[0:00]The Epstein files law says all. The Trump Justice Department says not all. The deadline, what's been released, what we have learned, and the fallout.
[0:12]President Trump's big deal with drug companies, lower prices in some key health care sectors in exchange, protection from tariffs, and rapid reviews for emerging drugs. Tik Tok sale
[0:24]nearly complete, preserving the massively popular video sharing platform. details on the new owners and the allimportant algorithm. Hello everyone, I'm Major Garrett in
[0:42]Washington. Welcome to the Takeout. Some Epstein files were released an hour ago. We are reading them now. We will have reporting from Scott McFarland at the top of the show, as well as perspective
[0:53]from an expert on Epstein's crimes and a survivor's attorney. Also today, President Trump and nine pharmaceutical companies announced a deal to slash the prices of popular drugs sold to Medicaid
[1:05]and through direct to consumer cash transactions on the newly created Trump RX website. Some of the drugs face challenges from generic alternatives due
[1:15]to patent expiration. One drug, Eloquis, a heavily prescribed blood thinner, will now be provided for free. Drugs in the pipeline under this deal will seek fasttrack approval from the Food and
[1:26]Drug Administration's accelerated review process. The discounts are a shield against tariffs with a three-year reprieve part of this overall package. Medicaid, which provides health
[1:38]insurance for poor Americans, accounts for about 10% of US drug spending and already enjoys many price discounts for drugs. Nevertheless, drug discounts like this are very rare and trade-offs have
[1:49]long proved elusive to previous presidents. President Trump appears to have broken through those as well as other barriers. He was so happy about all that he chose to take no questions
[2:00]from reporters, urging that this drug discounting news stand on its own. Or maybe, just maybe, the announcement and
[2:10]the atypical avoidance of questions was about today's Epstein files deadline. The Trump Justice Department released a sizable portion of files, but not all of them. The law President Trump signed one
[2:22]month ago stipulates all files released today. This partial release, therefore, may face legal challenge. The law again signed by Trump seeks records,
[2:32]documents, communications, and investigative files on Epstein's sex trafficking and materials related to his convicted accomplice, Gileain Maxwell. Also covered flight logs and manifest,
[2:44]names of individuals and entities in the Epstein orbit. Also, records on past immunity deals and internal discussions about whether charges against other individuals or other entities should or
[2:56]would ever be brought. We have a team standing by to evaluate what we know at this hour, as well as a lawyer for some Epstein survivors to offer perspective of those victimized and how their long
[3:07]quest for information and accountability is fairing up against these legal requirements for more disclosure. But before I get to Scott McFarland, a bit of big political news. Congresswoman
[3:18]Elise Stefonic moments ago announced she is ending her campaign for governor in New York and will not seek re-election to the House. That's big. We begin with Scott Far Scott Scott McFarland who
[3:29]joins me now here at the desk. Scott, sorry for bungling your name. It's >> all good. >> What do we know so far? I know it's early days. >> Well, War in Peace, the famously long
[3:39]novel, is 1,400 pages, give or take. This is 100 times more records that have just been thrown upon America. So, it's going to take some time just to get your bearings and figure out what you're
[3:50]looking at, the scope and size of what's there. >> Is it organized in any searchable or easily searchable way. >> It's organized in a way. They're
[4:01]categorized by agencies. So, you've got the Bureau of Prisons records of Jeffrey Epstein's time behind bars. You have the FBI records from their investigations of Jeffrey Epste and Galain Maxwell. You have different components of things that
[4:12]were released already. But you can tell just from first glance at the first part of this war in peace that there's heavy redactions, distinctively heavy redactions. And it's
[4:24]going to be important to measure tonight, Major, whether they've gone too far with that. Now, you have to protect the names of victims. You have to protect sources, um, sensitive materials. You certainly have to redact
[4:34]any child abuse material. Um, but the law that was passed requiring tonight's release required it to be as transparent as possible. The redactions be minimized, and I think it's an open
[4:45]question whether they've gone too far or done it just right. >> What about pictures? >> Oh, there are many photos. Um, and it's hard to get those into context as well. First glance of photos at the trunch of
[4:56]photos that have been released is um the initial glance shows you no wrongdoing by anybody in the photos, at least in in the ones we've seen initially, but it shows you the powerful circles in which
[5:08]Jeffrey Epstein operated. And that's been a component of this story from the jump. He had a very powerful social circle, which raises the question, who among the people shown in the photos had any knowledge of the crimes? It's kind
[5:18]of been the thesis of all of this. I don't think um it's gonna be quick to figure out from this file what's been shown >> pictures of Bill Clinton, former president with Jeffrey Epstein. Uh any
[5:29]pictures so far that we have detected and I know it's early in the process of Epstein with former president with current President Trump. >> Now, we've seen a bunch of those photos in recent days from the congressional releases of stuff from the Epstein
[5:40]estate. So, we know there are photos that exist. Um, the first hour of review of these records don't show photos of Donald Trump. But I I don't want to take a measure of this in in the matter of hours. I would say look at it over days.
[5:52]But there's a more fundamental issue beyond what do we see in the pictures right now and what do we see in the files right now. It's how many of the files do we see overall? Because the Department of Justice this morning acknowledged they were not going to
[6:03]release everything today. That there'd be hundreds of thousands more released in the coming weeks. that is not following the law, which required a full release by tonight. They made an argument that they need more time to do
[6:15]the redactions to get through everything. Um, but because we don't have everything, what's not shown today isn't telling you much because more is coming. >> And therefore, there is a clash over the
[6:26]definition of transparency. The Trump White House will issued a statement saying, "We've been more transparent than anyone in this space because these files are out and they never would have been out if we didn't agree to do it." But there's a law the president signed.
[6:36]Yet, Democrats say, "Wait a minute. The law says all and you're not even close. >> But what is the remedy? The remedy would be some form of legal challenge. The top Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees today talked about
[6:48]that possibility. I just heard Adam Schiff from California say we need some hearings. We need the attorney general to sit and answer as to why everything's not released right now. But those remedies are pretty thin leverage to
[6:59]use, especially if the Department of Justice is saying declaratively we're going to get it all out there in the coming weeks. I'll just add major talked to one of the survivors, Annie Farmer, who's been an advocate for this program
[7:10]and she's been trying to get records and that's been part of her fight. She says she's pessimistic. Everything comes out based on her initial glance of what's been going out so far. >> Scott, if you'd be so kind, please stay
[7:21]here. I want to bring into our conversation which camera. Uh, camera one. Okay. Thank you, guy. Barry Lavine, who has covered Jeffrey Epstein for years. He's been on this program several
[7:31]times. He is the author of the book The Spider: Inside the Tangled Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Galain Maxwell. Barry, I know it's early, only been about an hour and 10 minutes. Any
[7:41]overall summation from you on what we have seen or importantly not seen? >> Well, Major, you know, I I'm really
[7:49]drilling down on the uh FD302 uh reports. They're the supposed to be the FBI witness reports that involve the
[7:59]20 or so men that Jeffrey Epstein traffked these uh girls to. And I want to see exactly what the FBI did to
[8:10]investigate these 20 men. This is really where the rubber meets the road. I mean, uh, you were just talking about Annie Farmer. her sister, Maria Farmer, first
[8:20]went to the FBI in 1996, almost 30 years ago, to report Jeffrey Epstein to the FBI. And it's only now that we may
[8:29]finally be able to get some answers. But again, just drilling down in the past uh 30 minutes onto the government uh website, uh many many redactions of
[8:41]files. I've yet to find the FD302 files pertaining to these 20 men that I'm looking for. I've yet to find Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy report so we
[8:52]can get some answers about his death. So, there's a lot of material to go through. Of course, they frontloaded a lot of images. There's pictures of Bill Clinton. I've yet to see images of uh
[9:03]President Trump. But again, this is a this is a first step even though uh the Justice Department was supposed to release everything today. We're not getting everything today, but there'll
[9:14]be plenty of material to go through in the next hours and the next days. >> And my reading of the law, Barry, and I wonder if it matches yours, is that
[9:23]these FD302s are covered. They need to be there. >> Yes. I mean, we uh Representative Thomas Massie, who revealed to us uh a while
[9:34]back about these 20 men, he said he went through these FBI reports, and he identified 20 powerful individuals that were uh connected with Jeffrey Epstein
[9:43]that took part uh in the alleged sex trafficking. Uh there's six uh billionaires on this list. There's a a uh a wealthy executive from Italy. There's someone from the entertainment
[9:55]industry. Uh someone from the royal family. Uh, so we need to see these reports and we need to see what the FBI did. Did they interview these men? Did
[10:05]they try to cooporate victim statements with any other evidence? And if so, why not? Was there a cover up going on for many years that allowed these men to
[10:14]escape justice? And Barry, is it your sense that information that you just described
[10:24]could have led to prosecutions or maybe not prosecutions because it's hard to build cases in matters of this nature? Because there are questions of
[10:36]knowledge, of participation, willing or slightly coerced. Those things are sometimes hard for juries to parse through. but also just a general lack of
[10:46]accountability for people who were involved in something that if they were forced to know that the public would learn about that would be shamed themselves. And that's a missing part of
[10:57]this entire saga. Yes, it it absolutely is. But what you have to u uh understand here is that the
[11:06]FBI initially took on this case uh from the uh uh Palm Beach police uh back in um you know 2006
[11:18]and and so the information from those victims was very fresh at the time before Jeffrey Epstein did his nonprosecution agreement in 2008. that
[11:29]was the time to really go after these individuals who took part in the sex trafficking and and that didn't happen. And then of course years later they the
[11:40]FBI comes back in 2019 and they arrest Jeffrey Epstein and again they had all this information. What happened over those years? Were there additional
[11:50]investigations going on? And this is something that only these files can answer. >> Barry Scott McFarland is here. He has a question. >> Let me chime in. Barry, you're getting a snapshot here. You see the level of
[12:02]redactions. You see the partial nature of these records. Do you have any sense this is going to quiet the controversies or cool off the theories?
[12:12]>> You know, Scott, this is uh something I I I hate to say, but I think that years from now, like we're we're still talking about, you know, John F. Kennedy's assassination and what happened there.
[12:23]We're going to be talking years later about Jeffrey Epstein. I don't think that uh a great deal of the public is going to be completely satisfied that we're seeing all the files. Uh they
[12:34]wonder what happened to, you know, are files related to President Trump? Are are they going to go later? Are they going to be um missing? We don't know all the answers here, but there's going
[12:44]to be questions about this for years to come. Mary, on that point, in the two-page memo the Justice Department released, it said its review, which it described as
[12:54]exhaustive, created no predicate to investigate for possible prosecution anyone else in the Epstein orbit. Do you believe these disclosures once they have
[13:06]been fully reviewed by you and others will support that contention? Well, this is this is something that Cash Patel said that there were at the time when they said they weren't going
[13:17]to release the files to us in July, they said there were no 30 third party involvement, that there was no blackmail and so forth. There was no reason to release the files. Representative Thomas
[13:27]Massie has said that his own review of the FBI files shows the fact that there were 20 men who were involved in the sex trafficking. So, you know, who who's
[13:38]telling the truth here and why aren't we getting the full picture? This is something that we really need to drill down on because the survivors have been going through a trauma through this
[13:50]through since the time of their own experiences with Jeffrey Epstein. They want to hold men accountable for the wrongdoing. And and thus far, with the exception of Gileain Maxwell, who is
[14:00]serving 20 years behind bars as Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, no one else has been brought to justice. Barry, standby. For technical reasons, you're going to have to stand by. I may bring you in afterwards. But now, I need
[14:12]to go to Yasmine Meyer, who's a lawyer who represents more than one Epstein survivors. Yas mean, I'm so glad you're with us. Uh, I know it's early. We've only had about an hour collectively to
[14:22]go through this. Do you have any summary or reaction to what you've seen thus far? We are glad that there has been a production and that
[14:33]that we are seeing some documents finally being released, but as you stated before, we're seeing heavy redactions in these documents, and that is troubling to me. There's a couple of
[14:43]options there. Uh, and not none of them are satisfactory or compliant with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. >> You need to possibly go to court to
[14:56]expedite this or make it broader. That's a possibility and uh we'll see how things play out because the uh the Justice Department has
[15:07]indicated that they are going to be releasing additional documents imminently and if they do uh release unredacted documents, less redacted documents and they complete their
[15:17]production in a timely fashion, hopefully that wouldn't be necessary. But if it does, that is certainly the next step that needs to be taken in order to to have transparency and accountability here and to get these
[15:27]documents finally released. >> As you heard Barry Lavine re refer to the trauma, not only the original trauma. Well, Barry's with us now. And what has been traumatic in this process
[15:39]of seeking a transparency and b accountability? How does what you've seen so far either intensify or begin to
[15:50]soften that sense of trauma if at all? >> Every single time that there has been a promise to deliver some meaningful
[15:59]material, uh the survivors uh they cannot help but get their hopes up to a certain degree. And every single time that door slams right back shut in their faces and it retraumatizes them all over
[16:11]again. When the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed, that that was that was a significant step that gave them hope. Today, seeing that there are heavy redactions in the documents,
[16:22]it raises questions and it it really is it's a disappointment, but it is yet to be seen exactly what is in the
[16:32]materials. As you said, uh there are hundreds of thousands of pages that have yet to be reviewed and they are very fresh. So we will have to review them
[16:42]and uh make that determination. >> Yasm mean as you know Washington DC is a hyper politicized location and there is a sense that some people have that there
[16:52]is political advantage being taken in the release of this picture or that text message or this person at that place. Does that gnaw at the sense that the
[17:02]survivors have of just trying to learn all that can be learned? Of course, the fact is this has been weaponized into a political uh game
[17:14]where each side is using Jeffrey Epstein as essentially as a weapon against the other side and the survivors voices and their stories have been essentially
[17:26]forgotten amidst all of that. >> Uh the control room has put both pictures up and I'm curious, can I talk to Barry and can Barry talk to Yasm mean? Barry, do you have a question for
[17:37]Yasmine? Well, I I the question I would have is, you know, what type of satisfaction does your clients
[17:48]need right now from these files? What are they really looking for at the end of the road? >> They are looking for justice. They're looking for names and they're looking for people that can be held accountable
[17:59]because Jeffrey Epstein cannot. Jeffrey Epstein, it seems that his reach is extending beyond the grave. And in fact, uh, today the survivors, the Bloom firm
[18:10]represents eight survivors who have today filed a lawsuit against the FBI for failing to investigate Jeffrey Epstein, uh, in regards to Maria Farmer's complaint in um, in the 1990s,
[18:21]which resulted in a countless number of women and girls being sexually abused for decades. >> Yes. Mean and Barry want to ask you both
[18:31]this question. In Vanity Fair this week, there was an interview with Susie Wilds, chief of staff to the president of the United States. And in that interview, Susie Wilds said the president was unaware that Galain Maxwell was going to
[18:42]be transferred to a lesser security federal prison and wasn't happy about that. I'd like to know if either of you have any insights about what these disclosures should or should not represent in the context of the future
[18:53]of Galileain Maxwell. Barry, start with you. Well, I I hope that these files further show Gileain Maxwell's involvement, the grooming of these victims, and the and
[19:05]her own sexual abuse of these victims. This is a woman who is yet again trying to uh file take court action to uh have
[19:14]her sentence uh reduced or or removed. This is a woman who should remain behind bars for the full term of her sentence. Uh she uh as I quoted a friend of hers
[19:24]in my book, she referred to these girls as trash. They didn't mean anything to her. It is uh unconscionable in terms of the actions she made as a woman in
[19:35]connection with Jeffrey Epstein to take advantage of these uh uh victims and I do hope that the files uh do continue to show her involvement in this.
[19:46]>> Yasm mean Gain Maxwell. Ela Maxwell is a convicted child sex trafficker. She was convicted in federal court uh at a high legal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt of evidence
[19:57]that she committed sex trafficking of minors. She is serving her sentence and I I have little doubt that the document production will corroborate everything
[20:08]that has already been revealed in regards to her. Are your clients disturbed by what has become of Galileain Maxwell moved to this lesser
[20:17]security federal prison and her advocacy on behalf? That's her due process, right? But still no absolute declaration from the president that he would never consider either commuting or pardoning
[20:28]her. >> It's disheartening to the survivors to see her receive any sort of favorable treatment. she should be receiving no favorable treatment given the crimes
[20:38]that she committed and the damage that she has caused for so many women and girls. >> Yes. Mean uh Barry made a reference to the FD302s. These interviews, are they
[20:49]of absolute interest to you and your clients as well? They are they're potential they're potential investigative leads as to other people who may have uh committed
[21:01]committed crimes against women and minors and sex traffked people. Uh it is absolutely of interest of us and we we
[21:10]intend to to review those and to consider what what courses of action may be available to our uh to our clients and to the survivors. Barry, I want to
[21:22]give you one last opportunity to sum up where we are and Yas mean as well. Barry, go first. >> Well, I think today for the survivors and and also for transparency for
[21:32]Americans, today is a very important day. We are finally seeing these files and while there are numerous redactions, I do think that once we fully review them, we will learn more about the
[21:44]Jeffrey Epstein story and hopefully be able to hold men accountable who took part in these absolutely horrific crimes against children.
[21:54]>> Yasm mean, uh, this will continue through the weekend. Your last thoughts before we wrap up here. Despite the extensive redactions, we hope that we will receive the full
[22:06]truth. No one is above the law, especially sexual predators of children or sex traffickers. Anybody who commits these acts, no matter their status or their position, needs to be held accountable.
[22:17]>> Jasmine Meyer, Barry Lavine, thank you very much. We will have more on these files as we read through them and go through them later on in the show. [music] The Brown University shooting manhunt, as you've read and seen, finally comes to an end. what we are
[22:28]learning about the man identified [music] as the suspect. Also, Tik Tok agrees to sell its US operation. CBS News Money Watch correspondent Kelly O'Grady will give us all the details.
[22:39]The Takeout returns in 90 seconds. Welcome back to the Take Up. For days we knew nothing and now we are learning
[22:50]much more about the 48-year-old man identified as the perpetrator of both the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor. The name Claudio Manuel Nevis Valente found
[23:00]dead by suicide last night in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Rhode Island's attorney general gave credit to a tipster who posted vital information on Reddit that helped law enforcement
[23:12]crack the case. We turn now to Tom Hansen in Providence, Rhode Island, who has been following the story for CBS News all week. Tom, I'm grateful to you as always. What is the latest?
[23:23]Yeah. Well, Major, you know, we're learning about this investigation in what's being characterized best by the police force itself. This is something that they call textbook policing, meeting modern technology. So, I want to
[23:35]start here. We just got an autopsy report from the New Hampshire Attorney General that says that the suspect, Clauddio Manuel Nevice Valente, died on Tuesday, December 16th. That was the
[23:47]same day that that MIT professor was murdered. Now, we've poured through the affidavit. It gave a concise and clear timeline of events that date back to
[23:57]December 16th when uh authorities were tipped off to that Reddit post. I want to read you in part what that Reddit post said, which they say blew this case open. The police need to look into a
[24:08]gray Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. Now, the post went on to read, "The person who the car belonged to was acting odd." So that Redditor ended up writing down the
[24:20]license plate and getting the make and model of the car. It was another Redditor that commented below that initial post saying, "You need to submit this to the FBI or I'm going to submit
[24:29]this to the FBI." So, it ended up going to authorities. Authorities ended up scouring hours of surveillance video in that area. They actually found the car
[24:39]itself and then, as you may remember, there was that second person who they wanted to talk to. So that's when they released that image. That person referred to as John in this affidavit
[24:50]ended up actually being the Redditor who posted that initial post. And so he was brought in for questioning shortly thereafter. And he really busted open the case as according to the attorney
[25:02]general of Rhode Island. He really knocked the case open, gave them their first tangible lead. So they used all of that information and they entered it into a system that uses AI. That system
[25:13]ended up finding 14 separate instances dating all the way back to December 1st where they had seen that car in in or around campus. And so I went to the
[25:25]police today and I asked the police chief here uh police chief Perez um if that indicated to him that this suspect had been planning this attack for some
[25:35]time. And he agreed. He said that it was awfully suspicious for to see that car dating all the way back to December 1st. So then they followed the leads all the way to New Hampshire. That's when they
[25:47]came across the suspect obviously deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that's what set everything into motion last night. Major >> and a vital detail you just shared with
[25:57]us, Tom. December 16th, the date of that suicide. That is very important new information. and Reddit, artificial intelligence,
[26:07]regular detective work, all coming together and now we know so much more. Tom Hansen, always appreciate your work. Great stuff. Thank you so very much.
[26:17]It's more than a year and a half since then President Biden, you might have remembered this, signed a bill forcing Tik Tok to sell its US operations or face a ban in America. Yesterday, the
[26:29]company signed a deal to honor that agreement. Well, at least in part. Kelly O'Grady following all this for it for us. Kelly, I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. It's been a very aggressive
[26:40]day with lots of moving parts. Kelly, you're there. I see you straight ahead. >> Catch us up on what we know. >> Okay, so this uh this new deal, remember the main thing about this when it comes
[26:51]to US control is they didn't want a Chinese-owned entity, remember Bite Dance owns Tik Tok, Bite Dance is a Chinese company to own 20% or more. So
[27:01]this deal uh does suffice with that stipulation in the law. Under this new agreement, the US joint venture would form. Bite dance would own 19.9% of
[27:11]that. So it is under 20%. And then the rest would be owned by uh bite dance affiliated investors and then a consortium of US investors. So, one
[27:22]would be Oracle. And I have to disclose that Oracle is owned by Larry Ellison, who is the father of David Ellison, who's the chairman and CEO of Paramount Skyance, which of course does own CBS
[27:32]News. And then you can also see on the screen there, the other two investors, Silverlake, that's a private equity firm, and then MGX, that is a United Arab Emirates firm. The thing that I find interesting about that that a lot
[27:44]of analysts that I've spoken to today have said is well you know that is also a foreign country you know a firm that is that is in a foreign country but that there might be some questioning of the
[27:56]deal but it also is not a foreign adversary which China is is often considered as. So in theory, this deal does suffice under the the letter of the
[28:05]law. But we haven't had confirmation that China has signed off on it, right? That of course we have heard from President Trump that in his dealings
[28:14]with President Xi that they had agreed on a deal, but we haven't gotten that confirmation from Beijing. Of course, January 23rd, that would be the date where everything in theory goes dark
[28:25]after so many different extensions. They're looking to close this deal by January 22nd. And Kelly, very quickly, what happens to the algorithm? >> So, in theory, it is going to be
[28:35]transferred over a and it will be retrained on US user data and then this joint venture would have control over content moderation. But reportedly in
[28:45]the memo that the Tik Tok CEO sent out to his employees, they would still, meaning by dance, would still control some e-commerce merchandising pieces like that. So, I think there's going to
[28:56]be a lot more details that do need to be worked out. Kelly O'Grady with all the details as always. Thank you so much. Very busy day here. We've got more on the Epstein files because our team is reading and we'll have more perspective
[29:07]on that when we come back. Welcome back to the Takeout. This very busy news day in the last 5 minutes got
[29:18]even busier. I'll explain more about that in a second. But what kept us originally busy today was the production of a large number, though not all, of the Epstein files. We have a producer, a
[29:29]team rather, of producers and reporters looking through those documents right now. One of them, CBS News Department of Justice reporter Jake Rosen, who joins me now here. Jake, it's been about a half an hour since we started the show.
[29:40]I know we're going through this bit by bit. What is new in the last half hour? So, we just confirmed that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch sent a letter to all members of Congress, giving them a layout of what the
[29:52]Department of Justice is delivering today to the American people and to reporters who obviously are coming through this as we speak upstairs throughout our whole network. What we do know is that uh there are more than
[30:02]1,200 victims that through this kind of survey the Department of Justice has found including some family members. Uh all of those victims identities so far as I've read in these files have been
[30:13]ident identified and redacted. Um but we what we do know is that's a preliminary number that they say that they have found so far. >> And let me stop you right there because that's a new number 1,200. >> In the two-page memo the Justice
[30:24]Department released earlier this year, it said more than a thousand. So this is now a little bit more specificity and on the upside even more victims. >> It is and we should remind our audience that there are hundreds of [clears throat] thousands of pages that
[30:35]were released today and that is not in completion. What the Department of Justice has published tonight uh is not the full slate of the Epstein documents that it has been sitting on. There are
[30:46]still do court documents that have yet to be unsealed even though judges have ordered them. That process will play out but those documents are not included in what is released today. Does what the
[30:56]members of Congress can find in this letter from Todd Blanch, the deputy attorney general, offer a roadmap that they might find useful to go through
[31:06]this document release? Well, partly because some Democratic members are upset that this and and Thomas Massie, who brought forward a lot of these claims, is upset that there is not a Department of Justice here that is
[31:17]sticking to the plain text of the first paragraph of this bill, which says that 30 days from the signing of this bill, which was before Thanksgiving, there would be a full slate of documents. All is the word, and it is in the second
[31:29]sentence. Uh the Department of Justice has not delivered that. You saw Deputy Attorney General Blanch say earlier today, the Department of Justice has said any kind of opposition or framing around the Department of Justice not doing their job. Uh they're trying to
[31:41]spin it back to past presidential administrations who have not released these files before, saying that they're obviously dedicated to this transparency. However, it appears as of right now, they have not delivered a a
[31:52]congressionally mandated and signed by President Trump delivery of all these files. We also are reminded major of the many many powerful men who were surrounding Jeffrey Epstein at the peak
[32:02]of his power. Uh Richard Branson, Walter Kankite, Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones. There are new photos in these that were not released in the last couple of batches last week. I think it's a humble reminder that this man at
[32:13]the peak of his power and financial wealth was spending time with some very beloved people in the world and in American pop culture. He built a network of high-profile people, took a lot of
[32:24]photos of them, and the essence of Barry Lavine's book and others who have written about this, this was part friendship, but also part protection. Photos with me, photos where I am are
[32:36]part of my way of protecting myself should anything come my way in an accusatory sense. >> Yeah. And and what we saw is that accusatory sense and maybe some potential threats that could come out of
[32:46]that came from an FBI report which a victim went to talk to an FBI special agent who was investigating Jeffrey Epste in South Florida in around 2006. Said that Jeffrey Epstein had paid somebody to take naked photos of this
[32:57]victim while she was underage. Gave 100 plus massages. Was paid $200 to $400 per massage. And then said, "If you go talk to anybody about this, I will quote burn your house down." It is just part of
[33:08]these trickle of documents as you read through them. read handwritten scrolls and try to parse that out of a reminder of not just what you said that network of people but also potentially the threats that he could impose on somebody if it got to that point.
[33:20]>> Bringing us the latest with the help of our team reading through the documents as we speak. Jake Rosen, thank you so very much. >> Next on the takeout, I am joined by our political strategist panel and we'll be
[33:31]right back. >> Welcome back to the Take Up. Remember when I said things got busier? Here's what I mean. Breaking news. I'm not
[33:42]kidding. US officials confirmed the United States has begun air strikes on Islamic State targets in central Syria. In a post on social media, this is where we got the information. US Central
[33:52]Command says it has targeted ISIS quote infrastructure and weapon sites in Syria unquote. This is in retaliation following the death of two National Guardsmen and a US translator earlier
[34:03]this week in Syria. CBS News 247 will of course bring you more on this story as we learn it. I want to turn now to our political strategist panel, John McCarthy, Leslie Sanchez. Join me now.
[34:14]John, former senior adviser to President Biden. Leslie, CBS News political analyst and Republican strategist. I'm out of breath. Leslie, take whatever you want to talk about, just [laughter] go because it's been it's been a go for me this.
[34:25]>> What an incredible week. What an incredible year. And you're seeing the the US response being very strong, very rapid. I think that's part of what you'd expect. And President Trump said that there would be a response. >> Absolutely. And he's going to do it on
[34:36]his time. But you know, this is an administration that is quick to respond and and really kind of change the image of the United States across the globe. And you're seeing another example of that now. >> John, we can't we don't know a lot of
[34:47]the details, but it's a complex to put it mildly situation in Syria. Change of regime. Bashad al-Assad out, a new government in trying to create some sort of harmony, lots of factions, civil war,
[34:59]strife, and two US National Guardsmen and a US translator caught in the middle of that and now the president's sending in things to go after ISIS, >> right? Well, I mean, uh, for any
[35:10]president, Democrat or Republican, foreign policy is always a place where they're able to shine. It's kind of one of the unrestricted powers of the presidency. Um, and this is a place that Donald Trump has always really demonstrated some of his kind of best
[35:21]moments. It's it's you know in his wheelhouse. He projects strength and confidence and you know I think all Americans across the board are always rooting for uh the US to succeed in the in the arenas kind of abroad. So um I
[35:32]think we're all rooting for positive presence there. >> Also Leslie the president took a phone call from NBC News and said he wouldn't roll out war in Venezuela. How does that fit within the peacemaker president
[35:43]modality of President Trump 2.0? I think the president's been laying out a very strategic conversation even going back to his last administration about the the need to remove um Nicholas >> Maduro.
[35:54]>> Yeah. Maduro and this type of threat. I mean you certainly have Secretary Secretary Rubio has been talking about this even as a senator. This has been a long-standing position of the United States about the ongoing threat and the
[36:05]relationship that they have in in this territory. Yes, there's a larger presence there now. But I think >> 15,000 Marines, naval personnel, special operators, and an aircraft carrier
[36:17]strike >> force. But the takeaway on that is that it's a president of action who is going to look at all the different options on the table. >> John, this may be a longgoing conversation. I concede that to Leslie,
[36:28]but poll after poll shows the American people haven't caught on to it and don't know what this is about and don't know what the endgame is. >> No. And I mean, I think that the president right now is starting to shift into um an unfortunate reality we see from second term presidents where they spend a lot of time thinking about
[36:40]legacy. And almost all of the new stories that we've seen this week, this month have really been about Donald Trump almost being a lame duck president. He's looking for areas that he is able to kind of showcase his strength politically in in sectors of
[36:51]foreign policy really because he knows that he needs to keep the attention on him if he wants to kind of keep being at the center of the stage. >> Leslie, I want to start with I want to get to you on something we started with tonight. Elise Stefonic not
[37:02]>> any longer running for governor in New York and not seeking reelection. That is a title wave. >> That's a title wave of the Republican party because she has been a stalwart supporter of the president, big in
[37:12]leadership in the house. You know, >> thought she had a real chance at that governor's race. >> Well, a and I think a lot of Republicans did too early on. So, >> the early polling though was not so great. >> It's not great. It's a really difficult time and I want to kind of build on that
[37:24]point. It's also we're heading into that midterm, right, where there's going to be repercussions. It's not going to be the posit most positive year for any president that would be in there. >> And Cynthia Lumis, Republican from Wyoming, also announcing not seeking
[37:35]re-election. Don, does this tell you something about the mindset of congressional Republicans? >> I mean, I think you're starting to see what is going to be many uh Republicans who are no longer going to be seeking office. Um the reality is is that for
[37:45]Republicans right now, their brand is, you know, underwater and that comes from President Trump. So if you're a young Republican right now who's in their 20s or 30s or 40s and you're thinking I have decades of public life left ahead of me,
[37:56]you're starting to sit around and look for like what is the future of the Republican party and it's not Donald Trump. So that's why you're starting to see these members start to break away. Why they start to embrace new faces of the party. >> This morning after the handpicked board
[38:07]of President Trump's Kennedy Center voted the name change, the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. You're an eyewitness to this, John. >> Yes. >> The name went up. Yeah, the name went up
[38:19]today. And you live right next to >> I live right next to it. [laughter] Thanks for outing that. Well, I mean, sort of in the neighborhood, kind of nearby, you know, [laughter] maybe maybe within five or six blocks. Who knows for sure
[38:29]>> over there. Um, but I will say I mean this again back to the earlier point of Donald Trump looking for something for his base. I mean, Democrats really need to avoid the the trap here. Democrats are going to overreact and act as if
[38:40]this is something that, you know, everyday Americans are really worried about. But in reality, people are concerned that at the end of what is the most expensive month for most Americans, over six and 10 Americans are saying that they can't afford to put food on
[38:51]the table or get gas in their car, uh toys are up 17%, uh overall holiday spending. Um they're seeing, you know, a cost bump of 26%. That's something that's actually worrying people. And I think that if Democrats can keep the
[39:01]focus there, we'll be more effective. >> 20 seconds, good idea or bad idea for Trump to do that. >> I think that people, a lot of people want to see the president, you know, >> put his name on everything. >> Not on everything. It's not a free way.
[39:12]I mean, this is an institution in in uh in what people still call the swamp. I mean, there's a balance to this, but more importantly, I would say the Republican party is changing. Yes, the people are moving on the chessboard,
[39:23]chasing the players, but there's still a lot of optimism within the party and a lot of conservatives align with that. >> That is the last word. Leslie, I have to intervene. John McCarthy, Leslie
[39:32]Sanchez, thank you very much. >> Back to the US strikes in Syria, which we just mentioned. Ellen Elellanar Watson, as you see her right there up on our newsroom camera following this. What's the latest, Ellie?
[39:43]>> Well, Major, we've learned now that the US is striking in retaliation for that attack that killed two members of the Iowa National Guard, as well as an interpreter last week in Syria. The US has begun striking targets, dozens of
[39:55]them, we're told, using fighter jets, attack helicopters, as well as artillery. The Secretary of Defense and the president promised retaliation for this attack that not only killed those
[40:06]two uh soldiers and the interpreter but wounded three other members of the Iowa National Guard. The Secretary of Defense has announced tonight on Twitter on X
[40:16]that this Operation Hawkeye strike has just commenced. And we're told that that means because he said it's just commence that we could expect more days or nights
[40:27]of retaliation, not just these strikes tonight. >> Ellie, what is the sense that the Pentagon has about the residual power or
[40:37]force or structure of ISIS in Syria? ISIS no longer has the territorial uh sovereignty that it used to have that it used to control, but there are still
[40:47]ISIS fighters around Syria. We still have about a thousand US forces in Syria for that counter ISIS mission. The new uh president of Syria uh condemned this
[40:59]attack saying that it was attack not only on the US but also on his new government. The US is working handinhand with Syria as part of that counter ISIS
[41:09]mission as they don't necessarily have the territorial uh gains that they used to have, but they're still fighters in and around uh Syria. >> That new government in Syria trying to deal with ISIS, trying to deal with
[41:20]civil unrest, trying to negotiate with the Israelis, try to create its own identity with the Turks, the Iraqis, the Iranians, everyone in the region. Highly complicated. Ellie Watson, thanks for jumping in and giving us the latest on
[41:31]that. I appreciate it very much. We're going to take a quick break. It's been a busy Friday. Come back to the takeout in just a minute. Welcome back. I have still more news for
[41:43]you. Lower order of magnitude, but news just the same. This is our last show for the year. Now, if you need more major Garrett, some of you may not. No judging. I will be anchoring the CBS Evening News Wednesday through Friday
[41:55]next week. Our next takeout this show January 5th. I want to thank you for watching and [music] listening, for embracing this hybrid of streaming TV and podcast. Thank you for letting us be
[42:06]nerdy and have some fun being nerds. As I promised when this show started, we will chronicle these times. We will talk to people in Washington and around the nation at the center of change and we
[42:18]will listen. It's what we've done from the beginning. It is our DNA. Much of my team works from New York. I thank them for tons of hard work to make this show click every night. But I also have a
[42:29]team here in Washington, producers and studio crew. They join me now here at the family table. Now I know we could list their names, but to me that is too
[42:38]impersonal. So here we are smiling [music] together because we love this work. We love this show. We wish you the best this holiday season [music] and a
[42:49]very happy start to your new year. Thank you. So for the last time in 2025, happy Friday everyone. This is the takeout. Come on everybody. Relentlessly curious,
[42:59]reliably civil, occasionally clever. The Daily Report coming up next. Bye. See you. Hey.