John: Good evening, I'm John Yang.

President trump continues to be dogged by a man who's been dead for more than six years -- Jeffrey Epstein.

Late yesterday, the president broke with representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time staunch ally who was among four house Republicans who joined all 214 Democrats to force a vote next week on releasing the justice department's Epstein files.

In a truth social post, Mr.

Trump called her a ranting lunatic and said all I see wacky Marjorie do is complain, complain, complain.

Mr.

Trump left Washington late yesterday but couldn't escape the controversy.

Aboard air force one he sought to deflect attention onto political opponents.

Pres.

Trump: It's really what did he mean when he said he spend time with Bill Clinton, with the president of Harvard, you know, that is Summers, uh, Larry Summers, whatever his name is, and all the others that he spent time with.

John: There haven't been any allegations that either former president Clinton or Larry Summers did anything wrong.

Jonathan Lemire is a staff writer at the atlantic.

We should start off by saying there are no allegations of wrongdoing against the president either in this but the story got gassed this week because of new material release.

Remind us what was it and what did we learn new about the president's relationship with Epstein.

Jonathan: We have heard about the so-called Epstein files for years now and that is not what we got this week here would what happened was, a few emails were released by Democrats from the house oversight committee that shed new light on the epstein-trump relationship.

We have known they were friends.

Perhaps closer friends than the president would like the public to know.

In response to that Republicans grabbed 23,000 emails to flood the zone to distract from the damaging ones that came out, though I don't think it works because some of those emails also, a lot of them, mentioned trump, and made clear that Epstein and trump were friends and spend a lot of time together.

They did later have a falling out.

What is so striking about it, it is a rare moment when Republicans are willing to defy him.

Some of his most royal -- loyal allies have disputed calls to let this go away and we go barreling toward a vote on the house floor in the coming days.

John: Given the material released, the discharge petition to force the vote, what do you make of the way the president is reacting and responding to this?

Jonathan: As I wrote for they atlantic this week even his closest allies are puzzled by his approach.

As one said to me this is not how you act if you don't have anything to hide.

It has been a major cause for so many on the right for so long to unearth these so-called files.

It does seem the house has enough votes to pass it next week, then it will move to the senate.

As I reported, trump is considering assuring senators to be killed there in the upper chamber.

If it were to past there, he would have a choice to which we assume he would, but it would raise more questions.

What is he trying to hide?

This is the number one mystery Washington.

John: What effect is this having on the president come on his standing with congress, members of his own party?

Jonathan: It is coming at exactly the wrong time for trump.

It comes at a time in the president is in his second term, his party suffered lopsided defeats in the elections earlier this month.

Polls suggest not only does the public blame trump and Republicans more for the government shutdown that just ended, but say trump is out of touch on issues like affordability and prices, the things he was elected on last year.

As with midterms less than a year away and trump desperately trying to not be perceived as a lame-duck and trying to keep Republicans in power so he does not have to face a democratic majority in the house, which would have subpoena power.

He is flailing and struggling here to come up with an acceptable response to the Epstein matter.

John: Only four house Republicans to fight him but still a lot of Maga supporters talking about the Epstein files during the campaign.

Is there sense of tension or cracks in the broader Maga coalition?

Jonathan: I think there are.

We are so used to the Maga base cheering on everything president trump wants and does.

If you were to say to them this is important, -- is not important, they would move on.

But it has not happened for the Epstein files.

For some on the right it has been a core belief for a long time.

Epstein died under mysterious circumstances, the list will bring down powerful people and institutions, the Democrats, they think.

It is a hard thing to ask voters to give up and now Republicans have taken a stand in the house, I suspect some of the senate will as well.

It will be interesting to watch whether this springs to life as an issue in the conservative media because it did earlier this year.

A lot of the Maga sphere, podcasts, blogs, even cable shows seized on the Epstein matter and they largely stopped when he asked them to but now perhaps those questions will be revised.

John: Jonathan Lemire of the