Who?
Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) — Member, Judiciary Committee
LISTEN: Laslo & Balint
Ask a Pol asks:
After pulling out all stops to try and quash the bipartisan effort to release the Epstein files, both President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson changed their tunes at the end and said they were fine releasing the files. Does that signal that your work isn’t done and GOP leaders have something up their sleeves, even after the House of Representatives approved the bill 427 to 1 before the Senate unanimously passed the measure President Trump signed into law earlier this week?
Key Balint:
“We’re very, very worried,” Rep. Becca Balint exclusively told Ask a Pol Politics. “If that f*cking happens to them, they’re going to be so devastated, because they feel like every single step of the way, they thought they were getting to action.
“And it was so moving and so powerful what these women had to say. And yeah, they’re worried they’re going to be dragged through all of this only to have it snatched at the last minute. Yes, that is my concern, that this is what [Speaker Mike] Johnson is sort of teeing up for, ‘Yeah, fine, we’ll do this because it’s not going to happen.’”
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*Discharge Petition explainer: The Speaker has godlike control of everything that happens in the US House of Representatives, but if more than half the members of the 435 person chamber — typically 218, though the number fluctuates based on vacant seats — sign off on a discharge petition, House rules mandate the measure come before the full chamber for debate and a vote.
Caught our ear:
“I was thinking as I was leaving this meeting with the survivors, that their story is the only thing that is going to continue to be the thing that gets action,” Balint says.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Becca Balint (11-18-2025)
SCENE: In an underground tunnel leading to the US Capitol ahead of a House vote, Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo catches Rep. Becca Balint who recounts the bipartisan meeting her and other congresswomen attended earlier in the day with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.
Matt Laslo: “What’d you make of — you probably didn’t catch it this morning…”
Becca Balint: “Yeah.”
ML: “…but Speaker Johnson, his remarks were interesting to the press, because…”
BB: “I’ve been in Judiciary [Committee], so tell me what he said.”
ML: “Was talking to [Rep. Jim] McGovern — 80%, 90% percent of what he said was ripping on Democrats.”
BB: “Okay.”
ML: “And I was like, ‘wait, I thought you were voting for this?’ And at the end he’s like, ‘yeah, I’m going to support it’ but it just made it seem like — and he said he’s talked to [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune — are you worried the work isn’t done after you guys pass this today?”
BB: “Very, very worried. We are very worried about that. And actually, I was in a group this morning that was meeting with survivors and…”
ML: “Yeah? They’re worried about that?”
BB: “If that f*cking happens to them, they’re going to be so devastated.”
ML: “Right?”
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BB: “Because they feel like every single step of the way, they thought they were getting to action. And it was so moving and so powerful what these women had to say, and yeah, they’re worried they’re going to be dragged through all of this only to have it snatched at the last minute. Yes. That is my concern — that this is what Johnson is sort of teeing up for, ‘Yeah, fine, we’ll do this because it’s not going to happen.’”
ML: “Cause Trump came out and now Trump’s in back of it. I started getting uneasy this weekend like, ‘oh, something’s up.’”
BB: “Yeah. That’s what I think.”
ML: “How do you combat that?”
BB: “I don’t — I don’t know. And I mean — I was thinking as I was leaving this meeting with the survivors, that their story is the only thing that is going to continue to be the thing that gets action.”
ML: “Yeah?”
BB: “And so we then have to turn our attention to the women of the Senate, and we had Republican and Democratic women in this meeting just now. We need to get to those women in the Senate to not let it die either.”
What should we ask Congress about next?
ML: “Oh, was that the meeting this morning?”
BB: “Yeah. It was at one.”
ML: “And that was bipartisan?”
BB: “Yeah.”
ML: “Oh, interesting.”
BB: “Yes, yes. And so it was initially going to be a meeting with the Democratic Women’s Caucus and the Republican Women’s Caucus, but then the timing didn’t work, so we just did it together.”
ML: “So interesting.”
BB: “Yeah.”
ML: “Is that a good sign, though, that off the screens there is bipartisan [support]?”
BB: “Yes, and I just hope that it can. As I said, I just think it has to come through to some action.”
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