Speaker 1: And Hi, how are you welcome to the Big Podcast.
It is Tuesday. Today is the eighteenth day of November,
year of Our Lord, twenty twenty five. My name is
Tom Sullivan. So you want to talk Epstein or do
you want to talk Epstein? Because that is well, that's
one of the two big stories today. The other big
story is Mohammed Ben Solman the NBS, the ground Prince
of Saudi Arabia at the White House today and all
kinds of money changing hands there. So let's start with
Epstein because I'm watching all of this and there. Now
you know, they voted, they had a big vote, and
the vote was two hundred I'm sorry, four hundred twenty
seven in favor of releasing all the Epstein documents from
the DOJ. And one opposed, Yeah, four twenty seven to one.
The one that opposed was Clay Higgins. He's a Republican
from Louisiana. And his reason was is because it doesn't
protect the victims' names, and it has a lot of
names apparently that are innocent people, he says, and so
this is not following judicial protocol. But the others this
was going no, it was going to be a close call.
Remember the lady that just won in Arizona, and they
would not swear her in because she was going to
be the vote that actually would force this to be released,
all these documents. So it was right down to the
nub and now that they're all this is what makes
me so frustrated with the clowns under the dome is
they were all against it, and then all of a
sudden they're for it. Why is that? That's because the
president was all against it. And I don't know what happened.
I'd love to find out someday. But over the weekend
he all of a sudden said, yes, let's rely, Yes,
released all those Eptein documents. But there's a whole bunch
of phony, belogoney people in this Eptein story, and I
wanted to start with one. Lisa Bloom. She is a
lawyer in Los Angeles. She's the daughter of Glows all Read.
And you know that if Gloria Allread shows up, you
know that it's an ambulance chasing story. So this is
this is a chip off the old block. Lisa Bloom, Well,
let's let's play this and listen to what she has
to say, because it irritated the Bajebi's out of me.
Speaker 2: Listen, we've been surprised each time there has been a release.
I mean, Epstein is now speaking from the grave and
pointing a finger at Donald Trump, saying in the recent
release that he spent time he Trump spent time alone
with one of the victims for hours that Jeffrey Epstein
could finish Donald Trump take him down. In one of
the tapes, Epstein said that he was a Trump's best
friend for ten years. So these are really striking revelations.
We can only imagine what's going to come next. But
instead of the drip drip drip of the release of
documents that continues to re traumatize the survivors, let's release
it all. Let the advocates like me pour over it,
and we can go after anybody else who is accountable.
There should be congressional investigations. I mean, the release of
the files is only just the beginning. That's what we
on behalf of the survivors were hoping.
Speaker 1: So I agree with her on one part only, and
that is at the end, is that this is just
the beginning. This release of files is not going to
solve all of the questions. But did you hear what
she had to say. It's all about Trump and Donald
Trump and and and she also talked about the fact
that Donald Trump was spent time with a blanked out
victim that we now know is Virginia Gouffrey and Virginia
Gruffe in interviews and also in her book said Donald
Trump never did anything wrong, so she but she wants
to go after Donald Trump. And that's what a lot
of the people that one of the this is the
problem with this. A lot of people the one of
the Epstein files released, we wanted to the purpose was
to go after Donald Trump. I wanted the files released
because I want to go after the pedophiles, find out
who they are, charge them with crimes, give them their
day in court. Hopefully they wind up for the rest
of their lives in jail. But that's what this is about.
It's about going after Donald Trump. That is why he
was so adamant about not releasing these things. Here's what
he had to say this morning.
Speaker 3: I'm for any don't They could do whatever they want,
so we'll give them everything. Sure, I would let the
Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but
don't talk about it too much because Honestly, I don't
want to take it away from us. It's really a
Democrat problem. The Democrats were Epstein's friends, all of them.
And it's a hoax.
Speaker 1: I know he likes to use the word everything's a hoax.
This wasn't a hoax Epstein apparently about one thing, young
young girls then growing women today who were victims, and
that's not a hoax. The other thing about the fact
that it was mostly Democrats, well we'll find out. I
think it's on both sides of the aisle, but I
don't know. And remember when Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
were best buddies. Donald Trump was a Democrat at the time,
so he may be exactly right in all of this,
but drives me crazy that these people are what Lisa Bloom,
who says she's representing the victims, she wants congressional hearings.
She wants this to be where she can get camera time,
and the hell with the victims. She will use and
abuse them as much as she possibly can to get
her glory and fame. That's why I mean, if you
really were worried about the victims, you would not suggest
that we have hearings and congressional investigations that'll just drag
it out even more. Rett Bear, the Fox ancre, I
had just to say.
Speaker 4: Listen, I think that this is a big moment because
it is a turnaround from where the President was and
how he talked about it and what the instructions essentially were,
how House Speaker Johnson was dealing with it. You're now
going to see the floodgates open because a lot of
people wanted to vote for this, and now that the
President has opened that up, I think the vote is
not in question at all and they'll probably get a
ton of votes. Now, where does it go? How long
does it take? Do we see the documents? How much
is out and how much is not out? And I
don't think we have a sense of that from the DOJ.
Remember thousands and thousands of pages have been put out already,
and what we're seeing so far, You're right, cuts both
ways as far as embarrassment and also, you know, even
worse when it comes to the victims talking about.
Speaker 1: That, and there's a rather word embarrassment for the Democrats because,
based on documents released by the House Oversight Committee, the
delegate she's not a congresswoman, she's a delegate from the
Virgin Island. She's a Democrat. Stacey Plaskett was on hearing
about Jeffrey Epstein and she was quietly under the desk
with her phone exchanging text messages with Jeffrey Epstein. This
obviously back in two thoy nineteen and they had this
congressional hearing going and she kept getting input from him
on how to frame questions for Michael Cohen, who was
the former attorney for Donald Trump, who was there testifying
before this congressional committee. So there is Epstein helping this
woman in congress frame questions.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, those text messages are pretty straightforward. He
is in the process of watching the hearings, saying good
job about the question that he prompted her to ask.
Michael Cohen kind of happens real time, and the way
that the time stamp is and I think that that,
you know, as I'm saying, it cuts both ways. There
will be Democrats that are very affected back by this.
And what comes out of all of these pages. I
think the president feels and is expressing his confidence that
he's not a part of this. And I guess what
is for Washington reporters tough to get your head around.
Is why it took this long to get to this
statement about go ahead and vote for it? And what
was behind that effort up until yesterday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a big question. I don't have the
answer to it. I doubt if we're going to find out,
maybe long after he's out of office, there will be
a book written will answer why he was so adamant
about not having this vote, because it looked like he
was hiding something. And I don't think from all of
the testimony that's been made by victims, nobody has accused
Donald Trump of a thing. And you know as well
as I do, that if he was involved in just
a little tiny bit of evidence, the Democrats would have
been all over him in two thousand and sixteen, in
twenty twenty, in twenty twenty four, and you know that
the opposition research people would have found something. They would
have used it. They did, they didn't say peep. My
pure speculation on this is all these people know each other.
Trump hung around with a lot of wealthy people. A
lot of wealthy people were hanging around with Jeffrey Epstein.
Beffrey Epstein was a very wealthy man. They all knew
each other. They all had each other's phone numbers. I
got a feeling that Trump was not involved with these
young ladies, but he knows who was. And I'm guessing
that he's got a lot of pressure from people that
are his friends or even benefactors, that are pressuring him
to not let this happen. And finally he just said
forget it because it was overwhelming. The people in Congress
wanted to vote for it. For example, there were guys
like this, a Derek Orton. I had to look him up.
He's a Republican, represents the third district in Wisconsin. He
is a retired Navy seal. I mean, this is the
guy who obviously is not going to be pushed around.
This is what he had to say.
Speaker 6: Epstein was convicted in two thousand and nine of sex trafficking.
Plaskan represents the Virgin Islands where epstein island is. She
was speaking to him a few months before he died
in prison, asking him who she or what question she
should be asking witnesses that were going after President Trump,
there's in no universe can you say that that was
a good thing to do?
Speaker 1: Gore, talk about somebody that's flipped completely. Marjorie Taylor Green,
who was buddy buddies with President Trump, turned on this
issue and said, I want these files released. Here she
is talking outside the capital with a bunch of the
victims standing beside her.
Speaker 7: Let me tell you what a trader is. A trader
is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A
patriot is an American that serves the United States of
America and Americans like the women standing behind me. And
I want to tell you that this only became possible
today because the American people whom we serve as representatives
here in Congress, demanded that this vote happen, and they
put more pressure on every single elected politician in this
city than has ever been put on them. And today
you are going to see probably a unanimous vote in
the House to release the Epstein files. But the fight,
the real fight, will happen after that. While I want
to see every single name released so that these women
don't have to live in fear and intimidation, which is
something I've had a small taste of in just the
past few days, just a small taste. They've been living
it for years. But the real test will be will
the Department of Justice release the files or will it
all remain tied up in investigations? Will the CIA release
the files, will a federal will a judge in New York, sorry,
a judge in New York release the information that's information
that needs to come out. And will the list of
names that these women privately hold and they.
Speaker 5: Hold it.
Speaker 7: Because of their fear in their heart of what would
happen to them if they release it on their own?
Will that list of names come out? That's the real test.
So I want to thank Thomas Massey and Rocanna for
your bravery and doing something, doing something that is much
needed in America, crossing the political isle that has become
bigger than the Grand Canyon in America. But these men
cross that aisle on behalf of these women, and that
is more of what is needed today in America than
ever in our history.
Speaker 1: Well, I used to think Marjorie Taylor Green was a nutjob.
She seems to be making more sense than almost anybody
else in Congress lately, in my humble opinion. So Speaker
Mike Johnson brought a big board to address the media
with today. Before the vote, all the people talking about
the vote was going to be big. Well, like I
told you, it was two hundred I'm sorry, four hundred
and twenty seven to one in favor of releasing the files.
My question is will all the files be released? Marchorie
Taylor Green talking about the CIA, the FBI, some judge
in New York, all these different files, all these different places.
And remember Pam Bondi is looking really bad here because
she said, oh, yes, we're going to release all the files,
and then when it came down to it, she says, uh,
there's nothing, no nothing to release, nothing to see, no
nothing we got, we found nothing. She was lying through
her teeth, and I don't like an attorney general that
just flat out boldly lies. And she's been caught more
than this time. So I'm looking at Pambondi and I
didn't think she would last this long. I hope that
Trump finds somebody else besides her. But this is what
Mike Johnson had on his on his board that he
showed to the media, The dangers of the discharge petition,
the dangers of releasing all these files. Number one, victim
privacy does not adequately protect victims. Because he talks about
I got a clip of him here we'll play it.
The fact that even though there's a bunch of women
that have come forward saying they're victims, there were one
thousand ish victims in total, and most having majority of
them have not come forward, and they probably would like
to leave this behind in their lives without having their
name brought up. Again. Well, guess what that's that's not
going to happen. I think Number two we said innocent
persons risk the disclosure of non credible allegations, so men
that are accused of being pedophiles that were not. It
fails to adequately protect against the release of child sexual
abuse materials. Number four Future investigations provides no protections for
whistleblowers or undercover law enforcement. And number five d classification
requires release of information that could reveal confidential methods and sources.
That was the complaint that Mike Johnson. The complaints of
Mike Johnson listed for the media here.
Speaker 8: He is carefully with utmost caution and care for the victims.
We want maximum transparency. We have always been about that.
We want every single person who had any sentilla, there's
any scintilla of evidence if they were involved in the
Epstein evils, they need to be brought to justice, and
it should have been done a long time ago. We
need to find out who those people are. But in
the meantime, you have to remember there are real people's,
innocent people's lives at stake here, and young victims who
don't want to be dragged into this political game because
it could hurt further what they've already endured. They would
be made to suffer more harm if Congress is not
careful in what we're doing. And unlike our very important
work that's underwear in the House Servicesight Committee, the Democrat
led discharged petition would carelessly dump thousands of documents without
proper protections for the innocent. I brought a chart in
here this morning. I don't want to illustrate for you
what we are concerning with now. I was a federal
court litigator. The members of our House Judiciary Committee, Republicans
in particular, have many of these concerns. You have Chairman
Jim Jordan and attorneys like Chip Roy, he's running Attorney
general of Texas. Now you have Bradnought, who is a
former federal prosecutor. Many members on the committee. Andy Biggs
is running for governor of Arizona. They're lawyers, and they
understand that the way the discharge petition was drafted is
haphazard and dangerous. This is why we have been opposed
to this point. Okay, and I could be here for
a long time going through all the details of it.
But the big concern we've all had all along is
at the House Bill. If it's passing its current form
and it was signed into law, it is dangerously flawed.
Speaker 1: That's his reason. Yet the vote again four hundred and
twenty seven to one, so obviously people wanted this to
be released in a big way. So this was a
discharge petition, a procedural tool to bypass leadership in Congress
to force legislation to come to the floor. It rarely succeeds,
but in this case it did in a big way.
So what's next is go to the Senate and John
un the leader, has not committed to bringing the measure
up for a vote, but the pressure is building among
senators for him to do so. So I suspect it
will then goes over to the White House, and I
suspect Donald Trump we'll sign it. But I mean, I
go back to four years the DOJ, the Biden administration,
what does the Biden administration do about this? Nothing. Now
you've got Roconna, the Democrat from San Jose, and Tom Massey,
the Republican from Kentucky, where the ones really leading the charge.
And then Marjorie Taylor Green jumped on that bandwagon. So
you've got a mixed bag of members of Congress, so
that it's not a Democrat or Republican issue. So the
initial support for this received only four votes from Republicans.
It was Tom Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert from Colorado,
and Nancy Mace from South Carolina. The rest of them
all came from House Democrats. So it's done. Now, what's
watched the Senate, Let's watch the White House. But again,
when all this is said and done, so these files
get released. I live by my theory that nobody is
held accountable for anything in Washington, d C. And I
doubt if this is actually going to lead to something.
The only one, the only name that now is making
him squirm is Larry Summers, former Treasury secretary in the
Clinton administration, the president of Harvard still a professor of
economics there, highly influential economist, and so he now says
he's stepping back from public. Well, he had a term
for public. He's stepping back. He's not going to go
out and show his face any any anytime soon, and
that he's deeply embarrassed about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
So that's one name. I think there's others. Oh, we
know about the formerly known as Prince Andrew. I think
it's about it all right. So speaking of princes, there,
he was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia MBS Mohammed
Ben Solomon. He was at the White House today, He's
going to be there all day. And they had a
big dinner there tonight, so they're rolling out the red carpet.
He wasn't greeted at the side door of the of
the West Wing. He was given the whole big shabam
out there on the south lawn of the White House. Anyway,
the whole idea of doing business with MBS is some
people are all concerned about it. But this is where
he almost cut a deal with Israel to expand the
Abraham Accord. Was ready for Saudi Arabia to do an
agreement with Israel, and it was this close to happening
and a lot of people think that October seventh, the
attack by Jimas on the innocent Israelis was done on
purpose to stop Saudi Arabia from doing that. So today
he's in the US. Danis Drol, former Deputy Defense Secretary,
has or assessment of what this all means.
Speaker 9: It signifies a real shift in how Washington and the
United States views the necessity of a partnership with Saudi Arabia.
So when we used to talk about the Middle East,
we talk about counter terrorism, about Iran, about that things.
But now the elite consensus here is that you need
a relationship with Saudi Arabia for economic security, for commercial
for ai in addition to the really important security relationship.
And so what's interesting about the meeting today is how
it's really continuity from previous president Joe Biden visiting Saudi
Arabia twenty two to Donald Trump and his second administration
making it his first presidential stop, and now all of
the pageantry of this reciprocal visit today.
Speaker 1: I remember Joe Biden basically put down Saudi Arabia and
the Crown Prince and then he goes over there and
it was awkward to say the very least, and the
whole idea of getting Saudi Arabia to do business with
Israel fell apart under Joe Biden, for sure. General Portraeus
was asked about the fact that in this deal the
Saudis are going to be purchasing number of F thirty five,
one of our most advanced fighter jets, and the problem
with that is we've sold the military equipment in the past,
but the problem with this this is the most advanced
fighter jet out there, and Saudi Arabia has a working
partnership with China, and a lot of people are worried
that this technology that we have in the F thirty
fives will slip into the hands of China if we
sell these planes to Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 10: Here, General Petraeus, well, first of all, President Trump is
really approaching. This is a state visit of a head
of state, even though the Crown Prince Mohammed ben Solomon
is the prime minister ahead of government, but that's a
significant distinction. There will be an elaborate military arrival, ceremony, oval,
office meeting, and then a black tied dinner for one
hundred and twenty five or so people this evening and
this evening, I think they'll be celebrating an announcement of
US sale of up to forty eight F thirty five
stealth fighter bombers, which proved to be so effective, of course,
in the hands of the Israelis and US forces in
the Twelve Day war against Iran. There will likely be
the signing of a mutual defense pack, something like what
President Trump did for Cutter after the Israeli strike on
the Hamas leaders. There discussion of the Saudis joining the
Abraham Accords, although I think that's still premature because the
Crown Prince will explain that there will have to be
an ironclad path to Palestinian two state solution. There will
also be undoubtedly reaffirmation if you will, or details on
the six hundred billions of dollars that the Crown prints
announced would be spent in the US by the Saudis
in a variety of different and ever isn't unlikely a
civil nuclear agreement of some type to help help the
Saudi So it's a very significant visit. There are a
lot of deliverables, will be again something that they will
definitely celebrate this evening properly.
Speaker 1: Oh, they're going to celebrate, all right. They So there's
the Crown Prince sitting in the Oval Office with President Trump,
and the Crown Prince says to Trump, he says, oh,
and by the way, we're going to increase our investments
to one trillion. And even I mean, I don't know
if this was all rehearsed or what. But Donald Trump went,
you're telling me that the six hundred billion dollar deal
that you were going to invest in the US is
now a trillion. And the Crown Prince said yes, So
he gets a free dinner out of it tonight, compliments
of you and me the taxpayer. I'm not sure I
understand how General Petrea said that they can make sure
that these planes cannot be re engineered by the Chinese.
Do they have a secret software thing in there that
they're not going to let this out? He know about
that if somebody starts re engineering, the whole thing turns
to dust. I don't know. Well, let's get some phone calls.
And we haven't done this for a week or so,
and I do have the phone number that you can call,
leave a message, leave a comment. There's a lot of
you that call the phone on I see that you call.
But you won't leave a message, and that's that defeats
the whole purpose. So the phone number is eight five
five two nine five sixty six hundred. Eight five five
two nine five sixty six hundred. If you can't remember
that number, you can go to my website, Tom Sullivan
dot com and there is the phone number. There is
a link to the podcast for people somebody says, hey,
how do you get that podcast? Send them to Tom
Sullivan dot com. But the phone number again, eight five
five two nine five sixty six hundred. And let's start
with Laurie the comment line late who called and said
that she'd liked hearing from Salty.
Speaker 5: Hey, Tom, it was so nice to hear Salty's voice again.
He has so much wisdom. It was just like old
times hearing him on your show. And you know you're right.
He does speak for all Americans, especially the American worker,
the person who goes out and earns a living every
day by the sweat of their brow instead of waiting
for their benefit card to reload.
Speaker 1: As well said, if it did not hear Salty, had
I interviewed Salty a couple of days back, and the
man had just had surgery and he's in construction and
he has a friend that needed to do a kitchen remodel,
and so what did he do. He went and helped
him do a kitchen remodel. He's got another surgery coming up,
so we'll check in with Salty after all that has done.
But yeah, he's out. He could use the excuse, hey,
I can't do it. I'm having searchery. No, he went
and did it anyway. Eric Comrade talking about the tariff money,
he's very funny in this call. He talks about how
I'm against tariffs and he's four terriffs. He explains her.
Speaker 11: Coon down' hold on Major Ton, No, did the money
from the tariffs only go to people who was for
the tariffs? I was for the tariffs, so I should get, like,
I don't know, four thousand dollars, and you were not
for the tarrifsts. You were against statists, so you should
not get no money. So your two thousands should go
to me, you know, because I was for the tartists,
so it's my money, not yours. So we shouldn't get
everybody that money. One of those people who was for
the tatists, they get the money because they were for
the tittists.
Speaker 10: That's my point.
Speaker 1: That was funny. I'm against the tariffs, so I don't
get any of the money, and he gets my two thousand.
That two thousand dollars rebate or whatever President's calling it.
I'm sorry, that is no, that is not gonna happen.
I will bet you a large lunch of the drive
up window you will not see a penny. I mean
four old Scott bested. The Treasury Secretary was asked about it.
He goes, well, oh ah, well it might be in
the form of the tax bill, or it could be
uh uh yeah, well we're having we haven't even discussed
it yet. So this is this is just the politician
part of Donald Trump being a politician promising two thousand dollars.
Don't count on it. I'm the homeless guy. Probably would
like to see that. The homeless guy in Reno. Let's
see what he's up to.
Speaker 12: Rena homeless guy. Yeah, it's about been about forty years.
The problem is the working class, the lower income people,
the homeless, the foreign people, the immigrants. Now they've all
been considered criminals and losers and the only thing that
makes you a winner now in this society, as successful
is money.
Speaker 10: It's just it's.
Speaker 12: It's not gonna work. Bye Bright.
Speaker 1: I don't know did we lose the homeless guide to
the socialist because he's He's right, it's all about money.
It is. I know it sounds sounds bad, but we
are a capitalist society and because of that we our
living standards are higher than anybody else, because of capitalism
and the people that are trying to do the socialism.
I mean, the new mayor in Seattle is talking like
ma'am Donnie. She wants free buses, free childcare, she wants
to run city owned grocery stores. I hope they try.
I do. I hope she and ma'am Donnie give it
their best shot, and I guarantee you it won't work,
all right. One more from the comment line lady about
California passing that redistricting Proposition fifty.
Speaker 5: California passed Proposition fifty, the redistricting initiative, and that means
that the city of Lode eye population about sixty eight thousand.
It's now in three separate congressional districts. What could possibly
go wrong?
Speaker 1: Who knows, But for all of you hippies from the seventies,
Creden's Clearwater Revival had a song named Lode that was
after this little town I didn't know had sixty eight
thousand people in California, but they've got three congressional districts
from that sound. It's crazy what they've done. Will do
we dare take a look at what happened on Wall
Street today? Well it was a repeat. In fact, the
Dow and the S and P five hundred book their
fourth straight days of decline. They're following the the tech
rally is now the unrally, and the indexes the stock
market is following the tech stalks south. So we are
there's no question we are in a stock market correction.
And we'll just it's a falling knife. Do you want
to try to catch a falling knife? No, So wait
and see if you can get something that bounces, and
if you want to bounce, maybe you might want to
buy on the dip. But today the Dow down four
hundred ninety eight out so now forty six thousand, ninety one,
the S and P down fifty five, Nasdaq down two
hundred and seventy five, Gold down four dollars to four
thousand and seventy, and oil prices went up a buck.
It's now just under sixty one dollars for a barrel
of oil. That's it for today, Thank you for coming by.
We get the September jobs report tomorrow, which is absolutely worthless,
but they finally are gathering some of the numbers from
the shutdown, so we'll try it again tomorrow and I
hope to see you then.