'There Is A Pattern Here': Sarah McBride Blasts Trump's Epstein 'Cover-Up'

'There Is A Pattern Here': Sarah McBride Blasts Trump's Epstein 'Cover-Up' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwZhGXc_FWw 

Forbes Breaking News

Jul 23, 2025

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) spoke about files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

 

Transcript

0:00

Thank you, sir.

0:01

Gentleman yields back. Chair recognizes

0:03

Representative McBride.

0:04

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,

0:05

Under Secretary Hooker, for being here

0:07

today. I'd like to hone in on Secretary

0:10

Rubio's decision to decimate the Bureau

0:12

of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,

0:14

or DRL. Most UA USID programs and all

0:17

but a handful of human rights programs

0:19

have either ended or reportedly have

0:22

been transferred to bureaus that lack

0:24

the experience in this work. You you

0:26

just mentioned to representative Gyipal

0:28

that the reorganization quote unquote of

0:30

the State Department was not halfhazard,

0:32

but you also told ranking member Meeks

0:34

earlier today as of right now there's no

0:37

plan for absorbing the work formally

0:38

done by formerly done by DRL into the

0:41

regional bureaus. You said a plan is

0:43

quote in process. That does sound like a

0:46

half-hazard reorganization to me. Legal

0:49

requirements for reporting to Congress

0:50

on democracy and human rights programs

0:53

have not been relaxed by law. that many

0:55

of the staff and systems to ensure

0:57

compliance are gone. So, I want to start

1:00

uh Madame Under Secretary, how many

1:02

State Department staffers and

1:03

contractors have you all fired that

1:05

worked in the Bureau of Democracy, Human

1:06

Rights, and Labor?

1:09

I don't have that number in front of me

1:10

right now, Congresswoman.

1:11

So, you don't have the number of folks

1:15

that were in this bureau that presumably

1:19

it's work and they have been

1:21

consolidated under your purview under

1:23

the bureaus. you don't have a sense of

1:26

how many remain.

1:28

From the nature of your question, I

1:29

think you're interested in understanding

1:32

whether these functions are continuing

1:33

in the in the bureaus. And I can assure

1:35

you that the functions are continuing in

1:37

the bureaus, whether it's for DRL, PRM,

1:41

foreign assistance, um our CT functions

1:44

as well. Those each of those functions

1:46

are being integrated into the bureaus of

1:49

each of the regional bureaus that I am

1:51

responsible for.

1:54

Well, to to that point, if the work is

1:58

still being done, I want to hone in then

2:00

on the uh annual human rights reports,

2:04

which are of great importance to human

2:06

rights experts around the world. But

2:09

going back to 2017, the latest the

2:13

latest that the country reports on human

2:15

rights practices was published was April

2:19

22nd. It's now July 23rd and we have yet

2:23

to see this year's report. Can you

2:26

explain this delay and when we should

2:27

expect to see this year's annual

2:29

required report?

2:31

Thank you for that interest. I happy to

2:34

look into it. I don't have an answer for

2:35

you at the moment. I'll take that back.

2:37

Happy to report back. Well, so it

2:38

doesn't seem like the work of the Bureau

2:41

of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor is

2:44

moving forward if they're not releasing

2:46

reports in the same timely fashion that

2:49

they did previously. Um, I I want to

2:52

move on to to ask on this topic and of

2:56

course these these bureaus absorbing

2:58

this work and and presumably it's in in

3:00

some form or fashion moving forward,

3:01

although not clearly uh as rigorously as

3:04

it used to. Um, since assuming your

3:07

position, how many times have you

3:08

convened regional bureaus to assess or

3:10

discuss a major human rights challenge

3:12

or for that matter any human rights

3:14

issues?

3:16

I convene the bureaus weekly to to talk

3:19

about whatever issues they're facing.

3:21

And have you discussed major human

3:23

rights challenges in those meetings?

3:24

I'm I'm not going to talk about the

3:26

specifics of our conversations um with

3:29

each of those regional bureaus.

3:31

You know, I I I gotta be honest. I

3:34

appreciate you taking the time, but I

3:36

just don't know what to make of these

3:38

actions or quite frankly inactions by

3:41

the administration.

3:42

Either this administration is

3:45

appallingly indifferent to human rights

3:47

abuses and human trafficking, as we

3:49

heard last week in Secretary Regus's

3:52

testimony, or this administration is

3:55

trying to cover up and paper over the

3:57

scale of human rights abuses and human

4:00

trafficking around the world. And quite

4:01

frankly, given this administration's

4:03

efforts to cover up abuses committed by

4:05

Jeffrey Epste and other powerful men, it

4:07

appears that there is a pattern here

4:09

with this administration. The powerful

4:11

get to do what they want, whether it's

4:13

powerful men here or strong men around

4:16

the world. And this administration will

4:19

cover for them. And it is deeply

4:21

disturbing to me. And I hope I hope that

4:24

these regional bureaus under your

4:26

leadership and because I I believe that

4:28

you personally

4:30

want to do this work. I hope that this

4:33

administration will fulfill its legal

4:36

and moral obligation to report on, to

4:39

investigate, and to hold other countries

4:41

accountable for human rights abuses. And

4:43

with that, Mr. Mr. Chairman, I yield

4:44

back.