Share This Podcast

• Check out Hayley’s reporting – www.politico.com/staff/hailey-fuchs
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Thursday, November 13th, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that, unlike former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, never emailed Jeffrey Epstein for dating advice a decade after Epstein pled guilty to sex crimes. [music break] On today’s show, Vice President J.D. Vance attends the first Maha Summit with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because nothing says peak health like taking wellness advice from a man with the voice of a fallen angel. And in obituaries, the U.S. penny passes away at the age of 232 from natural causes. Or was she murdered? Stay tuned to find out. But let’s start with the news of the day. The House returned on Wednesday and ended the longest shutdown in government history. House Republicans were joined by six Democrats to fund the government through January 30th. Two Republicans voted against the bill. The final vote was 222 to 209. After weeks in the fight for healthcare, House Dems walked away with no guarantee of a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. But they did get plenty of attention earlier in the day as reporters and everyday Americans poured over the newly released emails of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and learned that, wow, a lot of powerful people sure did have time for that guy. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three emails from and to Epstein that appear to indicate that President Donald Trump knew more about Epstein’s activities than he had previously suggested. Here’s MSNBC reporting on two excerpts from the bombshell email correspondence, including a conversation with convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell. 

[clip of unnamed MSNBC reporter] Epstein, again, writing in 2011 to Maxwell, quote, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.” And then Epstein refers to a victim that, quote, “spent hours at my house with him.” In a separate email with author Michael Wolff in 2019, Epstein tells Wolff that Donald Trump, quote, “explicitly knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” 

Jane Coaston: In that first email mentioned by MSNBC, Epstein wrote that Trump spent hours at his house with Virginia Giuffre, a survivor of Epstein’s abuse. Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, said in a 2016 court deposition, quote, “I don’t think Donald Trump participated in anything.” She also said that she heard Trump had been in Epstein’s house, but had not seen him there herself. And according to Politico, the dog that hasn’t barked reference is to Trump not discussing Epstein’s illegal activities. Those emails were among thousands made public Wednesday as Republicans in the House Oversight Committee responded to the Democrats’ release by dropping more than 20,000 pages of documents it received from Epstein’s estate. And with the House back, Arizona Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn into Congress by House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

[clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson] –and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter. So help you God. 

[clip of Representative Adelita Grijalva] I do. 

[clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson] Congratulations! You’re now a member of the [applause] [indistinct] Congress. 

Jane Coaston: After acknowledging two alleged survivors of Epstein’s abuse who were present during her swearing-in, Representative Grijalva had one more piece of business to attend to on her first day on the job. 

[clip of Representative Adelita Grijalva] That’s what the American people expect us to do, fight for them. [applause] That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. [cheers and applause]

Jane Coaston: With Representative Grijalva on board, the discharge petition to force the Department of Justice to release more documents on Epstein now has 218 signatures. By law, that means the beginning of the countdown to a vote that Speaker Johnson told reporters he will bring to the floor next week. The petition includes numerous signatures from Republicans like Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, who did so despite a phone call from Trump on Tuesday morning, and despite being summoned to the White House on Wednesday to meet with Trump administration officials. Including Attorney General Pam Bondi, a clear effort to get Boebert to remove her name from the petition. Here’s White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempting to make that sound like a totally cool thing to do. 

[clip of unnamed reporter] In transparency, Karoline, why are White House officials then meeting with Representative Boebert in an effort to try and get her to not sign this petition calling for the release of the files? 

[clip of Karoline Leavitt] Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please? Doesn’t that show our level of transparency? Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns? That is, that’s a defining factor of transparency. Having discussions, having discussions with members of Congress about various issues. And I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the situation room, in the press briefing room. 

Jane Coaston: The Situation Room, a secure command center in the west wing of the White House, where you have totally above board, transparent conversations with members of Congress about totally normal things. So, for more on Epstein, Trump, and what Congress might do next, I spoke to Hailey Fuchs. She’s a reporter at Politico. Hailey, welcome to What a Day. 

Hailey Fuchs: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: On Wednesday, House Democrats on the Oversight Committee released three emails from or to Jeffrey Epstein that include mentions of President Donald Trump. What are the most notable details in those messages? 

Hailey Fuchs: Those emails are pretty explosive. It’s clear that Jeffrey Epstein was keeping tabs on Trump. Trump’s name is mentioned throughout these thousands of documents that were released. Um. But it seems notable that Jeffrey Epstein is is claiming that Trump knew about what he was doing. 

Jane Coaston: To that point, House Republicans released 20,000 additional pages of documents provided by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate on Wednesday. I know that there are reporters combing through them pretty much as we speak, but is it clear yet whether there’s anything significant in those pages besides, wow, a lot of people who should have known better spent a lot of time emailing Jeffrey Epstein? 

Hailey Fuchs: I think in those files we see there was just a web of powerful people who were communicating with Epstein, even long after the plea deal where he became a convicted sex offender. 

Jane Coaston: Republicans revealed that Virginia Giuffre is the victim whose name was redacted by Democrats in Epstein’s email to Ghislaine Maxwell from 2011. In that email, Epstein said that Giuffre, quote, “spent hours at my house with Trump.” Um. Virginia Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year, but she didn’t accuse Trump of any misconduct while she was alive, right? 

Hailey Fuchs: Yeah, and it’s important to note that Trump hasn’t been accused of taking part in the trafficking scheme. He hasn’t been accused of uh you know wrongdoing here. But certainly it’s notable that he maintained this this connection to Jeffrey Epstein. 

Jane Coaston: What has been the response from the White House. 

Hailey Fuchs: The White House has claimed that Democrats were selectively releasing materials. That’s sort of been the Republican talking point. And Democrats, uh you know to their point, did release only a select number of materials that were damaging to Trump. But even in the kind of more materials that we’re looking through right right now, Trump is named quite frequently in Jeffrey Epstein’s emails. 

Jane Coaston: The House of Representatives has returned and Representative Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was finally sworn in on Wednesday. Right after her swearing in, she added her name as the 218th signature on the House petition to force a vote on the full release of the Epstein files. What happens now? 

Hailey Fuchs: So now the countdown will begin for Speaker Mike Johnson to schedule a vote on the bill that would force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files in 30 days. It’s likely that this bill will pass the House, but Senate GOP leadership hasn’t said they would put that bill up for a vote. And in order for it to become law, in order for it to actually force the justice department to do something, it would need to pass the Senate and then Trump would need to sign it into law. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, it’s interesting to me because the Senate is under Republican control, it would need to be signed by Trump, who is not going to sign it, I think I can say that for certain. But it is interesting to me that the White House and Donald Trump appear to have worked really hard to try to peel off GOP support from that petition in recent months. The White House confirmed that Trump spoke to Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert about signing the discharge petition. She has said she will still sign it. Has anyone else on that list received a call that we know of? 

Hailey Fuchs: Right now it seems that all the Republican members are staying true to what they said and they’re staying on the petition um but to your point we know the White House has been you know for a while now engaging in a campaign to try and get them to remove their names. 

Jane Coaston: So I want to ask just a little bit about the backstory here. Like, how did we get to this point with the Epstein files, with the DOJ? You know, how did this discharge petition come to be? 

Hailey Fuchs: So back in July, the DOJ quietly released a memo saying that they were not going to release more information in the Epstein case. This caused a lot of chaos online where people were saying Trump and his allies promised to be transparent about the case against Jeffrey Epstein. And now they were reneging on that promise. And so after that, we saw this kind of big firestorm of attention around how Republicans were treating this case. And it led us to a point where a congressional committee ultimately subpoenaed the Justice Department for materials around the Jeffrey Epstein case. 

Jane Coaston: So what’s the relationship between the Department of Justice and this discharge petition? 

Hailey Fuchs: So the discharge petition basically is a Congressional procedural move that would force a vote in the House on a bill that would compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. Basically, it’s fancy Congressional talk for just a bill, that would effectively force DOJ to release information. And what we’re seeing now is that DOJ is being slow to kind of actually turn over information to Congress. And there’s hope among the petition supporters that this bill might actually force them to move quickly. 

Jane Coaston: And I think it’s been interesting, not interesting in a good way, but it has been interesting to observe how during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump didn’t talk very much about Epstein, but a lot of other Republicans who now have kind of high places in the administration from Kash Patel to Vice President JD Vance all talked about wanting to release the Epstein files, wanting to do this. Has there been any comment from any of those people as we start to see more information, as this discharge petition starts to happen? It is interesting that we went from, we absolutely have to get these files released to actually, no, we’re all good. We don’t need any more information. 

Hailey Fuchs: I think there is maybe a lack of foresight that it would become this political issue for for Trump. Um. But certainly we’ve watched a lot of Republicans in the administration struggle to kind of deal with the now criticism of them because they kind of have turned their back on being public about the material in this case. 

Jane Coaston: And Republicans in the White House have said that Democrats didn’t do anything to push the DOJ to release these files under Joe Biden. How accurate is that claim? 

Hailey Fuchs: I think there’s some validity that this was not a major political issue under Joe Biden. It certainly became a big firestorm in 2025 after the Trump administration released this memo saying they weren’t going to release information in the Epstein case. And in part, it’s become this big issue because Democrats have sought to stoke division among the president’s base by pointing to what they’re doing on the Epstein case. 

Jane Coaston: Other than the House vote, what will you be watching for next when it comes to Congress and the Epstein files? 

Hailey Fuchs: I think this could put more pressure on the Justice Department to continue turning over information to congressional investigators around the Epstein case. Quite a few months ago, the House Oversight Panel subpoenaed the Justice department for records in the Epstein case, but the Justice Department has been quite slow in actually turning those over. And so as this continues to be a major political issue for Trump and for the GOP, it might push the Justice Department to act more quickly. 

Jane Coaston: Haley, thank you so much for joining me. 

Hailey Fuchs: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with political reporter, Hailey Fuchs. We’ll link to her work in the show notes. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five star review on Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of Scott Bessent] You’re going to see substantial announcements over the next couple of days in terms of things we don’t grow here in the United States. Coffee being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that. So that will bring the prices down very quickly. 

Jane Coaston: Well, we’re waiting. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is really doing his Bessent to put a positive spin on President Trump’s bad economic policies. And by spin, I mean damage control, as Trump’s tariffs have hit American grocery stores, specifically coffee prices. According to consumer price index data, the price of roasted coffee increased nearly 19% in September from a year ago. Analysts say factors include weather conditions and tariffs. Bessent spoke with Fox News on Wednesday about all things inflation, wages, and tax relief, mentioning another one of Trump’s ideas to stimulate the economy. 

[clip of Scott Bessent] Well, there are a lot of options here. The president’s talking about a $2,000 rebate, and that would be for families making less than, say, $100,000. 

[clip of unnamed Fox News reporter] Have you decided on that yet? 

[clip of Scott Bessent] Uh. We haven’t. We haven’t it’s in discussion. 

Jane Coaston: I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that, too. They’ll probably have a plan in two weeks. Bessent also said the American people are going to start feeling better next year as inflation stabilizes and wages increase. 

[clip of unnamed Fox News reporter] But there are people that say the numbers are good in some areas, but I don’t feel it. What do you say to those people that say I don’t feel it? Be patient?

[clip of Scott Bessent] I say that you are going to feel it. 

Jane Coaston: Dare I say, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. This week, in elections have consequences, Planned Parenthood says it’s reaching a breaking point. It comes after months of absorbing the cost of care for Medicaid patients who were cut off by the Trump administration’s funding ban. The ban, tucked into President Trump’s big Republican spending law debacle disaster adventure, blocks federal reimbursements to health providers that perform abortions and bill more than $800,000 in Medicaid each year. In September, a federal appeals court allowed the rule to take effect while Planned Parenthhood’s lawsuit plays out. Since the Medicaid ban took effect in July, the organization has closed 20 clinics. It has also spent tens of millions of dollars covering services like birth control, cancer screenings, and prenatal care for low-income patients who no longer qualify for coverage at its facilities. Planned Parenthood president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, warns that more closures are coming if states don’t step in. Lawmakers in California, New York, and five other blue states have provided emergency funding. But Planned Parenthood says that without broader relief, quote, “the damage will only grow,” leaving over a million Medicaid patients without affordable reproductive care. 

[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] Sometimes there’s this attack where people say, well, you know, this or that conclusion is not supported by the science, or this or that conclusion is a conspiracy theory. And science, as practiced in its best form, is that if you disagree with it, then you ought to criticize it, and you ought to argue it against it, but you can’t shut down the debate. 

Jane Coaston: Thank you Vice President J.D. Vance for telling us we should argue with science. Vance spoke alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Maha Summit in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to promote the Make America Healthy Again movement. While the Vance-Kennedy event was livestreamed, the summit was otherwise off-limit to the press. But according to an agenda seen by The Hill, attendees were set to include a slew of health officials, like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, The Food and Drug Administration Commissioner the National Institutes of Health Director, and the White House AI Czar. Maha influencers were also scheduled to attend, as well as former race car driver Danica Patrick and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO and noted gambling addict Dana White. And on the agenda, topics like the future of the FDA and NIH, psychedelic medicine, biohacking, and making American food healthier, according to The Hill. Comedian, if you can call him that, Russell Brand was also expected to speak. I guess he’s having a hard time booking gigs these days. But since the event was closed to the press, we got stuck with sound from J.D. Vance discussing how excited he was to speak with R.F.K Jr. and why giving speeches is hard. 

[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] With a speech, you have to think about what you’re going to say where, you know, an interview, I just have to answer your questions. I don’t have to think at all to do an interview. That’s great. 

Jane Coaston: Clearly. 

[clip of unnamed person 1] You ready? 

[clip of unnamed person 2] Everybody ready? 

[clip of unnamed person 1] Three, two, one. Done. Okay, done, alright, yeah that’s the one. [applause]

[clip of unnamed person 3] Good job. Good job.

Jane Coaston: The U.S. Mint said R.I.P. to penny production, as the one-cent coin that could once buy a snack or a piece of candy has become increasingly irrelevant. The last pennies were struck at the Mint in Philadelphia on Wednesday, ending more than 230 years of penny production in the U. S. Officials said the final few pennies would be auctioned off. How much are you willing to pay for a one cent coin? U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said ending production of the penny will save Americans $56 million a year. 

[clip of Brandon Beach] So by taking this step, we protect taxpayer dollars, streamline operations, and better align our currency with the way Americans use their modern wallets. Although today we say goodbye to the continued production of our copper one cent coin, let me be crystal clear. The penny remains legal tender. We have over 300 billion pennies that remain in circulation. And we encourage you to use them. 

Jane Coaston: Where? President Trump sentenced the penny to death back in February as production costs exceeded the coin’s value. Still, many people have a nostalgia for the penny, seeing them as lucky or fun to collect. And some retailers voiced concerns in recent weeks as supplies ran low and the end of production drew near. They said the phase-out was abrupt and came with no government guidance on how to handle transactions. And that’s the news. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, celebrate a new bagpiping world record, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how 374 bagpipers in Melbourne, Australia gathered Wednesday to play ACDC’s It’s a Long Way to the Top, breaking the record for the largest bagpipe ensemble, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and personally, that’s too many bagpipes for me. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Fohr and Chris Allport. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Caitlin Plummer, Tyler Hill, and Ethan Obermann. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

[AD BREAK]