Is there a good personal injury lawyer in the house? Because anyone listening to Maria Cardona this morning might have suffered a bad case of whiplash.
In a neck-straining nanosecond on CNN This Morning, Cardona, a Democrat strategist who doubles as a CNN commentator, went from piously proclaiming that the Epstein matter "should be about the survivors, this shouldn't be political," and then straight to trying to pin all the blame on the Republicans.
After saying that "the problem has become political not because of Democrats," Cardona proceeded to parrot the Democrat talking point that President Trump could have already released the files without the need for congressional action. Host Audie Cornish pitched in to second Cardona's notion: "Right: it's within his power."
But Cornish and Cardona conveniently ignored the PSA put out by Epstein victims that the show aired just moments before. In addition to statements by several Epstein victims, the PSA displayed a screen with the stark message: "Five Administrations and We're Still in the Dark."
In other words, the entirety of the files has not been released over the course of five presidential administrations. The Trump administration has, in fact, already released tens of thousands of pages of Epstein files. That's tens of thousands more than President Biden released -- he didn't release any files. No one in the pro-Biden media expressed any alarm. It was within Biden's power too, Audie!
Note: Although presidents have the ability to declassify as necessary and release files from federal agencies, they don't have the power to release grand jury testimony or files from criminal investigations.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
11/18/25
6:08 am ETAUDIE CORNISH: The vote in the House today caps four months of political fighting on Capitol hill. But Epstein's accusers say their fight for justice has been going on for years. They just aired this PSA calling for the full release of the files.
VICTIM #1: I was 14 years old.
VICTIM #2: I was 16 years old.
VICTIM #3: 16.
VICTIM #4: 17
VICTIM #5: 14 years old.
VARIOUS VICTIMS HOLDING UP PHOTOS: This is me. This was me. This is me.
VICTIM: When I met Jeffrey Epstein.
VOICEOVER: It's time to bring the secrets out of the shadows. It's time to shine a light into the darkness. [Screen displays "Five Administrations]
CORNISH: You know, one person who's been leading the charge on this in the House, of course, Thomas Massie, Republican. And here was his reaction to this shift by the president, who went from actively lobbying against this discharge petition to saying, OK, fine, I'd sign it if it came to my desk.
THOMAS MASSIE: The Speaker, the Attorney General, the FBI director, the President and the Vice President could have saved us all this time and embarrassment, frankly, for our own party if they'd just done the right thing four months ago.
CORNISH: Rob, I wanted to ask you about this, because as much as Democrats have gleefully jumped onto it, he has held firm. And the four Republicans who looked Trump's folks in the eye and says, we don't care, we want this vote, it seemed like a sign of weakness on this particular topic. What's your response to his
idea that he's like, look, it didn't even have to go down this way.ROB BLUEY: Yeah, I agree. And I think President Trump also realized what a huge distraction it was becoming to the other issues that he wants to focus on right now, namely the fact that he has this massive piece of legislation that passed over the summer, and they haven't really done an effective job of communicating that well to the American people, as you can see in the results of the recent elections.
And so President Trump, I think, recognizes that he was going to lose this vote. There was pressure building in the Senate for the Senate to take action on it. They obviously need 60 votes there. And so why stand in the way?
Now, I think it's a move that, yes, I agree with Massie. He should have made months ago. He talked about this administration being the most transparent in history. Having the release of the Epstein files would go help him make that claim.
CORNISH: Maria, is this a Pyrrhic victory? I mean, Democrats have the Epstein files, but no health care subsidies, and they're infighting about the government shutdown.
MARIA CARDONA: I mean, look, I think the bottom line is that this should be about the survivors. This shouldn't be political. I completely agree with Garrett and everyone who's been talking about how we can't lose sight of that. But the problem, it has become political not because of Democrats. This is not a Democrat hoax. This has become political because Republicans made it an issue during their campaign. During the 2024 campaign, they ran on it. And they said, let's remember, Pam Bondi said, it's on my desk. I'm about to release it, right?
Now, the reason why I think that Donald Trump's kind of faking is the fact that he wants this out is because he could put it out now if he wanted to. Why wait for this vote that will be incredibly embarrassing to him, when massive numbers of Republicans are going to vote for it, when we know that this is not something that he wants out there?
If he really wanted it out there, he could have done it four months ago --
CORNISH: Right. It's within his power.
CARDONA: -- and he could do it right now.
CORNISH: Well, there's still going to be a vote, so let's look forward to the many speeches to come.
