free stats

Published On: Tue, Dec 23rd, 2025

Amy Walter: What Is Animating Our Politics Right Now Is This Idea To Blow Up The System Or To Reassess The System


WILLIAM BRANGHAM, PBS NEWSHOUR: I want to pivot quickly to the Epstein files, the continued rollout. Friday was the deadline for the DOJ to drop all of these files. They clearly have not done that. Some have come out. Some have been redacted. Much of it’s redacted. Parts with Trump in them were put out and then retracted and then put out again. Steve Bannon once predicted that the GOP’s failure to adequately deal with Epstein would be electoral doom for the GOP. Do you think that this will matter to voters at all? AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: I think it is not as relevant to voters as many of those feared. But what I do think it really speaks to is the continuing challenge for both parties to deal with the fact that you have a public that is so cynical and so convinced that there are people in power who are pulling levers and getting away with all kinds of terrible stuff. It is what is animating our politics right now, is this idea that to have to blow up the system or to reassess the system is the only way forward. BRANGHAM: Do you think it’ll matter? TAMARA KEITH, NPR: I don’t know that this specifically will matter. I think what Amy is talking about with people feeling disenchanted with the establishment and people in power, that’s not going away. That traces back to a lot of things, including the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, where somehow the banks did fine, but real people lost their homes and lost their shirts.

RealClearPolitics Videos