Washington Today

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Washington Today episodes

July 21, 2025 Congress moves to wrap up its work before its August recess with the Epstein files an ongoing issue; President Trump touts six-months in office as polling shows his approval rating underwater
Congress is back in session this week with the House wrapping up its work before its August recess. On the agenda: legislation to increase financial oversight of the Veterans Affairs department, and votes on bills to increase penalties on people who reenter the U.S. after being deported, and to reform the Clean Water Act's permitting process. The Senate still has another work week before leaving for their annual break. On their agenda: confirmation votes for several executive nominations. Hanging over all
of this--the ongoing issue of the Jeffrey Epstein files. House Speaker Mike
Johnson says doesn’t have any plans to put a resolution on the floor that calls for the Trump administration to release Epstein files. Instead, he wants to give administration time to put out documents on its own. And yesterday was the six-month anniversary of the second Trump administration, and polls say Americans are giving the president mixed reviews. A new Decision Desk HQ poll shows the president's disapproval rating near its highest level since January. Meanwhile, a new CBS News poll shows Americans say they want the president to focus on consumer prices instead of raising tariffs. And the Washington Post’s polling average showing a clear downturn in the president's approval rating on immigration.

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36 min
July 19, 2025 Weekend Edition: Public Opinion on President Trump's Second Term, Jeffrey Epstein Files, and Reducing Size of the Federal Workforce
In this weekend's episode, three segments from this past week's Washington Journal. First, Cliff Young, president of Polling & Societal Trends for Ipsos, discusses public opinion shifts on President Trump's term so far. Then, a discussion about the Justice Department and FBI's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files with Tom Fitton - President of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch. Finally, Max Stier (STYE-urr) from the Partnership for Public Service discusses President Trump's renewed efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

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30 min
July 18, 2025 President Trump sues WSJ over article claiming he sent Jeffrey Epstein suggestive birthday letter; House GOP & Democrats clash over release of Epstein files
President Donald Trump sues Wall Street Journal after its latest article about the President & the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as the controversy continues at the White House and in Congress over whether and how to release files related to that case; House joins the Senate in passing a $9 billion rescissions package in a late night vote,
sending the bill to the president to be signed into law to cancel funds for foreign aid & public broadcasting; President Trump signs into law the first major bill regulating digital currency, on the subset of cryptocurrency called stablecoins; Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) flips her vote on an amendment on the relocation of the FBI headquarters, allowing for now the bureau to go to the Ronald Reagan building in DC instead of a site in Greenbelt, Maryland; Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz meets US Def Sec Israel Katz at the Pentagon; House pays tribute to the late former Congressman William Lacy "Bill" Clay, Sr., a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, who has died at age 94.

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49 min
July 17, 2025 Senate passes $9B rescissions bill, sends back to House; Senate Republicans block Democratic bill to release Jeffrey Epstein files
Senate passes the $9 billion rescissions bill, canceling foreign aid and money for public broadcasting, in a very early morning vote, sending the revised bill back to the House, which has until Friday to act on it or the money will be spent; Senate Democratic effort to force the Trump Admin to release all files related to the case of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is blocked by Republicans; Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans vote to approve Emil Bove for a federal appeals court judgeship on their own, after committee Democrats walk out in protest
saying they were not given enough time to debate what they say is a
controversial nominee; White House responds to recent photos of President Donald Trump showing swelling in his legs, saying he has diagnosed with the blood circulation condition called "chronic venous insufficiency", and of bruising on his hands, saying it is irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin” for his heart, and overall, the president is in excellent health; House passes three cryptocurrency bills, including one banning a central bank digital currency, after three days of intense negotiations between the Speaker and conservative Republicans. We will talk about it with Politico reporter Jasper Goodman (41); Attorney General Pam Bondi & Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visit Alcatraz in San Francisco after President Trump ordered it be reopened as a federal prison.

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58 min
July 16, 2025 President Trump says it's 'highly unlikely' he would fire Fed Chair Powell, criticizes his supporters as 'weaklings' falling for the Epstein 'hoax'
President Donald Trump says it is "highly unlikely" he will fire the Federal
Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after many media outlets reported he signaled he would after meeting privately with some House Republicans; President Trump criticizes Republicans who are calling for release of filing on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling the questions surrounding the suicide and a client list a "hoax", labeling the Republican "weaklings" who are doing "Democrats work", and saying he does not want their support anymore; Senate moves into the home stretch on the $9 billion rescissions bill that cuts foreign aid and public broadcasting money with a vote-a-rama, a long series of votes on amendments; President Trump signs a bill to toughen prison sentencing for trafficking the drug fentanyl; NYC Mayor Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani meets with U.S. House Democrats in Washington; former Chief of Staff to former President Jill
Biden, Anthony Bernal, pleads the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination at the U.S. House Oversight Committee's investigation of former President Joe Biden mental fitness while in office and his use of an autopen; Israel launches airstrikes at Syria's capital city Damascus; tonight is the annual Congressional Women's Softball Game for charity, pitting a bipartisan team of Members of Congress against a team of DC reporters.

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54 min
July 15, 2025 Senate GOP ahead of first $9B rescissions package procedural vote restores funding for PEPFAR, rural public broadcasting
Senate Republicans make changes to the rescissions bill to gain necessary Republican support ahead of the first procedural vote, restoring $400 million for PEPAR, the global anti-AIDS program and protecting funding for some rural public broadcasters; Inflation report from the Labor Dept – up 0.3% in June, an annual rate of 2.7%, highest since February and maybe a sign President Trump's tariffs are leading to increases prices; House Republicans vote down a Democratic motion to make public FBI files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after the Trump Admin stated
Epstein did not keep a client list and did commit suicide in prison, which some of the president's MAGA supporters are questioning, while President Trump tells reporters General Pam Bondi should release "whatever she thinks is credible" on Jeffrey Epstein; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations nominee Mike Waltz testifies before Senate Foreign Relations Committee about reforming the UN and on the Signal Chat controversy when he was National Security Adviser; NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte meets with Senators on Capitol Hill about supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia.

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54 min
July 14, 2025 President Trump threatens 100% secondary tariffs on Russia's trading partners unless there is a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine in 50 days
President Trump is upping the ante with Russia to end its war with Ukraine. He made two announcements today: First--100 percent tariffs on any country that trades with Russia, unless a cease-fire is reached within in 50 days. And second---a deal with NATO members to send weapons to Ukraine. This comes as a bipartisan Senate bill that puts sanctions on Moscow that its two lead sponsors say could be the sledgehammer the president needs to end the conflict. Also in the Senate, Republicans are focused on their bill to take back more than 9 billion dollars in federal funds--including for public broadcasting and foreign aid. This is the same bill House Republicans passed last month and the Senate has until Friday to approve it. But it's facing opposition from handful of Republicans and all Senate Democrats, who say any rescissions would hurt future bipartisan government funding talks.

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42 min
July 12, 2025 Weekend Edition: Medicaid Provisions in One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Tariff Deadline Extended, and Young Progressives in Public Office
In this weekend's episode, three segments from this past week's Washington Journal. First, a discussion about Medicaid provisions in the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," with Paragon Health Institute's Ryan Long and Center for Economic and Policy Research's Brandon Novick. Then, Politico trade reporter Daniel Desrochers discusses President Trump pushing off another tariff deadline… Finally, Run For Something co-founder & President Amanda Litman discusses her group's effort to help elect young progressives to public office.

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28 min
July 11, 2025 President Trump says, 'I've never seen anything like it," as he & First Lady survey deadly flood damage in Kerrville, TX
President Donald Trump & First Lady Melania Trump travel to Kerrville, Texas to see firsthand the damage from the catastrophic floods that killed at least 120 in the state's Hill Country, with another 170 still missing, meeting with first responders and local officials and promising help to recover and rebuild; federal judge in Maryland indicates she will issue an order to protect Kilmar Abrego Garcia from being quickly deported again if the federal government tries to if Abrego Garcia is released from custody in Tennessee while he is await trial on human trafficking charge; Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets China's Foreign Minister for the first time on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, discussing tariffs and Indo-Pacific security issues; Secretary Rubio also asked about President Trump's announcement that the U.S. will send Ukraine weapons through the NATO military alliance and NATO will pay for them; White House Budget Director Russell Vought promises to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's handling of renovations at the Federal
Reserve building in DC, which Vought calls a 'palace' with enormous cost
overruns. Longtime DC media pundit and presidential adviser David Gergen has died at age 83.

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53 min
July 10, 2025 Federal judge blocks birthright citizenship Exec Order by certifying class-action suit; Senate advances first judicial nomination of Pres. Trump's 2nd term; FBI HQ location fight upends Senate spending bill
Federal judge blocks President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship nationwide by certifying a class action lawsuit; Senate takes up the first judicial nomination of the second Trump Administration, passing a procedural vote for Whitney Hermandorfer to be a federal appeals court judge for the 6th Circuit; Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson tells a meeting of the Indianapolis Bar Assn the state of U.S. democracy is what keeps her up at night; Senate Appropriations Committee gets started on the first three FY2026 federal spending bills, even though there is no agreement between Republicans and Democrats on how much total spending there should be. One of those bills is put in limbo after a Democratic amendment passes to block President Donald Trump's decision to move the FBI HQ to the Reagan Int'l Trade Building in DC instead of a site in Greenbelt, Maryland that had been chosen after a long competition, and then Republicans withdraw support from the underlying spending bill; Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he had a 'frank conversation' with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and expressed the U.S.'s frustration over not making progress to end the war in Ukraine; Secretary Rubio also asked about reports that someone has been impersonating him in texts and calls using artificial intelligence, contacting
foreign ministers.

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52 min

About Washington Today

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Catch up on the biggest stories of the day from Washington with interviews and analysis from leading journalists. Posted weekdays at 6:30 pm ET. From C-SPAN, the network that brings you the "Q&A"…