| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Sides of an issue, and you allow people to make up their own minds. | |
| I absolutely love C-SPAN. | ||
| I love to hear both sides. | ||
| I've watched C-SPAN every morning, and it is unbiased. | ||
| You bring in factual information for the callers to understand where they are in their comments. | ||
| It's probably the only place that we can hear honest opinion of Americans across the country. | ||
| You guys at C-SPAN are doing such a wonderful job of allowing free exchange of ideas without a lot of interruptions. | ||
| Thank you, C-SPAN, for being a light in the dark. | ||
| We head now down to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue for a look at the week ahead at the White House. | ||
| Mika Solner joins us. | ||
| She's senior White House reporter for Bloomberg government. | ||
| And Nika Solner, the president's Truth Social post last night about the House vote this week on the Epstein file. | ||
| Start there. | ||
| Why the shift in the president's tone on this and why now? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thanks, John. | |
| I mean, the president has done 180 on this issue when it comes to releasing the Epstein files. | ||
| We know that the White House was trying to persuade a couple House Republicans last week that said that they were going to go for it. | ||
| They try to meet with Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado, for example. | ||
| But, you know, I think they realize that they've been unsuccessful in these efforts to try and sway people, especially as these numbers keep rising of Republicans that want to join the ranks of Democrats to release these files. | ||
| It's become an increasingly bipartisan issue on Capitol Hill. | ||
| And so, you know, President Trump put out on Truth Social last night saying that Republicans have nothing to hide and go ahead and unveil and release the files. | ||
| So, you know, that's where the stance is right now. | ||
| But it's a total change of his posturing on this issue in the last months, as long as this issue has been in the spotlight since even before August recess. | ||
| So do you get a sense today that it was more of seeing the inevitable on the House vote this week, or as the president explained, at least his thinking in the Truth Social Post, he wants to get back on point, he says. | ||
| He wants to talk about the economy, to talk about what Republicans are doing and what the president's doing on affordability. | ||
| So it's to get this past him, is what he said. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think it's a combination of both. | |
| I mean, this has been a huge thorn in the side of this administration and President Trump. | ||
| He really wants to move away from this issue and move on. | ||
| So I think that, you know, they realize they're just not going to sway these members that have said, even longtime allies of the president, and it's becoming an issue that's actually creating deep divisions in the GOP. | ||
| I mean, we saw this huge split between Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and the president, longtime allies, you know, for example. | ||
| And she said the Epstein files are really at the center of her distancing from the administration. | ||
| So I think the president wants to move on and focus on issues that he knows is going to be a winning message for Republicans. | ||
| What's the latest saying on Epstein for a second on the Department of Justice, its investigations into various Democrats and potential ties to Jeffrey Epstein? | ||
| And how much have those investigations been impacted by the selective document leaking that's now been going on for a week on Capitol Hill? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, the House Oversight Committee previously subpoenaed the Clintons, for example, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, as well as a series of other Democrats to try and take the focus away from President Trump and Republicans on the issue and try and hammer home a win for them. | |
| So this has really become a fight on both sides to try and make this as partisan as possible in some ways. | ||
| But I think that people are also, in a lot of ways, are saying that everyone needs to be held accountable who may or may not have played a role. | ||
| Obviously, people are denying a lot of what's happening and have claimed that the ties between them and Epstein are not relevant. | ||
| They're not Real, but I do think that this is becoming a huge fight that we're seeing between the DOJ, top Democrats, and top Republicans. | ||
| Switching gears from Epstein this week at the White House, we'll see a high-profile visit from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. | ||
| He's going to be here in D.C. What are both sides looking for from this meeting with the president? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, I think it's really interesting. | |
| I mean, this is going to be the Crown Prince's first visit since the shakedown with Jamal Khashoggi's murder. | ||
| So this is going to be a very, very high-profile visit tomorrow. | ||
| I know that the president is probably going to be, you know, really pushing Saudi Arabia to try and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. | ||
| So that's going to be one of the key components. | ||
| Obviously, Israel is an issue that has really fractured but also unified some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. | ||
| But like in the Republicans right now, I think that it's an issue that has become very divisive among some members. | ||
| I think that a group of lawmakers are supposed to request meetings. | ||
| They also want to be very visible for this. | ||
| So it's going to be a very high-stakes meeting. | ||
| That's early this week, later this week. | ||
| It's former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral taking place at National Cathedral here in Washington. | ||
| Do you know yet whether President Trump will be attending? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm not sure on that. | |
| I know that the president has been very, very quiet on the matter, just simply acknowledging his passing, but hasn't said much more than that. | ||
| As we know, Dick Cheney was a critic of the president as well as his daughter, Liz Cheney. | ||
| And then one other question comes back to the shutdown ending. | ||
| One of the small victories for Democrats in the shutdown deal was reversing some 4,000 federal job cuts that had happened during the course of the shutdown. | ||
| What is, with that being such a focus of OMB Director Russ Vought, what does that being included in the deal mean for Russ Vogt and his standing with President Trump and in the cabinet? | ||
| Do you have a sense in the days since the end of the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think it's a huge loss for the OMB and Russ Vought, who wanted to cut north of, I think, 10,000 jobs or more than that, significant number. | |
| And I know that President Trump was standing by him the whole time, even dubbing him the Grim Reaper during the shutdown debacle. | ||
| So this was a big win for Democrats, I would say, especially ones who represent large districts and states with a lot of federal workers. | ||
| Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, for example, has said that this was one of his biggest pursuits is to try and protect federal jobs and federal workers in the state of Virginia. | ||
| This was a huge issue that really ran in the gubernatorial election as well. | ||
| So that's one example. | ||
| I know that he was working across the aisle with Republican Senator Katie Britt, for example, who actually defended his stance saying, you know, she may not agree with that, but he's just looking out for his state on that. | ||
| And then final amendment here, Mika Solner, what else are you watching for this week at the White House? | ||
| What are you covering at Bloomberg? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, this week I think I'll be watching for more reaction when it comes to some of President Trump's recent stances on H-1B visas, for example. | |
| I know that's a topic that's dominated Capitol Hill in some circles. | ||
| Republicans were upset about that. | ||
| So that's another area where there's some fraction between the administration and the Republican Party and elected lawmakers. | ||
| And then additionally to that, I think that we'll just be watching the president. | ||
| It's always an unpredictable day here at the White House. | ||
| Mika Solner covers it all with government, and we appreciate you starting your week with us here on the Washington Journal. | ||
| Back to your phone calls now. | ||
|
unidentified
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The U.S. House will be back later today to consider several Homeland Security-related bills under suspension of the rules, including reauthorizing state and local cybersecurity grants for 10 years. | |
| Also, a Senate-passed bill to provide an increase to VA disability compensation and other benefits to keep pace with inflation. | ||
| The House plans to hold a procedural vote on a resolution by Washington State Democratic Congresswoman Glusenkamp Perez, disapproving of the behavior of Illinois Democratic Congressman Chewy Garcia on how the timing of his decision to retire from Congress guaranteed a hand-picked successor. | ||
| Tomorrow, the House is expected to vote on legislation to compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Speaker Mike Johnson announced plans to schedule a floor vote after 218 members signed a discharge petition, enough to force the House to action on the bill. | ||
| Watch live coverage of the House on C-SPAN, see the Senate on C-SPAN 2, and all of our congressional coverage is available on our free video app, C-SPAN Now, and our website, c-span.org. | ||
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