00:00A political jolt hit Washington on Sunday night when President Donald Trump abruptly
00:13urged House Republicans to vote for releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files – a sharp reversal
00:19after days of resistance and rising turmoil inside his own party.
00:25The shift, posted moments after he landed at Joint Base Andrews, marked one of the rare
00:30instances in his return to office where internal GOP pressure forced him to back down.
00:37We have nothing to hide, and it's time to move on from this Democrat hoax perpetrated
00:42by radical left lunatics, Trump wrote, signalling he now believes the measure has enough Republican
00:48votes to pass the House, even as its path in the Senate remains uncertain.
00:54I don't care.
00:55All I do care about is that Republicans get back on point, he added, a nod to an increasingly
01:01ugly internal fight, particularly with Repiel Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of his closest
01:06allies.
01:10Hours earlier in Florida, Trump lashed out at the media and Rep Roar Thomas Massey for downplaying
01:15his administration's successes by pushing for a full release of Epstein documents.
01:20Mr. President, Representative Massey says he's concerned that the Epstein probe you are
01:25calling for could be a smokescreen to longer leave some more files.
01:30Is that the case?
01:31Well, I don't want to talk about it because fake news like you, you're a terrible reporter,
01:36and fake news like you, they just keep bringing that up to deflect from the tremendous success
01:42of the Trump administration.
01:43So a guy like Massey, his poll numbers are showing us at 6% approval rating right now,
01:49and we call him Rand Paul Jr. because he never votes for the Republican Party.
01:55So they're using Jeffrey Epstein as a deflection from the tremendous success that we're having
02:02as a party.
02:03Despite Trump's pushback, lawmakers backing the bill predicted a sweeping House victory.
02:10Massey said 100 or more Republicans may support it, hoping for a veto-proof majority.
02:16The measure, introduced through a rare discharge petition by Massey and Reps Ro Khanna, would
02:23force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, with
02:28only victim identities and ongoing investigations eligible for redaction.
02:35The discharge petition reached the crucial 2 at 18 signatures last week when Reperor Adelita
02:41Grykalva was sworn in, a moment Democrats allege GOP leaders tried to delay.
02:47The move embarrassed Speaker Mike Johnson, who had attempted to derail the push by sending
02:52lawmakers home early for recess.
02:57Trump privately pressured GOP signatories, including Reperor Lauren Boebert, who met officials
03:02in the White House Situation Room, but momentum continued to build.
03:07Meanwhile, newly surfaced documents, including a 2019 email in which Epstein claimed Trump knew
03:13about the girls, intensified partisan tension.
03:17The White House accused Democrats of selectively leaking the material to smear the President.
03:24The feud took a personal turn as Trump publicly cut ties with Green, vowing to endorse a challenger
03:31against her in 2026.
03:33Trump's growing feud with Green has become one of the most explosive subplots of the Epstein
03:39documents battle.
03:41Once one of his fiercest and most loyal defenders, Green broke with the President by signing the
03:47discharge petition and publicly urging full transparency.
03:51A move Trump saw as a direct challenge to his authority.
03:58The party's fracture over the Epstein files has now grown into a full-scale test of Trump's
04:03authority, with Republicans preparing for a vote that could expose deeper divides and force
04:09long-hidden secrets into public view.
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