xi's a friend of mine, but I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech because we helped China very, very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What was the president's presidency? | |
| You have expressed many times your frustration and disappointment with Putin, but there's no action since you took your office. | ||
| How do you know there's no action? | ||
| Really? | ||
| Wait, wait. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Who are you with? | |
| Okay. | ||
| How do you know there's no action? | ||
| Would you say that putting secondary sanctions on India, the largest purchaser outside of China, they're almost equal, would you say there was no action? | ||
| That costs hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia. | ||
| You call that no action? | ||
| And I haven't done phase two yet or phase three. | ||
| But when you say there's no action, I think you ought to get yourself a new job. | ||
| Because if you remember, two weeks ago, I did, I said, if India buys, India's got big problems. | ||
| And that's what happened. | ||
| So don't tell me about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, right now, there have been survivors of Jeffrey Epstein speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill. | |
| They're calling for these case files, these documents to be released. | ||
| And Thomas Massey, who is sponsoring a discharge position, should get the House to go and release those documents, says he doesn't lead here implicated in these files, but many of your friends and donors maybe. | ||
| And he says that's why the Justice Department is redacting them and slow walking the release. | ||
| Is the Justice Department protecting any friends or donors, sir? | ||
| So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. | ||
| You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. | ||
| We gave him everything over and over again, more and more and more, and nobody's ever satisfied. | ||
| From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. | ||
| But it's really a Democrat hoax because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been president. | ||
| Even if you look at DC right now, DC, it's a totally safe zone. | ||
| It's called a safe zone. | ||
| That's a term. | ||
| It's a term of art. | ||
| It's a safe zone because it's very safe. | ||
| You can walk down the street now and nothing's going to happen. | ||
| No crime, no murders, no nothing, because we had a lot of problems with certain places, and we still do. | ||
| All run by Democrats, or for the most part, run by Democrats. | ||
| So what they're trying to do with the Epstein hoax is get people to talk about that instead of speaking about the tremendous success like ending seven wars. | ||
| I ended seven wars. | ||
| Nobody's going to talk about because they're going to talk about the Epstein, whatever. | ||
| I understand that we were subpoenaed to give files, and I understand we've given thousands of pages of files. | ||
| And I know that no matter what you do, it's going to keep going. | ||
| And I think it's, I think, really, I think it's enough because I think we should talk about the greatness of our country and the success that we're having. | ||
| I think we're probably having, according to what I read, even from two people in this room, we're having the most successful eight months of any president ever. | ||
| And that's what I want to talk about. | ||
| That's what we should be talking about, not the Epstein hoax. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When are you going to make a decision on the plane, Mr. President? | |
| I'm sorry, Mr. President. | ||
| Mr. President, I'm sorry, Mr. President. | ||
| I'm sorry, Mr. President. | ||
| I have no message to President Putin. | ||
| He knows where I stand, and he'll make a decision one way or the other, whatever his decision is. | ||
| We'll either be happy about it or unhappy. | ||
| And if we're unhappy about it, you'll see things happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you give us a sense of what the U.S. policy or what you're trying to achieve with the aircraft carriers or the boats, I should say, near Venezuela? | |
| And also the boat that you mentioned yesterday where 11 people were killed. | ||
| What was found on that boat and why were the men killed instead of taking it? | ||
| On the boat, you had massive amounts of drugs. | ||
| We have tapes of them speaking. | ||
| It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. | ||
| And everybody fully understands that. | ||
| In fact, you see it. | ||
| You see the bags of drugs all over the boat. | ||
| And they were hit. | ||
| Obviously, they won't be doing it again. | ||
| And I think a lot of other people won't be doing it again when they watch that tape. | ||
| They're going to say, let's not do this. | ||
| We have to protect our country and we're going to. | ||
| Venezuela's been a very bad actor. | ||
| They've been, as you know, they've been sending millions of people into our country, many of them trendier agua, some of the worst gangs, some of the worst people anywhere in the world in terms of gangs. | ||
| And we had some in Washington, D.C. | ||
| We took care of them very quickly, but they're out of here. | ||
| They've gone. | ||
| But Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country. | ||
| They emptied out, you don't know this, but they emptied out their prisons in Venezuela and they emptied them out into the United States of America. | ||
| And that's part of the problem we have. | ||
| We're getting them out. | ||
| We're getting them out rapidly, but it's caused a tremendous problem. | ||
| And Pete and all of the people that are working very hard to rectify the stupidity of the Biden administration, allowing these people to pour into our country with open borders. | ||
| We are paying a big price as a country for the incompetence of the Biden administration. | ||
| But think of it. | ||
| Opened up prisons, drug dealers, drug lords, everything coming out of Venezuela, they said, and we said, we're not going to put up with it anymore. | ||
| So Venezuela has been one of the worst actors in the whole group. | ||
| And we have a group of pretty bad actors. | ||
| Are you wanting to get it? | ||
| Are you wanting to force the borough? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. | |
| At the end of this month, the government or the Congress has to pass a budget. | ||
| Do you think we can avoid a government shutdown? | ||
| Yeah, I do. | ||
| I think the Republicans will vote for an extension. | ||
| We won't have any Democrat votes. | ||
| We could give the greatest budget ever. | ||
| A tax cut of 50%, everybody taken care of, perfect for women, perfect for men, perfect for minorities, perfect for everything. | ||
| And we wouldn't get one vote for the Democrats because they've lost their mind. | ||
| They are so deranged. | ||
| They have Trump derangement syndrome. | ||
| And I don't want to burn the Republican Party with it, but they really are. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They've become almost sick. | |
| You know, they actually think there is a disease. | ||
| It's called Trump derangement syndrome. | ||
| They've got it. | ||
| No matter what we did, no matter how good, you could give them everything that they've ever dreamed of, and you wouldn't get one vote. | ||
| These are sick people. | ||
| And I think we're going to have a tremendous midterm. | ||
| We just approved the largest tax decrease in the history of our country. | ||
| We have things when you think of it, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for our seniors, no tax on overtime, deductions when you buy a car and you borrow money to buy a car. | ||
| First time they've ever seen anything like this, middle-income people get deductions. | ||
| You get a deduction when you buy a car. | ||
| Nobody's ever seen. | ||
| And by the way, they're selling cars like crazy. | ||
| Cars are pouring back because of the fact that we have tariffs. | ||
| Cars are pouring back into our car plants, are pouring back into our nation. | ||
| They're coming from all over the world. | ||
| They're coming back. | ||
| You know, we lost about 54% of automobile manufacturing over a 30-year period, 35-year period. | ||
| They're all coming back. | ||
| I think they're coming back higher than ever before. | ||
| We have AI going up. | ||
| What we've done is amazing. | ||
| And what we've passed is amazing. | ||
| But the Democrats, I don't believe will get one vote. | ||
| It's very anti-crime. | ||
| We want anti-crime. | ||
| They're in favor of crime. | ||
| We're against crime. | ||
| So they gave us things like men playing in women's sports, open borders for everybody, transgender for everybody. | ||
| I mean, they want to transgender for all of the crazy things that they were saying. | ||
| And, you know, people would say there are 80-20 issues. | ||
| I say there were 97 to 1. | ||
| I always say 97 to 1. | ||
| Nobody knows who the three are. | ||
| This is the best issue of all. | ||
| They are against preventing crime. | ||
| They are fighting us. | ||
| I want to go into Chicago, and I have this incompetent governor that doesn't want us. | ||
| Do you know that this weekend, 72 people were shot in Chicago? | ||
| I'm embarrassed to say it in front of the president of Poland. | ||
| 11 people were killed. | ||
| 72 people were shot. | ||
| Last week, seven people were killed in Chicago, a place which is probably your number one place. | ||
| I hate to say it. | ||
| Yeah, a lot of people say, we got to keep it safe. | ||
| But seven people were killed. | ||
| The week before that, five people were killed and 21 people were shot. | ||
| This is in three weeks. | ||
| So in three weeks, they lost almost 35 people were killed. | ||
| It could have been stopped. | ||
| If you look at Washington, D.C., three weeks ago, it was the same or worse. | ||
| And now it's considered a totally safe zone. | ||
| Restaurants are open. | ||
| They're bustling. | ||
| Restaurants, you have to see restaurants were dying. | ||
| Nobody wanted to go out. | ||
| They didn't want to be attacked. | ||
| They didn't want to be mugged. | ||
| They didn't want to be attacked even in the restaurant. | ||
| And you take a look at what's happened. | ||
| Friends of mine that haven't gone to a restaurant in four years, one of them went out five times in the last two weeks to a restaurant with his family. | ||
| They feel totally safe. | ||
| Washington, D.C. is a totally safe city. | ||
| You're not reporting any crime because there is none. | ||
| They said crime is down 87%. | ||
| And I said, no, it's not. | ||
| It's down 100%. | ||
| We have a great thing going. | ||
| I could do that with Chicago. | ||
| We could do that with New York. | ||
| We could do it with Los Angeles. | ||
| So we're making a determination now. | ||
| Do we go to Chicago or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad. | ||
| So we're going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. | ||
| We'll straighten that out in about two weeks. | ||
| It'll take us two weeks, easier than D.C. | ||
| But we could straighten out Chicago. | ||
| All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago if we don't have the support of some of these politicians. | ||
| But I'll tell you who is supporting us, the people of Chicago. | ||
| And I sort of want them to let it be known. | ||
| They have incompetent people, a guy like Gavin Newsom. | ||
| He's the governor of a state that if we didn't go in, if we didn't go into Los Angeles with our soldiers, with our National Guard, you wouldn't even be having the Olympics there. | ||
| They were going to take it. | ||
| And remember this, your top law enforcement officer in Los Angeles said, there's no way we could have done this without President Trump coming in with the troops. | ||
| We saved Los Angeles and we saved the Olympics. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. President, in regards to Gavin Newsom, would you be open to a congressional investigation in regards to the specific policies fire where killed 12 seniors to see if there's any negligence on Gavin Newsom or Karen Bass in regards to those deaths? | ||
| Well, I'll tell you, there's negligence on not getting people permits. | ||
| That is negligent. | ||
| We got all of the federal permits, Lee Zeldon. | ||
| The federal permits are much more difficult. | ||
| They were all gotten within 30 days. | ||
| People could go build their houses. | ||
| It's going to be years before they are allowed to build the house. | ||
| And Karen Bass is grossly incompetent. | ||
| And there's he's this is a very incompetent guy. | ||
| I watched him with the hands. | ||
| I'm saying, what's going on with the hands? | ||
| There's something wrong with there's something wrong with him. | ||
| Do you watch him? | ||
| There's something wrong with this guy. | ||
| But more importantly, he didn't allow the water to come from the Pacific Northwest. | ||
| You know, they have tremendous amounts of water in California. | ||
| People don't know. | ||
| They send the water out to the Pacific Ocean. | ||
| So I demand that it be open. | ||
| If that were open during the fire, before the fire, you wouldn't have had the fire because all the sprinklers would have worked in the houses. | ||
| They had no water. | ||
| They had no water in the fire hydrants. | ||
| You wouldn't have had the fires. | ||
| It would have been put out after one house, two houses, but he stopped the water from coming in. | ||
| And I had to send in the military to have that water opened after the fires. | ||
| And now they have water, but he should have more because they've restricted, they still restrict it. | ||
| There's something wrong with these people. | ||
| There's something really wrong. | ||
| As to investigation, I view it as a gross incompetence. | ||
| I view it as an ideology that's wrong. | ||
| It's a radical left ideology. | ||
| And if I didn't win this election, I think our country would be destroyed. | ||
| I don't believe you'd be here right now and our country would be destroyed, yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What are the most important branches of interest between Poland, Poland, and the U.S.? | |
| Well, it's just the relationship we have. | ||
| I think there's a great trust and a great more than you know, more than most countries, more than almost any countries. | ||
| We have some in a category that's very special, and Poland is in that category. | ||
| We have a very special relationship. | ||
| It's like the question about the soldiers that was asked. | ||
| We never even thought in terms of removing soldiers from Poland. | ||
| We do think about it with regard to other countries, but we would never know. | ||
| We're with Poland all the way, and we will help Poland protect itself. | ||
| I would like to add something. | ||
| Yeah, of course, security is most important also for our relation. | ||
| And I'm a historian, as you know, maybe, Mr. President. | ||
| I'm a historian, and this is the first time in Polish history in the 20th century and the 21st century that the Poles are happy that we have foreign soldiers in Poland. | ||
| So the American soldiers are the part of our society nowadays. | ||
| We have almost 10,000 soldiers, and this is the signal to the whole world and also to the Russian Federation that we are together. | ||
| But we are not like the Poland free riders in Europe and in NATO. | ||
| Mr. President Trump knows it because our GDP for military service achieves 4.7. | ||
| So we are probably the one NATO nation which is on this level and we will not stop. | ||
| Me as the president of Poland, we are going to achieve 5% of GDP for military service. | ||
| But with American soldiers on Polish soil, we solidify and we are secure. | ||
| Just about that. | ||
| You know, Poland was one of two nations that paid more than they were supposed to with NATO. | ||
| I don't know if anyone knows that, but there were two nations. | ||
| And Poland paid more than they were supposed to. | ||
| They thought it was low. | ||
| And by the way, since then, at my request, they've raised it from 2% to 5%. | ||
| But Poland was one of two nations that paid more than they were supposed to, which was a very nice thing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You were not invited to the parade in Beijing. | |
| Never even thought about it until just now. | ||
| Never even thought. | ||
| It wouldn't have been my place to be there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On tariffs? | |
| On tariffs? | ||
| Well, you visit a restaurant, and you see, you haven't gone to... | ||
| I might, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You haven't gone to one in either of your terms that wasn't... | |
| How do you know? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because I and many other people. | |
| Do you want me to prove you're wrong? | ||
| Do you want me to prove you're wrong? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, please. | |
| But I will, I think it's something we could consider doing. | ||
| I'd love to do it. | ||
| I love the White House food, but after a while, I can see going to a nice restaurant. | ||
| It's safe. | ||
| If you would have said, like, the governor, Governor Moore, wanted me to go and walk through Baltimore with him. | ||
| And I said, you know, I think I'm a brave guy, but there's no reason to be stupid. | ||
| They have crime that's at levels that nobody's ever seen before in Baltimore. | ||
| They've done a terrible job. | ||
| We'd go into Baltimore straight into that very quickly, too. | ||
| You know why they respect our soldiers? | ||
| You see our soldiers. | ||
| They respect our soldiers. | ||
| We'd go there too. | ||
| But we're going to have people asking us to go. | ||
| They're going to want to. | ||
| And I think the people of those places are, the politicians are not in tune with the people. | ||
| The people in Chicago, the people in Baltimore, the people in all of the places we talk about, they want to see us there. | ||
| And I think we're pretty much waiting till we get asked and properly. | ||
| We're doing them a big service. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You talked about how historic these tariffs have been, bringing in revenue, additional revenue for our country. | |
| You've also mentioned before they could possibly replace federal income tax. | ||
| Possible. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think that's possible? | |
| Someday it's possible. | ||
| It used to be. | ||
| So if you go back to 1913 is when they end the tariffs. | ||
| We were the richest ever from 1850. | ||
| It was all tariffs. | ||
| We didn't have income taxes. | ||
| From 1850 to 1913, in the 1887s, about 1887, they had the Great National Tariff Act. | ||
| And it was a group of people that got together because our country was so rich, they didn't know what to do with the money. | ||
| We had so much money, they didn't know what to do. | ||
| It was a group of very prominent people that were set up to hand out money to everybody because we were the richest we ever were. | ||
| Proportionately, we were in 1887, around that time, even in 1913. | ||
| We ended them in 1913. | ||
| How did that work out? | ||
| And then we went to the income tax system, and then we had the Depression. | ||
| And by the way, a lot of people try and say that, oh, tariffs with the Depression. | ||
| No, they ended in 1913. | ||
| And then we went to income tax. | ||
| And then in 1929, you had the Depression. | ||
| They did try and bring it back in 1931-32, but the Depression had long started. | ||
| And this poor, beautiful nation was gone. | ||
| It was gone. | ||
| We suffered for 25 years. | ||
| It took 25, 30 years to really recover from the Depression. | ||
| And we don't ever want to see that happen again. | ||
| The tariffs are vital to the success of this country. | ||
| When I say I ended seven wars, at least half of those wars were ended because of the power of tariffs. | ||
| I was able to say, well, we're not doing any business with you, or if you're going to war, we're putting a big tariff in you. | ||
| And all of a sudden, they announced that the war was settled. | ||
| I would settle. | ||
| I settled seven different wars, one going 31 years. | ||
| Look at the Congo and Rwanda. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| 31 years, 10 million people dead. | ||
| I got it settled. | ||
| And a little bit of that one, less than in some cases, had to do with trade and had to do with tariffs. | ||
| So, you know, tariffs are vital to our country. | ||
| And just so you know, other countries use them on us, but I just use them a lot better. | ||
| We're in a much better position. | ||
| We have trillions of dollars coming into our country. | ||
| If we didn't have tariffs, we would be a very poor nation and we would be taken advantage of by every other nation in the world, friend and foe. | ||
| We're not going to let that happen. | ||
| And we have a very, very big case in the Supreme Court. | ||
| I can only say this. | ||
| Our country has a chance to be unbelievably rich again, but it can also be unbelievably poor again. | ||
| If we don't win that case, our country is going to suffer so greatly. | ||
| But I think we're going to have a big victory. | ||
| Even if you look at the people that brought the case, they're foreign-oriented. | ||
| They're foreign. | ||
| Countries have taken advantage of the United States for so many years. | ||
| And I started with China. | ||
| You know, last term, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from China. | ||
| But when COVID came, the last thing I was going to do is we're going to tariff France and Italy and, you know, others, Spain, where they were doing so badly. | ||
| But now we made a deal with the European Union where they're paying us almost a trillion dollars and they're happy to do it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know what? | |
| They're happy it's done. | ||
| These deals are all done. | ||
| I guess we'd have to unwind them. | ||
| We've done deals with Japan, with South Korea, we've done deals with many countries and others to come. | ||
| And if we didn't have the power, prestige, and dignity of tariffs, and I used them wisely, and people respect America again, and we've become a rich country again. | ||
| The money coming in is incredible. | ||
| And again, they use them on us. | ||
| If we didn't have them, they would use them on us and we would have no way to fight them. | ||
| We would be a third world nation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I think it's one of the most important cases I've ever seen go before the Supreme Court of the U.S. in a two-week deadline to agree to talks with Vladimir Zelensky. | |
| That deadline is now nearly approached. | ||
| You couldn't give us any indication when you will make it. | ||
| Well, I'm having a conversation with him very shortly, and I'll know pretty much what we're going to be doing. | ||
| We've taken very strong action, as you know, and in other ways we've taken very strong action. | ||
| But I'll be speaking to him over the next few days and we're going to see I'm going to know exactly what's happening. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm not happy with all the people. | |
| You got 7,819 people killed last week. | ||
| Russian soldiers and Ukraine soldiers, right? | ||
| Not American soldiers, not soldiers from Poland, but they're human beings. | ||
| They're souls. | ||
| They have parents. | ||
| They wave goodbye to their parents and their parents never see them again. | ||
| That's the end of over a stupid war. | ||
| And I want to see it stopped. | ||
| Now, we have stopped the money. | ||
| We send weapons to NATO. | ||
| They pay full price. | ||
| We don't, you know, Biden spent $350 billion so stupidly. | ||
| And it was one of the reasons that this whole thing happened. | ||
| A big reason this war happened was sitting right in these chairs, this one in particular. | ||
| So I will tell you that I think we're going to have a good solution, but they're losing soldiers at levels that nobody has seen since the Second World War. | ||
| This is the worst conflict, and it's just going on and on. | ||
| It's one's defense, one's offense. | ||
| The offense moves a little bit, just a little bit. | ||
| You take a look, they move inches. | ||
| They're dropping bombs and killing everybody. | ||
| The whole thing is not since the Second World War has there been anything even close to this. | ||
| And they're not, again, they're not soldiers from my country. | ||
| This is my country. | ||
| But I have a power to end things. | ||
| That's why I was able to end seven other wars. | ||
| And you know that I thought of the seven, they're basically seven. | ||
| Those are tough wars to end. | ||
| Much tougher, I thought, than the war with Ukraine and Russia. | ||
| I thought that Ukraine and Russia have a very good relationship with President Putin. | ||
| I thought that that would be much easier. | ||
| I thought that would be in the middle of the pact, maybe one of the easiest. | ||
| Sometimes you never know with war. | ||
| You know, war is a very interesting thing. | ||
| You never know with war. | ||
| War is complex and dangerous and what a mess, what a bloody mess. | ||
| It's going to get done one way or the other, but they have to stop killing all of these souls. | ||
| They're souls, and we have to stop killing them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| All right, ladies and gentlemen, what an absolutely rip-roaring morning. | ||
| And as ever, when there's lives like this, I got to hop off and do Piers Morgan. | ||
| So we're going to jump quickly to that. | ||
| We have had a rowdy morning and a lot of news. | ||
| Make sure that you are locked into the channel as we will be covering all of it on Piers Morgan as well. | ||
| But also throughout the day, we're going to break down everything that happens, major and wild things right before us. | ||
| I guess the big one is that the Epstein victims will be creating their own Epstein list that they'll be naming the people who abused them. | ||
| And one of the names was Bill Clinton. | ||
| Now, don't expect the horrendous press corps to ask any questions about that when it's just literally red meat sitting right in front of you. | ||
| This is why we are making a, this is why we are sending reporters. | ||
| Thank you for supporting this channel. | ||
| We're sending reporters. | ||
| We have a White House reporter now. | ||
| We have a reporter in DC. | ||
| His name is Danny DiRabina. | ||
| He's going to be doing on-the-ground reporting for us. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| We're going to work very hard on building a structure where we can get the proper questions asked. | ||
| So it's not just me screaming and you screaming. | ||
| It's actually the chat asking the questions. | ||
| We've already done that at the White House a couple of times. | ||
| And get ready. | ||
| We're going to be doing a lot more of it. | ||
| Who will be powering us as we do that? | ||
| Our dear friends at Blackout Coffee. | ||
| Blackout Coffee fills my now empty cup this morning as we have been chugging probably too much coffee. | ||
| They are made right here in the beautiful state of Florida. | ||
| They are friends of us. | ||
| They're patriots and they love you, the American people. | ||
| That's why they make their coffee right here. | ||
| That's why their coffee actually tastes like coffee. | ||
| That's why it powers the incredible patriots that run this country. | ||
| And it's also why the people who run this company, well, there's American flags literally everywhere. | ||
| I've seen their facility and they are truly living out the American dream. | ||
| Help power your American dream with Blackout Coffee. | ||
| If you believe in America and hard work and values, this is a coffee that actually tastes great. | ||
| Drink blackoutcoffee.com slash Benny. | ||
| Use code Benny for 20% off your first order. | ||
| Support the American Dream. | ||
| Drink Blackout Coffee. | ||
| Blackout Coffee.com slash Benny. | ||
| Stop settling for less and drink real coffee. | ||
| Our verse of the day, ladies and gentlemen, as we have had to apologize for, well, unfortunately, we had to cut two members of Congress, three members of Congress, actually, the Senator, Byron Donalds, and Chip Roy. | ||
| And so I sincerely apologize to them. | ||
| We've just been live with these massive breaking news, and now we have to skip off to another live interview. | ||
| So here we go. | ||
| Watch and stand fast in the faith. | ||
| Be brave and strong from 1 Corinthians 16, 13. | ||
| Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave and be strong. | ||
| We pray constantly. | ||
| I prayed this morning. | ||
| On my knees, you get, like, I sit there and you just like have peace with God and you like pray. | ||
| Strength, wisdom, knowledge, self-control, things that I fail at daily. | ||
| But that's why you got to pray for them, right? | ||
| God is a big God. | ||
| And so we also pray for truth on this program. | ||
| It is a program that will bring you truth without fear or favor. | ||
| And as we march forward, we know confidently that in the end, we win. | ||
| It's your boy Benny. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In the | |
| sea, our own oldest kings. | ||
| And a dying legacy, media dil weeds. | ||
| Soon will the Benny Show come to mind the salt from Lives for Fun, leave the gold and bring the gun. | ||
| sail for number one come to mind the salt from lives for fun Leave the gold and bring the gun. | ||
| We sail for number one. |
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