Ro Khanna on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper discussing releasing the Epstein files
Transcript
My next guest co-sponsored the
legislation that became law enforced the
release of the files. She he did it with
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie.
Democratic Congressman of California
Roana joins us now. Um Congressman
Connor, thanks for joining us. So your
your colleague uh Jim Jordan uh he is
the chairman of the judiciary committee.
Here is how he summed up the attorney
general's appearance today.
I think the attorney general is doing
just fine. We appreciate your
willingness to come and answer our
questions and the great job you're doing
for um our country.
How do you think the attorney general
did? Do you agree with Chairman Jordan?
Well, let me tell you how the survivors
think. One survivor texted me saying,
"I'm glad I wasn't there." And she said,
"I feel hopeless after today." And what
was lost as the insults were hurled from
members of Congress to Attorney General
Bondi and back is how this is impacting
survivors. I've met many of them now.
This is personal for me. And what we owe
them is justice. And what we owe is to
listen to them. They don't care whether
it's Trump's fault or Bondi's fault.
They want justice for the people who
raped them.
So, a lot of people watching the
hearing, critics of Bondi, say that it
seemed as though she was playing to an
audience of one. She didn't care what
the survivors thought. She only cared
what the president thought. Take a
listen.
Robert Mueller found no evidence, none,
of foreign interference in 2016. Have
you apologized to President Trump? Have
you apologized to President Trump? All
of you who participated in those
impeachment hearings against Donald
Trump, you all should be apologizing.
You sit here and you attack the
president and I am not going to have it.
I'm not going to put up with it.
So, just in point of fact, it's not true
that Robert Mueller found no evidence of
foreign interference in the 2016
election. He did. Uh, and it is also not
true that President Trump was impeached
for anything having to do with the
Russia gate investigation. Um, but she
did give a lot of answers like that on
other topics that had not been raised.
Did you think it was effective what she
did? I mean, you're right. She was
appealing to Donald Trump for her job
and ultimately Donald Trump gets to
decide. But this was never about Trump.
I mean, when Massie and I started with
Marjorie Taylor Green, Nancy Mace,
Lauren Boowbert, this was about getting
justice for survivors. Donald Trump
actually campaigned on releasing the
files. And to this day, Massie and I
haven't made it about Clinton or Trump.
What we want is the names of the people
who actually abused and raped these
girls. And by the way, Jake, they're not
always the most famous names. I mean
yesterday I went on the House floor to
name uh six names of people who were
redacted. Many of those people were not
famous. There are people who are being
protected in those FBI files. They were
scrubbed in March. We want them
unredacted. And instead of answering why
those files are still scrubbed, the
attorney general was playing politics.
So, as you just said, uh you read aloud
the names of six men uh who were in the
files. We know at least two of the men
are wealthy and powerful. Um, you did
this after reviewing unredacted
materials behind closed doors for hours.
Tell us what else you learned from those
documents.
Well, the biggest thing I learned is
that most of them are still scrubbed. I
mean, they were scrubbed in March, and
we aren't going to get the information
that the survivors want released until
those FBI files are unscruped because
that's where they named the people who
actually were on the island uh and who
committed the abuse. And the other
thing, and you can ask other members
who've seen the files, is it's pretty
sickening. I mean, it's not just sexual
assault and graphic. It's violent. Uh
it's talking about torture. Uh it's just
really a a disgusting look at behavior.
And one of the things that's sad to me
is uh how many people uh have been
implicated not in necessarily in
committing rape or uh abuse, but in
being willing to uh invest with Epstein
after he was a convicted pedophile, go
to his island after he was a pedophile.
And how in America we seem not to have
want accountability. Other countries
they're having accountability. The
British monarchy, the British
government, Norway. here. Let's just be
honest. Some of these people are fund
our nonprofits, fund universities are in
positions of power. Uh and we get we
have to decide as a country. Are we
going to say it's okay if you wanted to
do business with a convicted pedophile,
let's move on, or are we actually going
to have accountability?
Congressman Roana, Democrat of
California. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
