In this episode of The Parnas Perspective, Aaron Parnas reports on a petition that reached 218 signatures to force a House vote on a revised Epstein Files Transparency Act, which he says could expose the Justice Department to lawsuits and penalties for withholding records. He then interviews two incoming Democratic members of Congress, Johnny Garcia of Texas and Richard Pan of California.
Garcia discusses his election win, his focus on costs and immigration, and his views on accountability. Pan outlines priorities including health care, rolling back recent cuts and oversight of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while acknowledging that a Republican president may veto much of the agenda.
In this episode Aaron Parnas, Johnny Garcia, Richard Pan
This transcript of Aaron Parnas's interview on the Epstein files vote was made with the technology behind HappyScribe's AI meeting minutes.
Ads in this audio differ from the text. Tap the sentence you're hearing to follow along.
Synced: the text now follows the audio.
Breaking news at this hour: it is judgment day for Attorney General Todd Blanche. Attorney General Todd Blanche will soon have to pay the piper, why? There are now enough signatures on the Epstein Files Transparency Act 2.0 to force a vote. A vote that is almost certain to pass the House of Representatives, almost certain to pass the United States Senate, and will head to the desk of the President of the United States. This is a story I have been on for more than a year and a half now. It is a story I will never, ever let go until the survivors get justice and accountability.
Some say I talk about Epstein too much. I say we don't talk about it enough. So if you can subscribe to support this work, we've gotten immense threats for even talking about Epstein-related matters. Your subscriptions help fuel our work. Like, comment, share, and let me tell you what just happened. Because just moments ago, Thomas Massey has announced that a petition to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act 2.0 has been signed by more members of Congress, reaching 218 signatures.
The requisite amount to ensure that it will get a vote on the House floor within a matter of days. It'll be quick. It'll be easy. Let's talk about what this does. First, it creates an expedited right of action. State Attorneys General, authorized state officials, survivors, members of Congress would have the standing to sue the United States Attorney General in federal court for unlawfully withholding, delaying, or heavily redacting Epstein-related records. It would protect survivor access. Survivors would be guaranteed the right to access unredacted records about themselves and the harms they suffered.
I've spoken to numerous survivors who have not been able to get their own unredacted FBI 302 interview notes. It would eliminate evasions. The Department of Justice would be barred from invoking common law privileges, such as the deliberative process privilege, to avoid the disclosure of documents required by Congress. And then finally, it would enforce accountability. Federal officials who knowingly conceal, destroy, or improperly withhold mandated files would be subject to federal penalties.
That is significant. That is significant. And at this hour, based on what I understand from folks behind the scenes, those inside the White House are becoming increasingly unnerved of the momentum on Capitol Hill around this legislation. Now, even if it's delayed a few months, it will pass in a Democratic-controlled Congress next year, which puts the blame right on Todd Blanche, the spotlight right on the White House. They do not want this across the finish line. They have been trying hard, and yet Republicans broke.
Republicans broke and made it a reality. This is significant news right now, in this moment. I spoke with two incoming members of Congress today that I want you to hear from. The first, the first is a congressman elect from Texas's 35th Congressional District. Take a listen to what he told me today.
Thanks for being here today with Congressman-elect Johnny Garcia from Texas's 35th Congressional District. How does it feel to have broken through the Republican gerrymander in the state of Texas?
It feels liberating, and I can't even imagine what it feels like for the people. When we declared victory on November 3rd, which seems like just a couple of days ago, we were seeing people cry, you know, because we got to see a monumental shift in Texas that hadn't happened in over 30 years. I'm 39 years old. I still remember the twilight days of what it was like to have Governor Ann Richards lead the state of Texas. The days after winning that election, I also got to speak to former President Bill Clinton and just talk about just what it was like to have power, to have blue areas of Texas now being represented once again by Democrats.
And it feels great to be up here, but I'm just focused on getting the job done, making sure that we're moving our nation in the right track.
Right now in your state, you have one statewide elected Republican for the first time in a very long time, Ted Cruz. When people say Texas is a red state, still, do you agree?
I agree that we're common-sense people in Texas. And I think when you put common-sense individuals on the ballot, you get to see what we saw in Texas. When we're putting people on the ballot that talk about the issues that mean the most to Texans, we get to see what we got to see a couple of days ago. And that's the focus heading into this 120th session, is talking about the issues that mean the most, delivering on the issues that mean the most to folks, especially working-class families that are getting hit the hardest by tariffs.
The largest uninsured state in the union, Texas, having affordable health care, and making sure that we're addressing this broken immigration system that is broken, and we're going to have to fix a lot of the damage that's been caused.
The President recently said, regarding immigration, that he'd be open to some type of amnesty program. Would you be open to working with the President on that?
I'm willing to work with anybody that is going to fix this broken system. On the campaign trail, I said that we need a construction worker to go to Washington, D.C., to rebuild this broken system that isn't working for working-class families, let alone this immigration system that has been broken well before I got here. It's going to be incumbent upon all of us, Republicans and Democrats, to fix it so we can move our nation forward.
You talk a lot about affordability and what you're going to do. Do you believe that this new Congress should focus on priority affordability or accountability?
It's going to be both, right? We're going to have to walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone we're going to have to run and chew gum at the same time. We're going to have to make accomplishments early on in this session to make sure that we're addressing the needs that we're fighting to lower costs that the vast majority of families are facing in the grocery aisles, right? We can't be talking about stocks going up because the everyday family isn't worried about that. They're focused on costs when they're going to the grocery store, when they're going to the gas pumps, and ultimately, it's making sure that they're going to also be able to keep the lights on for their family and health care.
There's so many things that we have to address and tackle. Definitely, accountability is at the forefront of my agenda as well. As a sheriff's deputy, SWAT hostage negotiator, spokesperson for the sheriff's office, I told folks that we have to communicate equally when you get things right and when you get things wrong, and that's how we rebuild trust in our nation. And we've gotten to see that erode over this cycle, and now we're trying to rebuild on that and bring that accountability and affordability back to the everyday Texan.
On that accountability front, this week an impeachment effort against Pete Hegseth failed in this current Congress. Would you support your incoming Congress bringing up articles of impeachment against Hegseth?
I mean, we got to see this administration bypass the checks and balances that Congress should be holding, and administration too, when you're talking about sending off our troops to a war, putting them in harm's way, and bypassing that system. Now that we have the majority, we're going to be able to hold folks accountable. We're going to be able to bring back the discussions that need to be had at the table. And when we're talking about what the evidence details for us, I'm a sheriff's deputy.
We have to look at the evidence and ultimately push what it leads us to, whether that is impeachment or what it isn't. I do know that we were talking at a meeting this morning with Whip Clark, and we were talking about folks that just don't show up for work. That's unacceptable. And the American people elected us, Texans elected me, to show up every single day for work, and that's what I'm going to be doing.
Looking ahead to 2028, a lot of these seats that Democrats flipped this time around are going to be up for reelection in two years, and a lot of them are in Trump-plus-10, plus-15 areas. What's your recommendation to those Democrats on how to keep those seats blue?
I mean, everybody has their race to run, as do I. My focus is making sure that I'm delivering for District 35 and making sure that we lower costs, we make health care more affordable, we have a strong border, and we keep our community safe. And that's going to be my focus. And also, look, I'm definitely going to be making sure that we're working with everybody in order to accomplish these goals.
Congressman, thank you for the time.
Thank you so much.
I also spoke with Dr. Richard Pan, who's the new congressman from California's 6th Congressional District. I want you to hear what he had to say, but a quick word from our sponsor first. I am so excited to be sponsored by Rocket Money. Rocket Money has been great for me to manage all of my subscriptions, to manage my finances. Right now, I used to be shocked every time I saw my credit card balance. I would open it up and I'd see a new transaction, a new subscription, a new thing that I forgot I was paying. Well, thanks to Rocket Money, I kind of see where everything is all in one place, and I can do it and make sure that I'm not spending money I shouldn't, balancing my budget, and so much more.
And trust me, when I had my daughter just seven months ago, I realized I needed to be a lot smarter with my money, and Rocket Money has helped. They help track subscriptions. They have the ability to cancel unwanted ones within the app with just a few taps. It gives people an easy way to stop paying for things that we don't use. It has automatic transaction categorization across accounts, customizable categories and tags to reveal spending patterns, and so much more. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.
Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com/parnas. That's rocketmoney.com/parnas, rocketmoney.com/parnas. Now, my conversation with Dr. Pan.
Great to be here today with incoming Congressman Richard Pan from California's 6th Congressional District. How are you feeling?
It's been an amazing journey, and I'm looking forward to going to work for people.
What does that look like today? What does work look like on day one?
Well, work right now is, because I'm not actually in Congress yet, is setting up my office and getting my staff put together, and so to be sure that we're ready for people as soon as I'm sworn in.
And what are your priorities when you are eventually sworn in in January?
Well, you know, we need to follow through on the things we talked about during the campaign. You know, people are struggling with the cost of living, and so what are we going to do to try to bring those costs down, being sure people have access to health care? So some of the things, of course, are let's see about rolling back some of the cuts in HR1, which actually don't take place until the beginning of the year, so they haven't actually even happened yet, but people are looking at the fact that we're going to lose health care. Let's look at what's the round war, right? We need to pass resolutions to hold this administration accountable.
After all, it's Congress's responsibility to declare war, not the President's, right? We need to bring back the ACA tax credits because we have a lot of families who a year ago basically can't afford their health insurance. And by the way, open enrollment is opening up soon too, so they need to know that maybe this for the next coming year, they can get affordable health care coverage. So those are just sort of the initial, like, let's try to roll back some of the things that this last Congress did. But of course, we need to then go beyond that.
So not just stop there, that's in the very beginning, but then say, okay, let's come up with positive actions to basically address that cost of living, to address the access to health care. You know, too many people, even with insurance, are looking at their copays and deductibles as well as their premiums and saying, I can't afford this.
So how do you actually do that when you still have a Republican President in the White House who's going to, he says he has the veto hat, he's going to be Mr. Veto, he's going to block anything you guys do. How do you even roll things back?
Well, I think what we do is we put it on his desk, and then he's going to decide whether he's going to veto it or not. If he wants to talk, let's talk. But guess what? We're never going to be accused of not trying because I think that's what we got to do. So, you know, President Trump will still be President, but we definitely need to continue to keep putting that pressure on, not only legislatively but also in other ways, certainly oversight as well. So while we're trying to move legislation and moving solutions, we also are going to hold this administration accountable.
We can do both at the same time, and we will.
So let's talk about that accountability portion. This week, the attempt to impeach Pete Hegseth failed, at least was blocked for now. Would you support an impeachment effort against the Secretary of Defense when you guys take office?
Well, I think certainly what we should be doing is investigations, and when those investigations show that they have caused harm to the American people, that they have shown that they have been self-dealing, we should certainly consider impeaching them. That's something I think that we also need to work with the Senate. Thank God we now have a Democratic Senate, because it's not enough just to impeach. We need to convict, right? So we need to build that case. And now with the Democrats having the gavels, we can actually conduct the kind of oversight that has been so lacking by the Republicans.
It's always the job of Congress, no matter which parties in Congress, no matter which parties in the White House, to be sure that there's oversight over the executive branch. When I was in the state legislature, I was in a place we had a Democratic governor, Democratic legislature. I still conducted oversight, and I held the executive branch accountable when I felt that they were not doing their jobs correctly, even though it was the same party. We're definitely going to do it for Donald Trump, but we just need to do our job as Congress as well. And when it turns out that we have uncovered malfeasance and there's then that's impeachable, then we should definitely consider impeachment.
Is there anyone off-limits? I mean, if you have, for example, one of the Trump kids or Jared Kushner, anyone off-limits from oversight?
Well, by the way, oversight, of course, over official activities. So certainly anything, anyone who is acting in an official capacity, acting in the name of the U.S. government, then they are subject to oversight. Departed administration, they're subject to oversight.
Let's talk about health care briefly because you are a doctor.
Yes.
If you had it your way, what would health care policy look like in the United States of America?
Well, I mean, I would say, first of all, as someone who's been a student of health policy and history, and actually I teach at UC Davis, I teach health policy, and we go over the history of Medicare and Medicaid and how that legislative came together. We talk about the Children's Health Insurance Program and the ACA, right? So unfortunately, what I have to tell my students is that we never had health reform because a group of people came into the room and, like, tried to work out the best health care plan and then put it before Congress, and then it got, you know, it's a deal, right?
And we've seen many failures before as well. So, but I do think that we can move, continue to move the ball forward. I believe that health care is a right. Everyone should have access to health care. It should be affordable. It should be high quality. I do think it's possible to get it done. When I was in the state of California, we got four million more California's health care coverage during my time there. So we can make progress. I want to see that we're continuing to make progress forward. Certainly, I have a lot of different ideas about how we could go about doing that, and then there's the question is, what's the political will to get any of that done, right?
But certainly, I think we do need to tackle the cost of health care, including deductibles and premiums, right, as well. I mean, deductibles and copays as well as premiums, because people aren't afford. We do need to try to address the fact that I think people with chronic conditions in particular, and that includes, by the way, mental health as well, we need to create better incentives to be sure we improve not only the quality but also the efficiency and also the cost of that care.
Oftentimes, we try to avoid those people because they are more costly to take care of. So instead of being bounced around, we need to have systems that actually improve the quality and reduce the cost of that care, things like and we should be looking at what kind of things we can put in place that are already in existence that we might be able to build on as well. And so, you know, people are really concerned about losing access to health care. They're concerned about how much it's going to cost out of their budget. I do think there's a lot of things we can do.
Now, admittedly, we have to get past President Trump for the first two years, but he won't be there after that. So if nothing else, we can lay the groundwork to get to a place where certainly we can provide people much more security when it comes to health care.
Congressman, I appreciate the time. Thank you.
Thank you so very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Aaron.
Surging right now, and thanks to you. Thank you for watching this video. Thank you for sharing our content. Make sure to hit that subscribe button. We're on the road to a million subscribers. Like, comment, share, get the word out. Thank you so much again.
Aaron Parnas reports on breaking news of the White House panicking as Republicans break and force a bombshell Epstein release, including exclusive interviews with Rep. Johnny Garcia and Rep. Richard Pan to discuss their recent victories, what they plan to do once in office, and much more!
---------------------------------
Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at https://RocketMoney.com/PARNAS.
---------------------------------
Substack: https://aaronparnas.substack.com/
X: https://twitter.com/AaronParnas
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aaronparnas6?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronparnas/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaron.parnas/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@aaronparnas?hl=en