MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) anchor Ali Vitali spent part of Monday’s edition of “Way Too Early” sharing a PSA video created by survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and abuse urging lawmakers to vote “yes” to release the government’s Epstein Files.
The video in question shows each of its featured survivors holding up pictures of their younger, underage selves and revealing, “This is me when I met Jeffrey Epstein.” The survivors go on to call for the release of the Epstein Files, telling viewers, “There are about a thousand of us. It’s time to bring the secrets out of the shadows. It’s time to shine a light into the darkness.”
The video’s release comes the same week Congress is expected to vote on a bill designed to compel the Department of Justice into releasing all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein to the American public. The vote is expected to take place on Tuesday, after President Trump abruptly abandoned his previous attempts to stop the bill from passing.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday night. “I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT discussing economic issues.”
When asked by Vitali Monday why President Trump decided to adopt such a different strategy regarding the Epstein Files, Julia Manchester, a White House Reporter for The Hill, told her, “The administration would argue, ‘Look, we want everyone to focus on the accomplishments of our administration, to focus on how we’re trying to deal with the issue of affordability.’”
“However, the top story wherever President Trump goes in the world is the Epstein Files, is Jeffrey Epstein,” Manchester added. “You have to wonder whether this is an effort to sort of move on from this and get more focus on the administration’s work, or if it’s something President Trump [did] to save face with, particularly, House Republicans.”
After Vitali asked if the Trump administration has realized how badly it “misread the political salience” of the country’s interest in the Epstein Files, Manchester noted that Trump wants to avoid fracturing the Republican Party at all costs. “The president is someone who, obviously, wants to — and he prides himself on — keeping his Republican caucus very much intact on Capitol Hill,” Manchester explained. “This could have shown a bit of a crack there.”
As for whether or not Trump would ultimately sign a bill releasing the Epstein Files, Manchester told MS NOW viewers, “It’s really unclear and I think all eyes are probably on, obviously, [Senate] Majority Leader Thune at this point.”
You can watch the PSA in the video above.
