Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss his decision to run for reelection, ending speculation that he would run for governor of New York. Rep. Lawler also responds to the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.

KRISTEN WELKER: All right, couple more here. I do want to turn to the House. It’s grounded to a halt over this Jeffrey Epstein matter, recess beginning early because the Rules Committee apparently didn’t want to consider motions on Epstein information, whether to release it. Are you concerned that rejecting these motions feeds into the conspiracy theories over Jeffrey Epstein, that you’ve actually come out against? REP. MIKE LAWLER: This has been my point from the beginning. I mean, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, so I don’t engage in a lot of this absurdity. The fact is, Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile. He was a human trafficker. His sidekick, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted and is serving jail time. He committed suicide. They were held to account. Any-as I have said repeatedly-anyone who was engaged in criminal activity as part of Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophilia and human trafficking should be prosecuted and should be held to account. The Biden DOJ had all of this information for four years. All of my Democratic colleagues who are now demanding every ounce of information be released, said nothing for exactly four years, and, in fact, dismissed many of the conspiracy theories from my vantage point. KRISTEN WELKER: The Trump administration has it now. Should they release all the files? REP. MIKE LAWLER: The President has asked for the grand jury transcripts to be released. KRISTEN WELKER: But all the files, all the files. And that’s now being held up in court REP. MIKE LAWLER: I believe, I believe that-yeah but here’s, but here’s the issue. You have victims of crime, you have photos and videos. You don’t want to release all of that that is outrageous, and no one who cares about and supports victims should ever be demanding any of that be released. If somebody committed a crime, if somebody committed an offense, they should be prosecuted for that offense. If there is evidence of that, sure. But this object, this objective by some of my colleagues, both on the right and the left, to just throw everything out into the general public without any recognition of the challenges here with respect to victims and privacy, is really just remarkable. And frankly, again, what you see is the political tit for tat on both sides. And frankly, it is why our country is in the mess that it’s in Congress, the idea that you have people- KRISTEN WELKER: Yeah, let me just ask you one more very quickly. Wall Street Journal is reporting the DOJ told President Trump in May that his name does, in fact, appear in the Epstein files. What is your reaction to that? And I understand your concern about releasing victims names. Should all of the files be released with that information redacted, for example? REP. MIKE LAWLER: Look, I don’t obviously, this report just came out. I don’t know about the validity of the report. What I can tell you is, obviously, when you’re talking about a case like this, there are going to be names in-you know that come up. I have no idea about the validity of what is being reported by the DOJ-or by The Wall Street Journal-with respect to the DOJ. If someone committed an offense, of course, they should be prosecuted. But in the absence of that, what is it that we’re seeking to establish that somebody’s name was mentioned? The Biden DOJ had all of this information. They indicted Donald Trump. They tried to prosecute Donald Trump. Does somebody honestly believe that they would not have tried to prosecute him under this if, in fact, he was somehow involved with Jeffrey Epstein? I mean, let’s be honest. Does anybody really believe that the Biden DOJ, while they were prosecuting Ghislaine Maxwell, would not have sought to prosecute Donald Trump if somehow he was affiliated with Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes?

RealClearPolitics Videos