Congressman Ro Khanna is back on the show this week! For Episode 249, we’ve brought him to KK&F for a conversation about the scandal around Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, what it means to take action as an elected in cases like the shutdown (and how to take the No Kings protests further in terms of raising political consciousness), and Khanna’s fight with Thomas Massie to get the Epstein files released. Watch below:

Ro explains to us how and why he’s taken on the massive task of bringing the Epstein files to light, something Republicans up to the highest levels of power — including Donald Trump, whose involvement in those files is clear — have worked both secretly and explicitly to prevent. Ro points out that the shutdown in Congress, which is preventing essential workers from being paid, has made sure that for a month, Mike Johnson has been able to prevent a vote on releasing the files. With Democrat Adelita Grijalva waiting to be sworn in (and suing for delay), Khanna and Massie will get the 218 signatures they need for a vote, and the vote will happen a week later.

The Republican Party establishment, in other words, is in crisis as party members scramble, in increasingly obvious ways, to cover up the involvement of the world’s most powerful people in child trafficking and sexual abuse. In fact, many of Trump’s own supporters in Congress will vote in favor of the bill, fractured as Trump’s MAGA base has become (both in terms of legislators and of the actual voting base) over the massive involvement with Epstein that the records show (and we haven’t seen everything). It’s also too late to meaningfully alter the files and let anybody get away; Ro points out that lawyers and survivors have seen the files and know the content in them, and that they’ll sound the alarm if Republicans tamper with the files.

It comes down to whether or not Republicans can run out the clock and continue to delay the seating of Democratic legislators, as they have tried to do and are trying to do now. Our conversation with Ro illustrates exactly what’s happening right now as he, Massie, and their supporters fight to make sure Trump and his lackeys can’t put the files out of sight and out of mind. We hope you’ll appreciate Ro’s insight into the inner workings of our legislative body as some of its members try to get justice for the survivors of Epstein’s crimes, and as they’re forced to go up against the president and his supporters in order to do so.

Thanks for listening to KK&F. You can listen to this episode as a podcast when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.