Mike Pence calls for the release of the Epstein files: ‘I’ve always believed in transparency’
Julia Demaree Nikhinson – Pool/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence joined the chorus of Republicans calling on the Trump administration to release files about the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, telling CBS News in an interview that he believes the administration should release all of the files about Epstein — breaking with the president he once served under.
“I think the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s investigation and prosecution,” Pence said in the Wednesday interview.
Asked if he believes there should be an inquiry into if accomplices to Epstein should be exposed to criminal prosecution, Pence said, “I just think we ought to get the facts to the American people. I’ve always believed in transparency.”
“It’s important that we protect the names of the victims. They should be excluded from any disclosure. But whether or not the facts justify charges, I think that anyone who participated or was associated with this despicable man ought to be held up to public scrutiny.”
In recent weeks, many of President Donald Trump’s most prominent supporters and congressional Republicans continue to demand answers about the files.
Pence is more moderate ideologically than many of the high-profile names calling for the files to be released. More broadly, Pence has threaded a needle over the first six months of Trump’s second presidency, occasionally critiquing and occasionally praising the second-term policies or opinions of the president who he once served under.
Trump continued Wednesday to dismiss calls within his own party for more transparency into the Epstein investigation and made claims, without evidence, that the controversy was designed to undermine him.
In a lengthy social media post, which included references to the president’s previous claims about the 2017 Russian election interference probe, Trump blamed Democrats for creating what he called a “scam” and “hoax.”
Asked what Trump means when he says the Epstein controversy is a “hoax,” Pence didn’t answer directly, but said Epstein’s prosecution began during the Bush administration and continued during the Obama administration.
“I know of no reason why this administration, once the victims’ names are protected, should not release all the files on Jeffrey Epstein,” Pence added.
The Justice Department and FBI earlier this month stated they found no evidence the deceased financier kept a “client list” of associates whom he blackmailed or conspired with to victimize dozens of women.
(NEW YORK) — Voters head to the polls on Tuesday for New Jersey’s primary elections, which will set up the state’s 2025 gubernatorial election — the results of which could be a potential harbinger for the mood of the country ahead of 2026’s critical midterm elections.
The Democratic candidates are sparring over how to best respond to President Donald Trump’s agenda in the Garden State and each hopes to keep the state’s governorship in Democratic hands. The state’s current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, can’t run again after serving two terms.
There are six candidates in the Democratic primary. Polling has shown that Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot who represents the state’s 11th Congressional District, leads the crowded Democratic field, but the race could still be anyone’s to win.
The other Democratic candidates are Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who represents the state’s 5th District; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop; New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller; and former state Senate president Steve Sweeney.
Republicans, meanwhile, hope to flip New Jersey’s governorship red in November and also have a crowded primary field. President Donald Trump has endorsed former state assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who ran for governor in 2021, narrowly losing to Murphy.
“This year’s election for governor is critical for New Jersey’s future. You’ll decide whether New Jersey is a high tax, high crime, sanctuary state,” Trump said during a rally held by telephone last week. “New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show.”
Ciattarelli faces conservative radio personality Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, and contractor Justin Barbera.
The contest is on track to become the priciest election in New Jersey history, with over $85 million spent on advertising as of last Wednesday, according to a report from media tracking agency AdImpact.
Among Democrats, Gottheimer has the most ad spending supporting him ($22.8 million), followed by Fulop ($17.8 million).
Ciattarelli leads among Republicans with $5.9 million in ad spending or reservations supporting him, dwarfing Spadea’s $2.2 million and Bramnick’s $1.2 million.
About 70% of broadcast ad airings have mentioned Trump, according to AdImpact.
-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Halle Troadec contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending megabill could alter aspects of K-12 and higher education in the coming years, according to education advocates on both sides of the aisle.
After a monthslong process on Capitol Hill, the highly anticipated law will significantly reform the student loan process and broaden school choice options for families and the education community at large.
Here’s how the new law, which also brings massive cuts to government benefits such as Medicaid and increases funding for immigration enforcement, potentially changes education for millions of Americans.
Student loans
The megabill pushed through several House Republican policies aimed at reforming higher education — including with student loans.
The new law terminates all current student loan repayment plans for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026. They will be replaced with two separate plans: a standard repayment plan and a new income-based repayment plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan, according to the text of the megabill.
The Department of Education released a statement that said these new plans are currently impacted by legal challenges, urging borrowers on the Biden-era Income Driven Repayment plans to consider enrolling in an income-based repayment plan.
With this new process, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, a Republican, said he believes struggling borrowers will receive the assistance needed to repay loans without saddling taxpayers with that burden.
The new law also establishes loan limits for parent borrowers and terminates graduate and professional plus loans — designed to help graduate and professional students pay for school — for their degrees and certificates.
Earlier this year, Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the megabill for simplifying the “overly complex” repayment process and reducing borrowing amounts to “help curb rising tuition costs.”
The Student Borrower Protection Center, which focuses on eliminating the burden of student debt, denounced the provisions in the bill. Aissa Canchola Bañez, the center’s policy director, described it as a crushing blow to millions of Americans already struggling to cover college costs.
“This bill is a dangerous attack on students, working families and communities across the country,” she said, adding that it is “shredding the student loan safety net, weakening protections and pushing millions of students and families into the riskier and more expensive private student loan market.”
National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues warned the new policies in Trump’s megabill are leading to a “difficult moment for American families.”
Rodrigues fears a $65,000 lifetime limit on Parent PLUS loans — which provide money to parents for their children to attend college — could eliminate a pathway to “economic mobility.”
“It’s going to mean a lot of hardship for kids and for families across the country,” she said.
School choice
Conservatives are celebrating the law as it continues to deliver on a long-standing pledge from the Trump administration to give power to parents and reduce education bureaucracy in Washington through universal school choice — something McMahon has pushed to see expanded nationwide.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy’s Educational Choice for Children Act tax credit, a provision included within the megabill, provides a charitable donation incentive for individuals and businesses to fund scholarship awards for students to cover expenses related to K-12 public and private education starting in 2027.
Republican Rep. Adrian Smith, who co-sponsored the House legislation, told ABC News it removes the “politics” from school-funding formulas that haven’t served students’ best interests.
“Students deserve the opportunity to succeed in the setting which best meets their needs, and this investment will open new doors for millions of American families,” Smith said.
Tommy Schultz, CEO of the conservative American Federation for Children, noted the change is a monumental step toward every state achieving school choice.
“AFC will work to ensure that governors and state leaders listen to their constituents and bring educational freedom to every state in the nation, and to as many families as possible,” Schultz said in a statement to ABC News. “We will continue to fight to ensure that this tax credit scholarship is well-implemented and expanded as soon as possible.”
Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono is a staunch opponent of the president’s education policies and the Republican tax credit, saying it strips public schools of its resources and enriches wealthy families.
“What [the ECCA] does is it is yet another big tax break for rich people who can afford to contribute these kinds of funds — so mainly the people who will take advantage of this will be kids who are already going to private schools,” Hirono explained.
“Not much of a choice,” she quipped.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also slammed the bill for promoting a “massive and unprecedented transfer of wealth from everyday people to billionaires.”
“It writes a permanent school voucher scheme into the tax code that would redirect billions of dollars each year to private schools — even as our public schools, which educate 90 percent of all students, remain woefully underfunded,” Weingarten said in a statement to ABC News.
Despite the public school debate, Sen. Cassidy and education advocates argue no child should be “trapped” in a failing school.
Dr. Eva Moskowitz is the CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, the highest-performing free public charter school network in New York City, and told ABC News that it’s time to move on from the public education “monopoly.”
“We have a solution right in front of us: high-performing charter schools and a scholarship program for the private school choice,” Moskowitz said. “This is the most concrete, pragmatic, thing we can do today to impact hundreds of thousands of children.”
The Republican-led House is set to vote Thursday on a bill to make the Gulf of Mexico’s name change to Gulf of America permanent.
The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, codifies an executive order from President Donald Trump to rename the body of water.
Its fate in the Senate is more of a challenge, given that it will need bipartisan cooperation to overcome a filibuster.
“Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘Gulf of America,’” the bill text states.
The measure also instructs each federal agency to update each document and map in accordance with the name change that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will oversee.
“Codifying the rightful renaming of the Gulf of America isn’t just a priority for me and President Trump, it’s a priority for the American people. American taxpayers fund its protection, our military defends its waters, and American businesses fuel its economy,” Rep. Greene argued in a post on X.
One of Trump’s first executive orders when he started his second term was to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker Mike Johnson has endorsed the bill, which is expected to clear the lower chamber in a party-line vote.
“We’ve been working around the clock to codify so much of what President Trump has been doing … to make sure that we put these into statutory law so that it can’t be reversed and erased by an upcoming administration,” Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday.
House Democrats, including Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have criticized the measure.
“Why is the top thing that House Republicans — going to do this week on their legislative agenda renaming the Gulf of Mexico?” Jeffries said at a news conference Monday. “Because Donald Trump and House Republicans are on the run. They are on the run.”
