CNN One Thing

This is One Thing, I'm David Rind and the Epstein files could be just the beginning.

I think a lot of them are like, I've got to do what I think is right, because in 2026 and 2028, Donald Trump's not going to save us.

'Marjorie Taylor-Green and a MAGA pushback right after this. Stick around. Alex Stone is a conservative podcast host from Missouri. He's part of what you might call mega media. I spoke to him a few months ago after Charlie Kirk was murdered.

I'm hopeful more and more people will come together in determined prayer and determined patriotism for the future of this country.

'It's fair to say his hope for more unity in the country has not materialized since then. Even his own party has shown some signs of splintering. You've got Tucker Carlson's interview with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the revolt against President Donald Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein files, what some see as Trump's focus on foreign affairs over affordability for Americans, and suddenly, MAGA seems a bit divided. Case in point, just look at what's happening with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor-Green.

I think that the American people deserve to be put first. That's what Make America Great Again meant to me. And I think President Trump can do that if he refocuses his effort. And I want to see, I think, that's what the country wants to see.

Green has started speaking out against the president on some key issues. She says threats have been made against her as a result.

Her life is in danger. Who's that?

Marjorie Taylor Greene, she says.

Marjorie Trator Green. I don't think her life is in danger. I don't think, frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her.

Greene has been a rising star in Mega World ever since she was first elected to Congress in 2020, and Trump has been right by her side, even as she supported nonsense conspiracy theories like QAnon, which she has since disavowed, and he didn't pull the support even as CNN reporting revealed a deep history of inflammatory online comments which she blamed on the staffers running her Facebook pages.

Comments like, quote, the stage is being set, players are being put in place. We must be patient. That comment responding to a comment about hanging former President Obama.

So as someone who had once seen Green as a reliable voice within the MAGA movement, I wondered what Alex Stone thought of all this. He sent me a voice note.

I give kudos to her for pressing for the Epstein files to be released. I think that's a good thing and good for her for standing strong on that. But I think she has totally gone insane for flipping on President Trump. For no real reason at all. President Trump has supported her. She has supported President Trump and it's been for a long time. And so this is something that is random out of the blue. I think her... A statement recently on apologizing for playing into the political rhetoric. I think it's just another ploy.

Like Alex said, Green's break with Trump isn't just limited to policy. She went on CNN this past Sunday to do something Trump almost never does, apologize.

I'm only responsible for myself and my own words and actions and I am going, I am committed and I've been working on this a lot lately to put down the knives in politics. I really just want to see people be kind to one another and we need to figure out new path forward that is focused on the American people because

'But what exactly is she apologizing for? And is this really about bringing people together or plotting a post-Trump political future?

She makes the libs uncomfortable and says things that people don't like. I like that about her. That's what we were hearing when she first ran for office. And I do think that benefit her, her appearing to be very much like a Georgia female version of Donald Trump.

'This is Tia Mitchell. She's the Washington bureau chief for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She's covered Marjorie Taylor Greene going all the way back to the early days of her first congressional campaign in 2019.

At the time, voters perceived her as someone who was going to stand up for conservative values. She was pretty hard right from the beginning, and she had a very contested, crowded primary, and she more mainstream Republicans that she was running against. And I remember that those mainstream Republicans, their slogan was saying, I'm just as conservative as Marjorie Taylor Greene. But I'm not so problematic. I don't have so much baggage. They were saying I can be Trump loving conservative without the problems.

Because this country was never, ever meant to be a socialist nation, so I can tell you right now I'll fight harder than anyone and I'll be holding Nancy Pelosi accountable and not allowing her to do anything to change our country.

And that message did not resonate with voters. The voters went with Marjorie Taylor Greene very much in the way that we saw voters aligning themselves with Donald Trump, where his outspokenness, even when it's perceived as not always artful or people would say, I don't agree with everything Donald Trump says, but I like that he's willing to say the thing.

I never, ever want to have her as my enemy. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

I like that he's willing to step on toes as he defends my rights and goes after people and he makes people uncomfortable. It was in that very same vein that Marjorie Taylor Greene got elected.

So in the last few weeks, we've seen this shift where she has not been afraid to speak out against President Trump, even as she says, she still supports him and his administration. She's also going so far as to apologize for taking part in what she calls toxic politics. So where did this come from?

So it's two things. On one hand, she has been very consistent in her politics. She's been very consisted in saying, this is where I come from, this is what I believe, this is why I believe it. And so I've been saying for months that if you understand where she's coming from, which is it's under the umbrella of white Christian nationalism, well, she doesn't necessarily call it that, but as someone who studies politics, that's what I would call it. But when you understand that... America First, MAGA, white Christian nationalism is all about, you know, traditional Christian values, centering, protecting women and children, centring, focusing on domestic issues in a way that upholds traditional Christian values, then everything she said has been pretty consistent on that.

Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files, and that is shocking.

Releasing the Epstein files is about protecting women and girls from a sexual predator.

I believe the country deserves transparency in these files and I don't believe that rich powerful people should be protected if they have done anything wrong.

Opposing support for Israel, particularly when it comes to the conflict in Gaza, is all about, again, focusing on domestic policy, not focusing on providing American resources to a foreign government.

'And I can disagree with the president at times, especially particularly this past Monday on the Marines 250th anniversary when he honored the new Syrian president who is an al-Qaeda terrorist and was wanted by our government for years with a $10 million bounty.

Those are just two examples. And so I don't necessarily think she shifted there. She's just been consistent in where she's coming from, but because Donald Trump has shifted and most Republicans, because they want to remain aligned with Donald Trump, shift with him, she looks like she shifted when really she just stayed consistent because we all know that Republicans have been talking for years about releasing the Epstein files. They didn't shift on it until Donald Trump. In his most recent return to the White House, you know, encouraged them to shift and move away from it, for example. Where there is a real shift is on her saying she regrets being the boogeyman. She regrets feeding into what she calls the toxic politics.

I have something in my heart that I think is incredibly important for our country, and that is to end the toxic fighting in politics. And this has been going on for years, and it has divided our country. Split up friends and families.

'That to me is a place of real shift because when she first came to Congress, she kind of leaned into her villain role. She did not apologize for confronting David Hogg when he was a teenage gun control activist. She didn't apologize to her Democratic colleagues who she had negative interactions with or arguments with or put up anti-trans signs outside of her office. To offset the trans rights signs of a Democratic colleague. She never apologized for those things, but now she's saying she regrets it.

Congresswoman, you posted on X that President Trump is, with his comments, fueling a, quote, hotbed of threats against you. Obviously, any threats to your safety are completely unacceptable. But we have seen these kinds of attacks or criticism from the president at other people. It's not new. And with respect, I haven't heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you.

Dana, I think that's fair criticism, and I would like to say humbly, I'm sorry for taking part in the toxic politics. It's very bad for our country, and it's been something I've thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

It is a shift, and I do think it's notable, in that it appears that she wants to appeal to a broader mass of American voters. And I do thinks she believes that she can't do that if she continues to be the boogeyman that she allowed herself to be made out to be.

Gotta take a quick break, but when we come back, how will Greene's apology go down with the voting public? Stick around.

She is trying to widen her appeal to more folks, make it a little more palatable. Our voters who aren't hardcore mega folks in with Trump since day one, going to be able to look past those hateful things that she might've put forward or said or done. I mean, even in this interview with Dana Bash the other day on CNN. She defended Tucker Carlson's interview with the white nationalist, Nick Fuentes. Like that stuff doesn't just get wiped away for apologizing for taking part in politics, right?

Yeah, and I think that's what's going to be tough for Marjorie Taylor Greene should she Attempt to run statewide in Georgia or run nationally because she still said these things It's going, to be, tough for you know a lot of democrats and probably a lot Of independent voters who are you know? Swing voters willing to support a republican but maybe not willing to Support a republican who does it out and out condemn Giving a platform to nick fuentes for example She has apologized for kind of being combative in contributing to the toxicity, but she hasn't apologized specifically for some of the more problematic things she said. Some she has. She has evolved in some ways, but in other ways, she has not addressed it.

So just to put a button on this, you regret the things that you have said and posted in the past, the Facebook post that was taken down of you in 2020, holding a gun alongside the squad, encouraging people to go on the offense against the socialists, liking a tweet of somebody calling for the execution of Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama. Just examples.

Well, Dana, as you know, and many people know, I addressed that back in 2021. And of course, I never want to cause any harm or anything bad for anyone. So that was addressed back then, and I very much stand by my words. I said then, and I stand by words today. I think America needs to come together and end all the toxic, dangerous rhetoric and divide. And I'm leading the way with my own example, and I hope that President Trump can do the same.

And so I do think there will be challenges for her. I think that's why there's so much speculation at exactly what she's aiming to do next. There's a lot of speculation as to whether she is looking for a platform similar to The View or Fox News or the podcast sphere that for all the talk about far right podcasting other than Laura Loomer, who her and Marjorie Taylor Greene hate each other. There aren't many prominent female voices. If nothing else, she wants to remain in Congress. I know there's a lot of speculation as to what she might do in the future. She has ruled out running for Senate or governor in 2026, but could she?

She claimed Trump did not interfere or influence that decision in any way for what it's worth.

'She claims that, but the question is, do rank-and-file voters feel the need to choose? And I don't know if they will, because at the end of the day, we don't expect Donald Trump to be on the ballot. Even if he finds a way to remain politically present, that doesn't mean they have to literally look at both names on the ballots or feel like there's a choice between the Voters can say, you know, I love Donald Trump and I love Marjorie Taylor Greene too. Thomas Massey is a great example of that because he's kind of been going through these Trump attacks for a couple of years before Marjori Taylor Greane and has still managed to remain pretty popular back in his district in Kentucky. So I feel like there's a way for her to do it but I think some of it depends also on what she decides to do with this new platform. Because we see a lot of Republicans say, yeah, we do want Marjorie Taylor Greene on the view because people are listening to her Again her politics if you listen to her on the viewer any other, you know, she just did CNN's She still is very conservative very hard. Right in what she's saying. It might be a little bit more Palatable, but it's still very conservative politics And so I think there are a lotof mega Republicans who like the fact that she's found a way to give herself a bigger platform to share what she thinks and why.

'Yeah, I mean, that's what I was wondering, if you say that she's been consistent in her very conservative views at this point, is this kind of about setting up a post-Trump future and what that looks like? Because we've seen some cracks elsewhere in MAGA media, this uproar over the H-1B visas and Trump's comments to Laura Ingraham, the affordability issue, all the Epstein drama back and forth. We saw the right-wing podcaster Tim Dillon call it the beginning of the lame duck presidency. Like, I don't know if that's, is that overblown or like, how do you see that?

I find it as there are MAGA Republicans who have said, this is what I believe. And if what I believed isn't necessarily directly in line with what Donald Trump believes, I'm gonna still stick with what I belief. I'm not gonna criticize Donald Trump, I'm going to call him names, I'm just going to be willing to disagree with him. That makes them outliers in the Republican Party, particularly among members of Congress. And I think in doing so, they both took the risk of saying, what if by choosing to publicly disagree with Donald Trump, the people stay with me? Looking on Epstein, they split with him. Only four congressional Republicans signed that discharge petition. And then, you know, Boebert and Mace even got heavily lobbied to take their name off. Still stood strong. And two days later, it wasn't them who caved, it was Trump who caged and had to come to their side and say, you know what, Republicans should vote for it. It's because he realized that they were gonna prevail. They won, Trump lost. And again, I really don't think on the issues, they're like, we want to cause Trump to lose. I don't that's their motivation. I think their motivation is, here's where I am. And if I disagree with Trump, so be it. But on the Epstein files, they won on the issue. And then I think there could be other examples to come. Again, on the meetings Trump is having with foreign leaders and how, again, that is not America first. There are people who are willing to split with him and they could end up right. You know what I mean? Especially, again this really isn't about Trump for them. I think a lot of them are like, I've got to do what I think is right. Because in 2026 and 2028, Donald Trump's not going to save us. So I have to do what I think is best for my own political fortunes. And I think these are the calculations Marjorie Taylor Greene is making.

See you. Thanks so much for doing this. Really appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

On Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would compel the Department of Justice to release the full Epstein files. Just one single Republican voted against it. And just before the vote, standing alongside a group of Epstein abuse survivors, Marjorie Taylor Greene defended her decision to speak out against President Trump.

Watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart. And the only thing that will speak to the powerful courageous women behind me is when action is actually taken to release these files and the American people won't tolerate any other bullshit. That's where we are today.

That's it for us today, we're back on Sunday. In the meantime, if you like the show, leave us a rating and a review wherever you listen. We love hearing from you and I'll talk to you later.