Epstein survivors speak out ahead of House vote, take aim at Trump
Epstein abuse survivor Haley Robson speaks during a news conference with lawmakers on the Epstein Files Transparency Act outside the U.S. Capitol on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A group of women victimized by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein spoke out at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday ahead of a highly anticipated vote on a House bill ordering the release of the Justice Department’s files on Epstein.
“We are fighting for the children,” said survivor Haley Robson, as she held up a photograph of herself as a young girl.
Robson said this is a “human issue” and called for political agendas to be put aside before delivering a direct message to President Donald Trump.
“And to the president of the United States of America, who is not here today, I want to send a clear message to you. While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is. So with that being said, I want to relay this message to you: I am traumatized. I am not stupid.”
“You have put us through so much stress, the lockdown, the halt of these procedures that were supposed to have happened 50 days ago, the Adelita Grijalva who waited to get sworn in, and then get upset when your own party goes against you, because what is being done is wrong,” Robson said. “It’s not right. For your own self-serving purposes. This is America. This is land of the free, land of the free.”
“I do not feel free today,” Robson added. “I don’t know if the women behind me feel free today, so I am begging every member of Congress, every representative, to step up and choose the chaos. Choose the survivors, choose the children. Protect the children, all children. You protect all of us equally.”
Another survivor, Jena-Lisa Jones, also directly addressed Trump and criticized his administration’s handling of the Epstein matter.
“I beg you, President Trump, please stop making this political. It is not about you, President Trump. You are our president. Please start acting like it. Show some class, show some real leadership, show that you actually care about people other than yourself. I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment,” Jones said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The knives came out during Wednesday night’s second and final New York City mayoral debate.
While answering questions on policy issues such as housing and education, the candidates onstage — Democratic candidate and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Republican candidate and “Guardian Angels” founder Curtis Sliwa, and independent candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — relentlessly attacked each other over what they said were each others’ shortcomings.
Some of the most acrimonious moments came during what were ostensibly meant to be discussions on policy.
Cuomo said that the number of homeless people in New York City had “more than doubled” since he stepped down as governor, criticizing what he claimed was Mamdani’s lack of action on the issue as an assemblyman.
Cuomo, who resigned the governorship in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment that he has long denied, used the phrase “since I left,” to refer to the end of his tenure — which Sliwa quickly jumped on.
“Andrew, you didn’t leave. You fled! From being impeached by the Democrats in the state legislature — you fled!” Sliwa cried out.
A question to Mamdani about his position on schools turned into a free-for-all between him and Cuomo.
“I did things — you have never had a job,” Cuomo said to Mamdani at one point. “You’ve never accomplished anything. There’s no reason to believe you have any merit or qualification for 8 and 1/2 million lives … Shame on you. Shame on you.”
Mamdani countered, “Always a pleasure to hear Andrew Cuomo create his own facts at every debate stage. We just had a former governor say in his own words that this city has been getting screwed by the state. Who was leading the state? It was you!”
“Governor Hochul, Governor Hochul,” Cuomo countered, referring to current Gov. Kathy Hochul. “You were the legislator–“
They both continued to talk over each other until a moderator intervened.
Sliwa seized on the fighting to get in a shot.
“I heard the both of them again, fighting like kids in the schoolyard,” Sliwa said. “Zohran, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin, and Andrew, your failures could fill a public school library in New York City.”
Overall, on the issue of dealing with President Donad Trump, the candidates were asked what combination of “defiance, diplomacy and cooperation” they’d use if the Trump administration attempts to interfere in the running of the city or threatens to cut funding.
Sliwa, who has a frosty relationship with Trump — and has not courted his endorsement — criticized the other two candidates as too confrontational.
“My adversaries have decided to bump chests with President Trump to prove who’s more macho,” Sliwa said. “You can’t beat Trump. He holds most of the cards … So if you’re all of a sudden going to get adversarial, you’re going to lose and who gets hurt? The people of New York City. With Trump, it’s always the art of the deal.”
Cuomo, meanwhile, said the mayor has to both confront and work with the president — and then painted a mayoral victory by Mamdani as an invitation for Trump to wreak havoc.
“He has said he’ll take over New York if Mamdani wins, and he will, because he has no respect for him,” Cuomo said. “He thinks he’s a kid, and he’s going to knock him on his tuchus” — using the Yiddish slang term for someone’s rear end. He added that the mayor both has to combat and work with the president at different points
“We first just heard from the Republican candidate for mayor, and then we heard from Donald Trump’s puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani retorted. “You could turn on TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo, and he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him.”
In terms of the running of the city, the debate moderators asked Mamdani about recent reports that he would ask New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to remain in her position if elected, which he said he would.
“Commissioner Tisch broke the status quo, started to deliver accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the five boroughs. I have said time and again that my litmus test for that position will be excellence, and the alignment will be of that position,” he said.
Cuomo said he would ask Tisch to stay on and said he didn’t believe Mamdani’s pledge.
Sliwa said he, too, also would ask Tisch to stay on the job “for stability” but said he didn’t think she would serve in a Cuomo or Mamdani administration.
As for the support of incumbent Democratic Mayor Eric Adams — both Mamdani and Sliwa said they would not accept an endorsement from Adams, who suspended his reelection campaign late last month.
Cuomo said he would and posted a photo of himself online sitting courtside with Adams at a New York Knicks game after the debate.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump appeared to acknowledge Wednesday that he cannot run for a third term, after previously declining to rule out the possibility.
“I have my highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had, and, you know, based on what I read, I guess I’m not allowed to run. So, we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Gyeongju, South Korea.
“I would say that if you read it, it’s pretty clear. I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad, but we have a lot of great people,” he added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he does not “see the path” for Trump to seek a third term.
“It’s been a great run, but I think the president knows, and he and I have talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution, as much as so many of the American people lament that,” Johnson said during a news conference on Capitol Hill.
Trump sidestepped questions about Johnson’s comments, instead touting his strong polling numbers.
“I don’t want to even talk about that because, you know, the sad thing is, I have my highest numbers that I’ve ever had,” Trump continued.
Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of serving a third term, despite being barred from doing so by the Constitution. The 22nd Amendment explicitly states that no person shall be elected president more than twice.
On Monday, Trump said he would “love to do it” when asked about a potential 2028 bid but Johnson, on Tuesday, said he doesn’t see a way forward when it comes to amending the Constitution.
“I don’t see a way to amend the Constitution because it takes about 10 years to do that,” Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, said. “As you all know, to allow all the states to ratify what two-thirds of the House and three-fourths of the states would approve. So I don’t, I don’t see the path for that, but I can tell you that we are not going to take our foot off the gas pedal.”
On Monday, Trump appeared to rule out the prospect of running on the 2028 Republican ticket as vice president.
“Yeah, I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said. “I guess I think it’s too cute. Yeah, I would rule that out because it’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute. It’s not — it wouldn’t be right.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Friday failed to advance both the House-passed short-term government funding bill and the Democrat counter-offer, increasing the risk of government shutdown early next month.
The Senate action came just hours after the House sent them the short-term funding bill. The Senate voted to block that Republican short-term funding bill, failing by a vote of 44-48.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul cast votes against the legislation. Democrat Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote for it.
As expected, senators also failed to advance the Democrat funding bill with extraneous health care provisions by a vote of 47-45.
This leaves the Congress no closer to a government funding solution with the Oct. 1 deadline fast approaching.
Ahead of the two votes Friday afternoon, party leaders from both sides of the aisle dug in on their positions, pointing fingers at the other side.
On Friday morning, Majority Leader John Thune urged passage of the House’s clean short-term funding solution to allow more time for work on full-year appropriations bills.
Democrats, he said, would bear the responsibility for a shut down if they block the just-passed House bill from proceeding.
“If they want to shut down the government, they have the power to do so, but if they think they are going to gain political points from shutting down the government over a clean nonpartisan CR, something they voted for 13 times under the Biden administration, I would strongly urge them to think again,” Thune said.
He accused Democrats of throwing an “endless temper tantrum” by refusing to keep the lights on with a stopgap funding bill.
But Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, moments later, made a pitch instead for the Democrat continuing resolution, which included a number of health care provisions Democrats want. Republicans, he said, haven’t been willing to negotiate with Democrats to secure their votes.
Ahead of the vote, Schumer said that “senators will have to choose to stand with Donald Trump and keep the same lousy status quo and cause the Trump health care shutdown, or stand with the American people, protect their health care and keep the government functioning.”
Thune, however, called this a “fundamentally unserious proposal designed to appease Democrat’s liberal base” and said it had “zero chance of making it through the Congress.”
Ahead of the Senate votes, Speaker Mike Johnson said that “the ball [was] in Chuck Schumer’s court” to avoid a government shutdown.
“I hope he does the right thing,” Johnson told reporters Friday following the House vote. “I hope he does not choose to shut the government down and inflict pain unnecessarily on the American people.”
