BREAKING: Epstein Files Released, Elise Stefanik Quits

It's a Christmas miracle, Tim.

It is. We're having a holly- It's a Christmas miracle. There's a lot of news happening right now. And so we wanted to have a holly jolly Christmas together with all of you. Elise Stefanik's career is over apparently and Sarah Longwell's having a martini. And before we get to the joy of Elise Stefanik and the eggnog and the cookies, the dessert,

there is some other breaking news right now. The Epstein files have been released and we're going to want to talk about that. And so Chris, could you pull up on the screen what we've got? It's the first tranche. That's been the first tranche from the government there. That is document 0006209.pdf. There's a hundred pages that look just like that. So I don't know if we're going to resolve anything today on the Epstein files. There were some pictures of Bill Clinton looking a little creepy, but we're still going through

them. The team is going through them, but it seems to me that maybe they're not actually going to give us everything. Maybe they might not totally, there might not be full transparency related to Donald Trump.

Not committed to transparency from the Trump administration is what you're telling me.

What do you think about it? And have you seen anything from the Epstein files worth chatting about before we get to Elise?

I'm shocked.

You're shocked?

Not in this new tranche, but I will say, we reacted to the Suzy Wiles vanity fair piece in real time. We had just gotten it.

We did get big news from Suzy.

But Suzy, one of the things that Suzy said, because so much of it was about her kind of soft pushing some things into the narrative. Sorry. But some of them was that Trump is all over the Epstein files and that he's not doing anything awful. So like possibly illegal, but not awful, but not awful,

because we're working with standards of the Trump team. It does not shock me that they have redacted everything like this was their goal, right? Once they knew that they were going to have to release the files per congressional, um, they passed a law saying that we had to be transparent about this. They went to work, uh, redacting everything that they could. And so I think we're going to, it's going to take a while to work through their redactions.

It almost seems that there's a coverup happening. I don't know. What do you think? I mean, you never know, but it's funny. It took a long time to get the Epstein files redacted to release.

They really get his name up on the Kennedy Center right quick. That's in like 12 hours.

It's already on the building.

You guys, I drove by it. I drove by it.

They have scaffolding up. Like they are they are like getting it done right now. It's done. I Where did they get the letters? So this is going to get you got to get matching Do they just have somewhere lying around from the original when they put like it matched to me?

They look like it matched to you

Which is oh, you know

Like when you when you put in tile somewhere you always buy extra tiles that if you break one of them like you don't have To like oh, you know this tiles I have production. We can't match it Maybe the Kennedy Center's had a bunch of extra letters lying around

Yeah, or maybe they had planned this whole thing for a long time impossible to say

Yeah, I have gone full JBL in the Kennedy Center, by the way I did it with David from this morning on the podcast and he was a little taken aback. I think he was Yeah, what is the full J I know I want to bulldoze the Kennedy Center when we get back in power. I want to bulldoze the Trump Kennedy Center. I'm sorry, taking his name off it is not good enough for me anymore. I want to raise it and then, I don't know, build something else, maybe low-income housing there, or a gay bar, big gay club,

or something. I'm sorry, the Kennedy Center is like a gay club. I've been there. Like it's just it's just musicals and like reproductions of sheer madness.

It's not.

That's a good point.

It's not where people go.

We're still spitballing on it. OK, so that's the breaking news on on the Epstein situation. I just what?

Come on, bring it right up.

The good stuff. I didn't get on this podcast in the middle of my holiday party for Trump's Kennedy. It's a Christmas party, Sarah. You can say Christmas again.

It is a Christmas party. I was just trying to make sure we had no other, is there no other important news context about Epstein? I just think that, like, look, they said today they're only going to release 100,000 of the documents and they're only going to reach like release 100,000 of the documents and they're going to continue to roll them out. And, you know, I just, here, this is boy, I'm just looking at this other batch that's come up here. And the degree to which this stuff is redacted is preposterous. It's almost like why, I guess they had to do it by law is the answer. My question was going to be like, well, why didn't they just stonewall it? But I guess this is their. Because you can take a fight over right now. So now you'll take it to the point of extreme redacting.

And then I'll fight that out.

Yeah. The classic Trump strategy.

Eileen, can you.

What is it with his legal legal strategy this summer was about just trying to delay and delay until people either lose interest or stop fighting. But this is where we will never stop fighting for the release of all the Epstein files.

You will never. I love that Sarah is like the point person now for the Epstein files release. You know, it was Joe Rogan world and now it's Sarah and Nicole Wallace. Yes.

It's like, you know, it's like the zeal of the convert. You know, JBL knows about that in the Catholic church. Okay, are we ready for the happy Christmas? Is it happy Christmas, everybody?

Yes, into my veins.

Give it to me.

Give it to me. Here's a tweet that was just sent out within the last hour. It's from Elise Stefanik, my former colleague. She writes this, while spending precious time with my family this Christmas season. I've made the decision to suspend my campaign for governor.

I was kind of expected. I ain't sure I'm gonna lose anyway. I was gonna kind of enjoy her losing that campaign.

So I was a little sad.

By 20 points. She was gonna lose by 20 points.

That reading that first sentence kind of made me a little glum. I was like, ugh, her pain. I was gonna have some schadenfreude of their her pain was gonna bring me joy And then I read the second sentence and I will also not seek reelection to Congress I did not come to the decision lightly for our family Elise Stefanik Thought found herself thinking maybe she would be the vice president right now through her name in the ring

Did some ozempic got a glow-up up, did everything but suck on Donald Trump's toes. Maybe she did. I don't know exactly what happened on Air Force One, but she did everything at least up until the-

Toes. Toes.

Sarah, he said toes.

Oh, toes. Okay.

Toes. Sucking his toes. Everything except that.

Sure.

Boy, when we go live in the middle of a holiday party, we did wheels off. He's sober. I said she didn't do that. I said she did everything up until the possibility of sucking on his toes, which we don't know. Actually, I'm not on Air Force One, but-

Just asking questions.

And she did everything that she could to become VP. And if not VP, to become ambassador to the United Nations. And if not, that is a speaker of the house, and instead she'll be unemployed. Her and Matt Gaetz. I guess Matt Gaetz is a competitor of ours in the podcasting space,

not doing as good in the ratings. It is joyful. It is pretty joyful that Elise Stefanik sold her soul and got nothing. Jonathan, Sarah. Sarah's excited.

Sarah, you first.

Jonathan, you decide. Look, it's a Christmas miracle, right? This is what we want. What we want is for people unable to navigate what it looks like to be in the post-Trump world, to find themselves having to tap out,

because they sold their souls, and they got nothing in return. She was put up for UN ambassador and then had the rug pulled out from under her and she thought, okay, okay, I'll run for governor. And then what did Trump do? He had walked mom Donnie into her office who she was going to run again.

Her entire campaign.

Her entire campaign was going to be Donald Trump undercutting. Mom Donnie, terrorist. And then he couldn't even endorse her. He was like, they're both fine.

She's the other guy, they're both fine.

Another guy, Blake Strozan? I don't think I've heard of him. But yeah, he's a great person too.

You know what? Donald Trump has only one good quality, only one. And it is that when people sell their souls for him, when they give up everything on his behalf, he does not care and he will happily humiliate them in the process. And he's done that to Elise Stefanik.

Nobody deserves it more and I'm thrilled for her.

JBL, hit me. There are a couple of people who deserve it

at least as much. Sure. And I'm waiting for the slow knife.

Marco, JD. This one's a nice one.

Just let me have a nice thing, JBL. You can have a nice thing. I want to read you guys my favorite part from her statement. Oh, please. While we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York. Well, if you were going to win it overwhelmingly,

why would it have been protracted?

What a great point. Great point.

This is the most loser talk ever. I would like to read you a list of people. Elise Stefanik, Harvard educated. She's a Harvard girl, right?

Harvard, yeah. Made a big stink when she wasn't invited to some Harvard thing.

Yeah.

You know, that how they're woke libs, yeah.

Great Republican, been a little Republican, Tracy Flick her whole life. Just trying to climb that pole. And here are some people that are beat up.

Latterists, usually the latterists.

The greasy pole.

The greasy pole.

The greasy pole. The greasy pole. The greasy pole.

Cash Patel got to be director of the FBI. Cash Patel got to be director of the FBI. His name will be etched in American history. Kristi Noem, the weird woman who went to the dentist and did a video about it, got to be a cabinet secretary. Shutterdog. Tulsi Gabbard, who was a Democrat until five minutes ago, got to be DNI. Yeah, he's like in the middle of the five eyes, you know, doing James Bond shit. She wasn't even Republican. Jeanine Pirro, a drunk from TV,

who's already 25 years past her prime, got a fancy attorney position. Pete Hegseth, another drunk, who wasn't even very good at TV,

got to be Secretary of War. I'm not feeling mad at them for that. Another drunk who wasn't even very good at TV. Let's take it easy on drunks right now. Got to be Secretary of War. I'm not feeling mad at them for that.

Secretary of War!

His name means a quack got to be Surgeon General of the United States. Just an influencer. It's just a woman who's an influencer from the TikToks and the Instagrams. Dan Bongino, a man with a podcast,

got to be Deputy director of the FBI. And Harvard educated, check all the boxes, brown all the noses, do all the things that you have to do to get ahead in Republican politics. What she got was her ass run out of town.

Bobcats. On the other side of that, John Thune. The greatest thing ever. And how about this? Well, I've a John Thune, no profile and courage, no love for John Thune, but like, you know,

I didn't utterly debase himself in every imaginable way to the degree that at least the fun of this, he got to be majority leader of the Senate. Yep, you know like I mean she Completely it sold every iota of dignity that she had for literally nothing for nothing Cole

Yes, that's's the thing here. Let me ask you guys this, because this was my first thought after being like, this makes me happy. This is nice. Happy Christmas. I thought, what is it that this Elise Stefanik, somebody like her who was a rising star in the Trump era, tapping out, what does it tell us? And the only thing I could think is, because one of the

people JBL didn't mention, is JD Vance. JD Vance and Elise Stefanik are extremely similar creatures.

The same.

Right? It's exact same type of person. They were like the never Trump set, people who were kind of moderate Republicans. They were on the up and up. We were going to have a more moderate Republican party that reached out to Hispanics, that reached out to minorities, different kind of Republican Party. And then they turned on a dime and went for Trump. He gets to be vice president. She gets nothing. She taps out. Does that mean, though, that her confidence in the future of this Republican Party,

in which she has invested her entire soul that she thinks it's

going down post Trump? No, no. What do you think is purely a function of J.D. at Peter Teal's money behind him? And then he was smart enough to realize that he needed to ingratiate himself with Don Jr. and the Trump kids so that he could make himself like a I mean, J.D. is essentially like Owen Wilson's character from the Royal Tenenbaums like you know he's the the poor kid who lives across the street who's always hanging out in the Tenenbaum households until like they

just consider him one of the family you know and and Elise thought she could run the inside game you know she thought she could just do the thing work her way up through the party infrastructure And I'll take all the jobs in the house And you know, that's the way she came up basically in the world that was still Kevin McCarthy's world You know those sorts of things mattered It turns out you just have to like go on some hunting trip. Go do some blow with Don jr

I like that's what yeah Well, this is good So I'd like to make another point about the JD and Elise comparison that that speaks to like how you got to be careful with the kind of devil you're making the deal with. And it does tie a little bit to the Epstein case and the type of person, the type of man Donald Trump is like, let's be honest, if Elise was hotter. She might have been the VP.

I agree, really, really. Like if she looked the part better, she looked the part, like she and JD are the same. They did the same stuff. Like, you know, Trump convinced himself because JD and Don Jr were buddies.

Like you're saying, they were like fucking hunting buddies. I don't think he did just cook it. I'll just say that.

So, you know, just, just, just put on the eyeliner and he debased himself. Yeah.

I mean, he said, like, you know, new beard, he went, he looked at the part, like he made himself look the part of VP. And if you're going to be a woman that is going to totally throw in with somebody that was Jeffrey Epstein's best friend, that is a stated misogynist. He says he likes to grab women by the you know what.

You got 100-

Who only hires lawyers that he picked up at Mar-a-Lago who are now the people defending him in court are like former beauty queens that he picked up at Mar-a-Lago. I think this point stands.

You threw in with the mic. I'm not saying it. You know what I mean? I wouldn't pick my VP based on that. I'm just saying that you threw in with a guy who picks his VPs based on how they look the part. And so I do think that's something that you should feel bad about.

So like that is how you ended up in this situation. Like you threw in with a disgusting misogynist pig and you got nothing in part because he's a disgusting misogynist pig.

That's part of it. The other thing, though, that I was thinking about is, you know, J.D. Vance tweeted recently that there's a difference between being anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic, whereas Elise made her bones, like her big standout thing last year was pushing back on Harvard and Yale on the protests, right, around Palestine. The problem is they are starting to realize that their base is not a fan, actually, of defending Israel. And so they need more of J.D. Vance who can say, actually, I need to welcome the Groypers in. Somebody who has made their

bones on, I'm going to stand with Israel, not as good for this version of the Republican Party.

That is a good point, Sarah. Yeah. And by the way, that's an important point to make a lot for people in our circles also, who like do this thing with the Democrats. It's like they couldn't ever pick Josh Shapiro

because he's Jewish and the Democrats are anti-Semitic. Like to the degree that that is, you know, if there's any truth of that, like the same can be said really in this situation. Like JD, JD is a bit like willingness to play along with the anti-Semicrowd is a key part of his sustainability. Have you guys read the giant Manhattan Institute focus group? I started to, and I haven't made it all the way through. OK, because this is the Monday triad. The Manhattan Institute, very Trump friendly, did something called, everyone wants to know what Gen Z Republicans think,

we ask them. And so they talked to 20 GOP Zoomers.

A lot of Hitler talk came up.

Yeah.

Pro, anti, anti, anti?

I mean, pro. Like, you know, look, he was a strong leader. You know, you could say what you want about him. Of course, he was probably terrible, but, you know, like, he really knew and he believed in the good of his people.

And... Oh!

And this is J.D. J.D. Vance understands this particular impulse on how you vice signal To be based because he is our shit poster in chief and he understands that being based and vice signaling means You take Nick Fuentes and you give him a wink not even a wink. You put your arm around him and

for Elise she was willing to embrace, and this is actually, this goes to my theory of the difference between the America first, right? That's the American first establishment. That's what she is. And she's starting to see that that is fading, that without Trump directly having his hands on you, that doesn't have the purchase in the same way the MAGA establishment versus the America first world,

which is where J.B. understands.

She's also handicapped by being in New York state where the griper stuff doesn't really fly in New York state, right, even in the Republican circles. Whereas like nationally, it's a little different, right? And so she was at a natural disadvantage, but I'm sure she would have done all this stuff

if she had figured it out sooner. But I don't think she did. Like I don't think she figured it out.

And she was reliant, and this is, I've said this before for people who are just kind of joining, firsthand knowledge of this. As Sarah mentioned, she was an ever-Trumper. A lot of my friends, like when I was, were the people that worked for her, were her consultants. And so like, I knew like a lot of people on her inside circle closer than I did and like some others. And she threw them all out and had like a 24 year old, basically an intern who was a

MAGA intern named Alex DeGrasse, who like went with it from two years from being an intern to her top political strategist. And he like took over the Twitter feed and she started tweeting like Trump because he was just like a mega kid. And she saw that he understood the base and that all these like old Romney advisors she had did it. And that guy, that same guy,

this is probably the reason why I get so much joy about this. It's not just that I take pure joy from a Lisa's pain Which I do but like they deserve it because they trafficked in the worst Disgusting elements of Magga to win over and that guy de gras was one of these guys yesterday or this week Who is who had like picked out the random brown student who was uh who is you know? Gender fluid or whatever was posting his picture It's like at least a phonics staff like staffer is

posting this wrong the wrong picture of someone and trying to blame them for the shooting because they're trans and a Palestinian activist or whatever and like that is the shit they it's just and that is it's like totally gross and irresponsible but that's like the type of shit that She was willing to do to get into Trump's good graces. And it was gross and- Not legal advice, but that seems potentially defamatory.

Yeah, it's bad.

Yeah, but not even that, it's not enough. Like this is what's crazy about the Elise thing, is that despite everything she did, all the ways she debased herself, all the gross stuff she was willing to do, it is not enough to stay in the good graces of the America first types that are taking over now.

Um, okay, two more things. Well, we got, we do have some video, I think of at least that I do want to show and we're like, stepped up to address the crowd twice, both times the protesters booter. Get the tomatoes! Okay, that's enough. Do we think she's going to go home to her district? Let me raise your hand if you think Elise Stefanik is going to go home to upstate New York after this is all over.

She's going to go to my district.

This is a good prediction question, though. What does she do in the wake of this?

Doesn't she get the Paul Ryan Memorial

Chair at Fox News's board?

I do think it's something like that.

Right?

Yeah.

It's like all these people who hate the elites and hate blue cities. She'll live in, you know, either live in Alexandria or in Manhattan.

She'll come to Manhattan. My question is, if there is a schism, as Sarah is predicting between the MAGA establishment and the America Firsters, whose side will Elise take?

She'll take the MAGA establishment.

Yeah.

You think?

Here's what I think, and I think they're wrong. I think that's why she's leaving. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think that they are wrong. And luckily, we'll all get to hang out together for three more years and assess this. I think the America first side wins. I just think that's where the mojo is. That's that's that's it. The mega establishment side, I

think think they have the advantage. Actually. that's it. The mega establishment side, I think, think they have the advantage. Actually, it's funny. It's a lot of you know, it kind of reminds me of is like there's this moment back in 2014 when I saw Republican good standing and there were a lot of these Tea Party challenges that year that lost to McConnell and a lot of us in 14. Like we had seen that the that the, you know, more extreme side of the party

was was gaining momentum, but in 14 there's this feeling that like, oh wait, actually, the wave has crested, right? We've beaten them back. There's like a confidence, you know, there, and then 2016 Donald Trump gets nominated to be president, you know, president of the United States, right? And I feel like there's a little bit of that now. Like they think that they have the beast tamed and they're wrong, I think. But I think that's the bet she's making.

Do you know, I don't know that I think she thinks they have the beast tamed. Like, I think this is why she's tapping out. And this is why Josh Shapiro, I'm not sorry, Josh Shapiro, Ben Shapiro is now trying to like, he's engaged in a fight where he's saying, oh, there's a moment here to try to pull people back into the MAGA establishment

side, right? I want to be there for JD in the future. But if you are her, especially these Congress people who are on the ground and you're saying, oh my God, they're going full Tucker. They're going full Marjorie Taylor Greene. There is no middle ground for me to gain. Like, I think that is where they're, I think that's what they're starting to see.

JVL is a possibility. She humiliates, she like gets the indignity of being like, I don't know, Howard Nutlick's replacement in year four. And that's her little,

I don't think so. My question is, do you think she tries to screw Mike Johnson on the way

out of the next like maybe that's

a good.

So she's not resigning her seat like Marjorie Taylor Greene. That's a good point. She's going to be there and his margin is going to be what is his margin to at this

point.

Yeah.

It's like nothing. Is she going to stick around purely to make sure that he loses the speakership before the midterms?

It would not. It would not shock me. And it's weird because she's actually not in the crew with Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene and whoever else is in this group that wants to unseat him pretty vocally. But I could also see I thought that I thought her move was going to be with Jim Jordan Challenging him for the speakership It's clear she's tapping out But it would not surprise me in the least bit if she blew some things up on the way out the door

Does elise have spite in her? So I don't know. I've never met her. I don't know anything about her Um, does she have the spike bone in her body any of the people who were willing to go this far Well, sure

Spite a lot plenty of really good people are spiteful. No, she No, she's got some spite she's got some spite Huh? Okay. Well, it's gonna be a lonely lonely christmas. Oh lots of coal heavy stock. She's gonna be with her family

This was the best i'm having the office. We She's gonna be with her family. This was the best.

I'm having the office,

we're having the office Christmas party and this was the best gift we could be given.

It is, it's a great gift for all of us. Actually, as this is just coming across, we have one more document dump from the Epstein files, which we're not gonna weigh in on.

Let's look at that.

Oh.

Wow. I'm learning so much. Well, we really know whether he killed himself or not now. Okay, Sarah, you get back to the party. JVL. I don't know. Maybe we'll pop back on later if we just want to laugh at each other.

At least to phonic one more time.

I'm game.

All right. Subscribe to the feed. Everybody Merry Christmas.

We'll see you soon. We'll see you soon.

God bless us, everyone.