Ed Bishop

Anxiety Over Social Security Benefits Grows As Funding Cliff Looms forbes.com/sites/janetnov… (📸: C.J. Burton via Getty Images)

🔥Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls out Trump for blocking the Epstein Files, says "That's when MAGA died" "[Epstein] was a convicted pedophile and we knew there were many with him" "[But Trump said] my friends are going to get hurt... people [at] Mar-a-Lago [and in] in Palm Beach" This clip of Greene (@FmrRepMTG) is taken from a video posted to The RonPaulLibertyReport YouTube channel on May 2, 2026. ----------------Partial transcription of clip--------------- "So, wow. When we started talking about releasing the Epstein files, I'm like, this is a no-brainer. President Trump will just roll them out on a big cart himself. Stacks and stacks and stacks of the Epstein files. Because obviously Bill Clinton is all in there and Hillary Clinton. That's what I had been told all along, right? "Well, it was the most shocking thing when I sat in a conference meeting, and I learned that the President didn't want to release the Epstein Files. I was like, what? Yeah. "Come to find out, he was very much against it. So we kept on trying and kept on talking about it. And then the President told Mike Johnson, no, do not bring that resolution to the floor for a vote. He told the Rules Committee, and Johnson told the Rules Committee, no, you will not mark up any bill and in the Rules Committee that will allow the Epstein Files to be released. "And the resistance built and built and built. He told Pam Bondi, don't release the Epstein Files. He told everybody, don't release the Epstein Files. So we persisted because that's what we promised. That's what we campaigned on. Transparency and accountability, especially to pedophiles. How is that complicated? "So it got to be such a gigantic amount of resistance coming from the President and the speaker and everyone, the DOJ. I said, fine, I'll do the unthinkable. I'll go over there and I'll sign my name on a discharge petition that all the Democrats are signing their name on. Talk about crossing the aisle. Me, a general in the MAGA army, crossing over to sign my name with a bunch of Democrats. Yeah, I did. Because women were raped when they were 16 and 14 years old. And he was a convicted pedophile and we knew there were many with him. "So I signed my name on the discharge petition. Oh, did I get my name on the naughty list then, let me tell you. That became a real issue at the White House. Well, I'll never forget it. I was in my office in the Rayburn Building and I got a phone call from the President and he was at the White House and he wanted to talk to me about the discharge petition that I'd signed my name on. And he said, Marjorie, you're going to have to take your name off that discharge petition. We can't let. This is a hoax. We can't carry this. This is a hoax. It's a Democrat hoax, and we've got to just put this away and stop doing this. "And he said, my friends are going to get hurt. He said his friends would get hurt if we released the Epstein Files. He said, Marjorie, these are good people. These are people, you know at Mar-a-Lago, people in Palm Beach. They're going to get hurt by this. "And I said, Mr. President, people have been hurt. These women have been hurt. I, said, have you talked to them? I said, you should talk to them. You should have them in the Oval Office. Mr. President, you have everybody in the Oval Office. You have sports teams, you have world leaders. You have Al Qaeda terrorists that are now leading Syria. You have Mamdani. I mean, you have everybody in the Oval Office. Surely you can have these women who were raped as teenagers. Talk to them. I talk to them all the time. As a matter of fact, many of them voted for you. "That's what I told them. They voted for you. Epstein victims voted for Donald Trump and he wouldn't have anything to do with them. And he told me his friends would get hurt. And I said, not taking my name off the discharge petition. "Because this crosses party lines. It crosses— As a matter of fact, it crosses all the lines when it comes down to victimizing some of the most innocent people in America. These were young girls that were teenagers that desperately wanted to be models one day. They wanted to be seen as beautiful. They wanted to be rich, they wanted to be famous. And, of course, every teenager wants things like that. And they were victimized by Ghislaine Maxwell and others. "They were victimized by the richest, most powerful men, not only in our country, but in the world. And they were used by Jeffrey Epstein as sexual tools for his own satisfaction and his friends' satisfaction to actually be asked by the President of the United States to back off and not help these women. That's when MAGA died. That's when the entire thing shattered for me."

New CNN Investigation: At least 16 American military sites have been damaged in Iranian strikes, making up the majority of US positions in the Middle East. From CNN's @tamaraqiblawi and the Investigations team.

U.S. officials say the Iran war's true cost is closer to $50 billion, double what the Pentagon revealed publicly on Wednesday. cbsn.ws/4uoVlJJ

The 2nd opinion is in Louisiana v. Callais, on race-based discrimination and the Voting Rights Act. A 6-3 court held that Louisiana's map creating a 2nd majority-black district was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander." Court didn't strike Section 2. supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf…