Trump pulls support for lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene

Breaking up? Turns out, not so hard to do. President Trump has declared he is officially pulling his endorsement of MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia congresswoman has been demanding the release of the Epstein files, and has criticized the president for spending too much time abroad. The president, well, has apparently heard enough, posting on Truth Social overnight that all wacky Marjorie Taylor Greene does is complain, complain, complain. I think that her constituents aren't going to be happy. Already, I have people calling me, they want to challenge her to a race in her district in Georgia. And, you know, that's too bad. She's lost a wonderful, conservative reputation. But when she says, don't go overseas, if I didn't go overseas, we might be in a war right now with China. Meanwhile, President Trump is also upset with Congressman Thomas Massie, who also wants the Epstein files released. A Trump-aligned super PAC is spending $1 million on ads targeting the Kentucky Republican. Massie says his constituents understand his position. When they're protecting pedophiles, when they are blowing our budget, when they are starting wars overseas, I'm sorry, I can't go along with that. And back home, people agree with me. They understand, even the most ardent Trump supporters understand. And President Trump has now ordered the Justice Department to investigate companies and Democrats who he claims had dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. And Attorney General Pam Bondi was quick to oblige, appointing the U.S. attorney in Manhattan to handle that probe, even though four months ago, the DOJ determined nothing in the Epstein files warranted further investigation. This week, the president's name turned up repeatedly in just-released emails from the Epstein estate. What did Jeffrey Epstein mean in his emails when he said you knew about the girls? I know nothing about them. They would have announced that a long time ago. A lot of moving parts in this story. We get more now from CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Pettis. Good morning, Danny. Attorney General Pam Bondi says that federal prosecutors in New York are being tasked to launch yet another investigation of people associated with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. This new investigation comes after President Donald Trump said that he was asking Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to prominent Democrats. He named specific names, including former President Bill Clinton. It's yet an extraordinary turn in a political mess that has consumed this White House for months. And it comes just days after Democrats had released emails from the late Epstein estate that mentioned Trump many times. Trump announced the directive in social media that accusing the Democrats of trying to revive attention to his past ties with Epstein and contending that they are quote using the Epstein hoax involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try to deflect from their own disaster shutdown and all of their other failures. Bondi responded to the president's social media post by thanking the president and saying that she'd have U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan lead this new investigation. This is the same office that led the earlier investigations of Epstein and of Ghislaine Maxwell, who worked for Epstein and was convicted of charges that she aided in the trafficking of girls. We should note that the Justice Department this summer did an assessment of documents that's in their possession, and they determined that there were no additional defendants that could be charged with crimes associated with Epstein. And this new investigation also means, though, that Congress will likely have to wait much longer for any documents to be released because there's an effort right now gaining steam in the House to force the release of those documents. But during an ongoing investigation, the Justice Department generally doesn't release investigative files out of concern that it would harm any possible prosecutions. Danny. All right, Evan Bettis, thank you very much for that reporting. For more on this, let's discuss the Epstein case and where it all may be headed with Stephen Newcomb. He's a congressional reporter for Axios. Stephen, thanks so much for waking up early to talk about a lot of developing things that happened overnight. Let's start here. This breakup between President Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump calling Greene a lunatic. It's all about Epstein, of course. What do you make of this? Yeah, good morning. Thanks for having me. It certainly is about Epstein. But I actually think that the break between the president and Congresswoman Greene at this point is about more than just the Epstein files. I mean, if you go back to the middle of the shutdown, she was criticizing the president and Republicans for not having a plan to end the shutdown, for House Republicans not being in Washington, not having a health care plan to sort of counter what Democrats were proposing. So it's sort of all encompassing. But yeah, the breakup, it seems like this weekend has reached a new fever pitch. And Congresswoman Greene seems not to be in the good graces of President Trump anymore. No, and that's well said. It really does feel like it's been a slow burn, certainly over the course of the shutdown, as you noted. What's interesting, Stephen, is we've seen this pressure campaign, though, ramp up this past week against Republicans who are supportive of releasing the Epstein files. We think of Lauren Boebert, of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene. And Greene said in her tweet last night, quote, and of course he's coming after me. Hard to make another example to scare all the other Republicans before next week, next week's vote to release the Epstein files. He's coming after me hard. That's what she's saying. Forgive me there. I guess my question to you, Stephen, is do you think this will scare any Republicans who are thinking about voting to release the Epstein files? Do you think this will scare them off from that vote next week? It at least has not at this point. It did not scare them from taking their names off the signature list of the discharge petition, which they needed to sort of circumvent House Republican leadership and Speaker Mike Johnson to get this to the floor. So we'll have to see next week if there is any change in the posture. But at least when the president was sort of making these calls and in some cases even bringing Congresswoman Boebert to the White House last week, it did not get them to take their names off of that discharge petition. And now that Congresswoman Grijalva, who was sworn in last week, signed on to that petition, those signatures are frozen. There's nothing that the president or House Republican leadership can do to get them to take their names off or stop the vote from happening. So now you're sort of at the point where, yeah, you're trying to whip no votes from Republicans. And we'll have to see if the president and the speaker are able to get any more Republicans on their side. Last question for you, Stephen, on the Epstein story in particular. It seems like President Trump now going on the offense with this story telling the DOJ to investigate Epstein's ties to other high profile figures and Democrats. Isn't that just going to keep this subject in the news? Certainly. And I think you've even heard, you know, some reporting this week that there's Republicans who have told the president that he's getting bad advice on the Epstein sort of saga. And yeah, this is going to prolong it. I do think that, you know, it being an active investigation and not being able to release records because it's an active investigation is probably a feature and not above of this strategy. But, yeah, the pressure campaign is going to continue to go on. And even if it gets through the House and the House passes it, that pressure campaign is just going to move to the Senate to put pressure on Senate Republicans and particularly Senate Majority Leader John Thune to put that bill on the floor of the Senate if it ends up passing the House. All right. Well, before we go, I also want to make sure to ask you about health care and the shutdown. Meanwhile, the shutdown ending feeling like a million years ago. Now, Senate Democrats said they got Senate Republicans to promise a vote on health care on these Affordable Care Act credits. Are we going to see Democrats continue to put pressure on Republicans, though, to keep this promise? Well, certainly. And I think the first thing that they need to do is negotiate amongst each other about what that product looks like next month that they get a vote on on the Senate floor. We reported last night that those conversations will include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Ron Wyden, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, including some of the Democrats, the moderate Democrats that were involved in negotiations to reopen the government with Republican leaders earlier this month. So, you know, they need to put together a package that they can get support, not just from their entire caucus, but, you know, they need the 13, 14 Republican votes that it's going to take to pass this through the Senate in December. So they need to also start outreach to the Republican colleagues to see if this is something against all odds that they can get past the Senate. Certainly the Democratic base will be hoping for that vote to ultimately even come up again later next month. Stephen Newcomb of Axios, thank you so much for joining us this morning and breaking down a lot of moving parts. Appreciate you. Thanks.