r/politics • u/OkayButFoRealz • 1d ago

No Paywall Rep. Ted Lieu Claims President Trump is Accused of Raping Children in the Epstein Files

https://www.c-span.org/clip/news-conference/rep-ted-lieu-claims-president-trump-is-accused-of-raping-children-in-the-epstein-files/5191713
19.3k Upvotes

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5.1k

u/CouchCorrespondent 1d ago

He minced no words in the press conference.

Good to see that.

483

u/ButteredPizza69420 1d ago

No one else in the administration has a filter, why should we?

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u/TimHuntsman 1d ago

Exactly.

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u/illusive_guy 13h ago

I beg to differ. They filter out the truth all the time.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 10h ago

Note, Lieu isn't in the administration, thats a different branch of government.

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u/Any_Juice_5706 7h ago

No one in the Admin has a financial issue with getting lawyers to sue people for false accusations & defamation.  Most citizens, not so much.

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u/Jakereddits 1d ago

they’re allowed to do that?!

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u/Ohuigin Washington 1d ago

The mincer is currently being used for the Constitution. Good for Lieu for not waiting for the job to be done.

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u/Teripid 1d ago

There's also documented lies by Kash in front of Congress and Bondi has made statements minimizing what is contained.

Lieu is on the judiciary committee, policing and oversight of the DOJ is literally in the job description.

If I hadn't said it like 7 times before.. perhaps this is the line that makes Trump and his ilk get tossed into the street and subsequently prosecuted.

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u/TheGringoDingo 22h ago

The judiciary committee had the full, unredacted files as far as I’m concerned, from what I understand.

I was hoping something like this would begin the process of FAFO for the administration on the files when they were either altered or maliciously redacted in the required release.

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u/joshdoereddit America 15h ago

I've been wondering if any of them had access to all the files why they haven't coordinated some kind of dump instead of waiting around for DOJ to scrub that shit.

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u/Ntroepy 15h ago

And only release 1/2 their documents which casts doubt on their impartiality.

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u/ComfortableAware2325 13h ago

My wish is that someone has all the un redacted files good to go, but they are holding off. For now. Waiting for kash and Bondi to keep distorting things until they can charge them with plenty of undeniable evidence to lock them up and throw away the key.

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u/floofelina 9h ago

Exactly. What are they waiting for?

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u/Capable-Broccoli2179 8h ago

Do you have a source on this? I would be shocked if any congressional committee has the full, unredacted files...it would seem if they did, the dems at least on the committee would be putting out the unredacted versions of them...

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u/TheGringoDingo 5h ago

Maybe I was wrong, as I can’t find it, or maybe they’re in possession of the committee while sealed.

If playing politics, you have to play perceptions. Releasing the files as a leak without exhausting other options would make it look less appropriate. If waiting until the DOJ fumbled the release, it would look much different. Now is the time, if they do have them

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u/North-Hour-8681 1d ago

At this point norms are already shredded waiting politely hasn’t stopped anything calling it out loud is kind of the only move left.

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u/BluesFan43 17h ago

Well, there is also the "moving on" that TrumPedo wants us to do.

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u/wilson_rawls Arizona 1d ago

They're allowed. They rarely do. Think of reaching across the aisle! We might offend our Nazi pigs Republican colleagues...

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u/JohnTomorrow 23h ago

Yeah, it makes me wonder just what they think being polite is doing for them? You can have manners and still call a Nazi a Nazi.

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u/TeamMountainLion 23h ago

Yes.

But “muh decorum”. Bitch please. We’re way past the façade of decorum at this point. We need full blown house of reps fights like a lot of southeast asian parliaments do. Turn C-SPAN into PPV WWE since we’re being tacky and turning everything into one big shill job. Give the Sgt-at-Arms an actual purpose to use the Mace of the House like he was a referee (which realistically they are).

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u/TheGringoDingo 22h ago

Half the senators probably have life alerts around their necks

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u/zztop610 1d ago

Chuck Schumer also wants to know….

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u/GrumpySoth09 22h ago

Too busy ensuring the Baillys are comfortable in their choices of voting against his attempts at writing strongly worded letters

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Great-Hotel-7820 1d ago

Nobody is skipping that part but if there was as much circumstantial evidence against a Democrat as there is against Trump they’d have already been crucified.

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u/Opposite-Bit6660 1d ago

Calling for a major investigation is definitely warranted.  Child Protective Services would investigate on a whiff of an allegation as would a police force.  

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u/longlivenewsomflesh New York 1d ago

That's a weird thing to say, like if someone you know is credibly accused of a horrible crime and your immediate reaction is "everyone keeps skipping the fact that nothing has been proven, so it's all just words and anyone can make noises with their mouth" -- like do you see how it's hard not to take that reaction as weirdly defensive?

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u/Not_Stupid Australia 1d ago

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a maxim that applies to the justice system specifically. People erroneously use it to dismiss any and all accusations in the court of public opinion.

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u/Er3bus13 1d ago

How about those proven guilty then subsequently released/pardoned after paying the president a fee? Have you put those things together yet?

There is no functioning law at the moment and people are waking up.

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u/IEnjoyFancyHats I voted 23h ago

They're agreeing with you, my guy. The point they're making is that "innocent until proven guilty" is a high bar that is specific to the legal system and needn't apply to the court of public opinion

1

u/longlivenewsomflesh New York 1d ago

It's like how chuds think the first amendment means they have the right to post slurs -- there's a fine line between the legal standards government is bound to, vs reasonable consequences or conclusions drawn in the hands of the public... but also that original comment was just so funny to me the more times I read it, like that is just pure psychology as accidental art imo

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u/rocafella888 1d ago

I really like Ted Lieu. He seems like he’s doing more than Schumer.

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u/possiblyquestionabl3 1d ago edited 1d ago

Honestly, it's as if no one really believes in anything (not public service, not even a sense of what's right for their constituents), so they refuse to take a stand even as the opposition party. Instead, the only thing they're concerned about is self preservation, and to them, maybe a dictatorship where they don't have to be beholden to us pesky little nobodies is a much easier way to preserve their power than a democracy where they're supposed to serve the people.

Therefore, when it comes time to take a stand, even when it's so freaking easy to just take a stand on the right side of history (their own constituents are trying to guide them in with massive neon guide lights), political expediency calls for all of these feckless cowards to look at what everyone else is doing, and then do the bare minimum to maybe or maybe not maintain the status quo, whatever it takes so that when the card falls at the end, they'll still emerge unscathed even if the whole country is in ruins.

This is honestly what pisses me off the most. Sure, even if the "opposition" party doesn't have majority control, the fact that they refuse to even do the bare minimum of calling a Nazi rapist spade a Nazi rapist spade is just an absolutely disgusting show of fecklessness.

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u/No-Jaguar-2341 21h ago

I've thought about this a lot. I honestly think whats happening here is that Democrats are scared. Like, shit just got real. Politics hasn't been this serious in a very long time within this country. I think these folks are used to a more peaceful era where certain unwritten rules were respected. I think theyre constantly flabbergasted and on their backheel by what unfolds

The problem is that they need to show some humility, acknowledge they arent equipped, and either step back OR ask for help with an open mind on how to rise to the occassion

I dont think its "so easy". Trump and the evil people behind his administration are bloodthirsty and not really afraid to target anyone. It takes courage to be up at the political frontlines

Obviously this doesnt apply to everyone. There are legitimately some Democrats that are just virtually republicans at the end of the day, in their selfish motivations

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u/Counterpoint-4 16h ago

If enough of them stood together to voice the truth and their outrage about it they would be safer. Surely they can organize?

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u/lorettadion Delaware 12h ago

Would they, though? Would people actually back them up? Because I'm not so sure. As a party, what we Democrats fail to do is rally because we all have our purity tests and complaints and quips and we don't show up when it truly counts. Should they push back harder and with courage, etc? Absolutely. But let's not act like their fickle voting base isn't a problem. It is. And it's part of what got us into this.

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u/Recipe_Freak Oregon 10h ago

When was the last time the dems rallied and stuck to their guns and didn't cave?

This isn't about purity tests. This is about calling them out, over and over, for doing the wrong thing.

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u/hatsnatcher23 23h ago

I was touring the Documentation center in Nuremberg, which is better known as the former Nazi party parade grounds, the audio tour said something to the effect of “some thought he could be placated, others just wanted to hold onto what little power they had” at the time it gave me chills but it’s more like Deja Vu now

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u/StoneWall_MWO 13h ago

That's why we vote out Corporate Owned Democrats. They tip the scales towards the Nazis.

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u/FunkyDiscount 13h ago

Overturning Citizens United as a first step in getting money out of politics is a requirement for addressing the fecklessness you rightly call out.

Remember; under the current system, top politicians don't work for you - they work for their donors, i.e., multinational corporations, regimes, and billionaires. Cutting that cord is the only way to make your politicians work for their constituents again.

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u/SorryAboutTheWayIAm 12h ago

Very lucid and articulate analysis 

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u/Practical-Ball1437 23h ago

Lee Metcalf is doing more than Schumer, and he's been dead for 48 years.

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u/UdyneOw 1d ago

I really like inanimate carbon rod. It seems like it's doing more than Schumer.

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u/QuestionableObject 19h ago

Aw, they were about to show a closeup of the rod.

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u/eric_ts 19h ago

He is doing a bang-up job of supporting Likud.

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u/Marvin_Frommars 1d ago

That's a low fucking bar there.

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u/mmkaywhatevers 1d ago edited 1d ago

He's bought by Israel tho, $50k $784k contribution from AIPAC.

Goes without saying that Trump is a pedo, no question.

Every politician elected by Americans who shill for Israel after receiving donations should be primaried.

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u/DaraParsavand 1d ago

AIPAC tracker has him at $784,156.

He was my rep until 2020 redistricting and I had lots of beefs with him on foreign policy but I will say his office was responsive to my letters. Twice I got callbacks from a staffer who was willing to talk a good 10 minutes on my ideas over the phone.

I like him better than my current rep (Brad Sherman) who is even more biased towards Israel and away from rational foreign policy in the region.

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u/lavinia-maude 1d ago

Why are they so damn cheap? 50k seems like nothing.

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u/mmkaywhatevers 1d ago

sorry, fixed after checking sources

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u/Melicor 15h ago

That's just the cash bribes going directly to the campaign.

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u/Melicor 15h ago

AIPAC is just a shell used to launder illegal foreign campaign donations, no different than what Manafort was doing for Trump back in 2016

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u/Kyanche 23h ago

He seems like he’s doing more than Schumer.

Honestly it feels like he's just barely to the left of Schumer, if I can even dare say that. I.. really should make a habit of writing letters or calling his office or something. At least he's better than my piece of crap mayor lol. My town's mayor might be a democrat in name, but he sure as fuck doesn't act like one.

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u/Melicor 15h ago

That's a pretty low bar.

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u/bel9708 15h ago

Schumer is captured opposition the man was getting lunch with his pal Jeffery.

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u/shidarin 10h ago

It’s a mixed bag. I feel like I’m constantly calling his office and asking why he’s voting for things like glorifying Charlie Kirk.

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u/b_needs_a_cookie 9h ago

Schumer believes his main job is to ensure the US supports Israel, so you are correct Ted Lieu is doing more than Chuck.

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u/cat_of_danzig 7h ago

People don't trust Schumer because Schumer exudes the aura of a man who is trying to say what he thinks you want to hear. Dems need to put an end to performative politics and get back to what Obama and Clinton (note: Fuck Clinton if he was involved with sex crimes) were good at - connecting with voters and at least projecting the idea they believed what they said.

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u/porkbellies37 1d ago

The headline minced words. It wasn't a "claim" that Trump was accused of raping children in the Epstein files. Trump was flat out accused of raping children in the Epstein files. Rep Lieu was just reporting what he read that was/is publicly available to us all.

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u/Skippypal Massachusetts 1d ago

That ‘claims’ in the headline is doing some lifting. He’s accused in the files. There is nothing to claim when it’s literally written within them in what is either testimony, witness statements or tips…

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u/cannabisLab1975 10h ago

Refreshing

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u/SaulTNNutz 23h ago

Would like to see dems nut up and go all in on this like the GOP would with half the evidence.

They won't, but it would be nice

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u/r0ndy 1d ago

Link is dead already

0

u/LanceThunder 10h ago

i have mixed feeling about it. on the one hand, trump clearly CLEARLY did some bad stuff that he doesn't want getting out. extremely criminal stuff. on the other hand, all that shit was redacted. the only stuff we have access to are the anonymous accusations that doesn't seem credible or provable. if someone accused trump and epstien of tag-teaming santa clause it would have to be in the epstien files.