Trump says he would sign bill to release Epstein files if it reaches his desk
U.S. President Donald Trump listens as first lady Melania Trump speaks at a signing ceremony for the “Fostering the Future” executive order in the East Room of the White House on November 13, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it comes to his desk.
“I’m all for it,” he said as he took reporter questions during an event in the Oval Office, contending the controversy is deflecting from his administration successes.
Pressed again moments later if he would sign the bill that the House is set to take up Tuesday, Trump replied: “Sure I would.”
“Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take away from us. It’s really a Democrat problem,” he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on August 15, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — There are no plans for President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet “in the immediate future,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday — calling off a summit that was expected in Budapest in the coming weeks.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson listens as Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention, August 22, 2024 in Chicago. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, a 30-year-old progressive activist and lawmaker who gained national attention as one of the “Tennessee Three,” is launching a primary challenge against longtime Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen.
Pearson’s campaign, framed around the slogan “It’s About Us,” highlights Memphis’s 22.6% poverty rate — nearly double the state average — and pledges “urgent solutions to persistent crises” in Tennessee’s only Democratic congressional district.
Pearson’s bid is part of a broader wave of intraparty contests pitting younger progressives against long-establishedincumbents.
Cohen, 76, has represented Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District since 2007. Earlier this year, he told Axios he intended to seek reelection.
“My constituents need help from D.C. and I’m effective in bringing home important funding,” he said.
Pearson, expelled from the Tennessee House in 2023 after leading a gun control protest, was later reappointed and won a special election, cementing his status as a rising progressive voice.
In Pearson’s campaign launch video, released Wednesday, he told voters, “I’m proud to be one of us, a Memphian, born and raised who understands how to build bridges across race, identity, ethnicity and generations in order to build the future that we want to live into.”
Tennessee’s 9th District, based in Memphis, is the state’s only Democratic stronghold after redistricting in 2022.
“The same issues that people are facing today in this district, are the same issues that Justin faced as a child, and the same issues that Justin’s parents faced when they were kids,” Usamah Andrabi, communications director for the group, Justice Democrats, told ABC News. “At a certain point, you have to ask yourself, maybe it’s time for new leadership?”
Andrabi said the group is focused on elevating a new generation of leaders, pointing out Pearson was just 8 years old when Cohen first won the seat.The group framed Cohen as a man who has been in office for four decades, calling him an “absentee congressman.”
Cohen remains popular in his home district, winning reelection with more than 70% of the vote in a four-way primary in 2024 and more than 71% of the vote in the general election against a Republican challenger.
Pearson is Justice Democrats’ third endorsement of the cycle, following Angela Gonzales-Torres in California and Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney.
Founded in 2017, the group has helped elect several members of the “Squad” — including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley in Michigan and Rashida Tlaib in Michigan — and unseat five long-serving incumbents.
Pearson’s campaign platform includes labor rights and living wages, affordable housing, Medicare for All, environmental justice, federal investment to combat poverty and gun reform.
“This campaign isn’t about one person,” Pearson said in a statement. “It’s about building a movement our community can see itself in.
Pearson’s campaign is part of a broader pattern.
In Washington, D.C., Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a nonvoting member of the House, faces two challengers in next year’s primary, D.C. Council members Robert White Jr. and Brooke Pinto.
In Connecticut, Rep. John Larson is facing primary challengers, including former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest.
Bilal Dabir Sekou, a political science professor at the University of Hartford, said the trend shows Democrats are increasingly willing to challenge longstanding members of their party.
“What’s interesting is people are stepping up and primarying people, almost like there’s an insurgency going on within the party,” Sekou said.
He added that Democrats are grappling with a generational shift, citing former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepping down from House leadership in 2023.
“A lot of that older leadership wants people who are like them,” he said. “If they step aside, they want to step aside for someone who looks familiar to them, in terms of policy preferences and in terms of style and approach.”
Republicans are also grappling with challenges from within their own party.
For example, in Texas, Sen. John Cornyn, 73, faces primary challenges from state Attorney General Ken Paxton, 62, and Rep. Wesley Hunt, 43.
In addition to the support Pearson has received from Justice Democrats, another group, Leaders We Deserve, a youth-driven political organization founded by gun-violence survivor David Hogg, has pledged $1 million for his race.
“In this moment of crisis, I’m calling on Representative Steve Cohen to pass the torch to Justin J. Pearson — a transformational leader who can inspire a new generation,” Hogg said in a statement. “Memphis deserves a next-generation leader like Justin — a tested fighter who will deliver opportunity, affordability, safety, and justice to his constituents.”
“From his successful work stopping the Byhalia Connection oil pipeline, which threatened the drinking water of more than one million people in the Memphis area, to his fearless stand in the state capitol for stronger gun safety laws after the 2023 Covenant school shooting, Justin J. Pearson has repeatedly shown the kind of backbone needed to confront powerful special interests, from big oil to the gun lobby,” Hogg added.
Charlotte Bergmann is a Republican running for the 9th Congressional District seat.
The Dome of the U.S. Capitol Building is visible on October 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A critical food assistance program will soon halt for millions of Americans in need and air traffic controllers will miss a paycheck this week as the government shutdown enters its fourth week — with all eyes on congressional lawmakers to see if the added pressure will be enough to push them to strike a deal.
The Department of Agriculture posted a notice on its website that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will not be issued on Nov. 1 amid the ongoing government shutdown, saying “Bottom line, the well has run dry.”
SNAP, often referred to as “food stamps,” serves roughly 42 million low-income Americans.
SNAP has traditionally been entirely federally funded, but is administered by states. That means the shutdown’s impact on SNAP and when benefits will start to dry up will vary by state.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration said it won’t be giving a lifeline to SNAP funding, and blamed the Democrats for the ongoing shutdown.
The Trump administration’s position that it cannot extend SNAP benefits during the shutdown is a reversal from the USDA’s stated shutdown contingency plan from late September, which said that “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown.”
But in a new memo issued late last week and obtained by ABC News, USDA said contingency funds are “only available” when SNAP funds have been approved by Congress.
Earlier in the shutdown, the Trump administration redirected others funds to pay service members — even as it says it can’t do the same with SNAP funding.
On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson argued the contingency funds for SNAP are “not legally available right now” to cover the benefits and pleaded with Democrats to support the clean continuing resolution to reopen the government.
“The reason is because it’s a finite source of funds. It was appropriated by Congress, and if they transfer funds from these other sources, it pulls it away immediately from school meals… So … it’s a trade off,” he said. “There has to be a pre-existing appropriation for the contingency fund to be used.”
Airline travelers are feeling effects of the shutdown as well.
Over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration was forced to slow air traffic around Chicago, Dallas, Southern California, Newark and other cities because of staffing issues. Some air traffic controllers called out as many are forced to work without pay during the shutdown.
Air traffic controllers will miss their first paycheck on Tuesday.
Another critical deadline approaches around health care premiums. Democrats are continuing their fight over health care subsidies as the Nov. 1 open enrollment date approaches.
As the shutdown continues to impact Americans and key deadlines loom, all eyes are on Capitol Hill where lawmakers are still in a stalemate.
On Monday, Johnson slammed Democrats and said the administration has worked “creatively” to limit the “pain on the Americans.”
“We need five more Democrats in the Senate to do the right thing — wake up and say, ‘I’m going to say no to the Marxist far-left pressure, and I’m going to do what’s right by the people of 42 million Americans in this country who rely upon this essential nutrition assistance. Or am I going to starve my constituents? Or am I going to appease the Marxist?’” Johnson said.
It doesn’t appear President Donald Trump will be negotiating with Democrats either.
“Well, what good does it do, Martha They dug in. The American people are hostage to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries’ poll numbers because what’s changed between now and the last time there was a clean, continuing resolution is Chuck Schumer has tanked in the polls. They both of the two guys from Brooklyn, like I call them, are worried about being primaried from the left,” Bessent said.
Meanwhile, the president of the country’s largest union representing federal workers is calling on lawmakers to pass a short-term spending bill to end the shutdown.
“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today,” American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
The AFGE represents more than 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers.
“It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike,” she added.
