Sen. Barrasso Hits Kristen Welker’s Epstein Slop With Arctic Frost

KRISTEN WELKER: Welcome back. And joining me now is Republican Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming. Senator Barrasso, welcome back to Meet the Press. 

JOHN BARRASSO: Great to be with you. Thank you, Kristen.

WELKER: Well, it’s great to have you on, Senator. Let’s start off by talking about this battle over health care, Democrats demanding a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies. Will you vote yes to extend Obamacare subsidies, Senator?

BARRASSO: Well, as Senator Kaine said, they’re going to bring the bill to the floor and I’m certainly – I’m going to see what’s in that bill. I’m a doctor. I practiced medicine in Wyoming for 24 years, and I’ve always wanted people to get the care they need from a doctor that they choose at a price they can afford. But Obamacare basically destroyed that possibility. Remember, President Obama promised you could keep your doctor, you could keep your policy, and insurance costs would go down by $2,500 a family. The exact opposite happened. Costs doubled. Insurance companies got very rich because the government kept sending money to national insurance companies to prop up the failures of Obamacare. The subsidy’s around 80% of the cost of the insurance. Even The New York Times and Washington Post said Obamacare is pricey. It was never affordable. So there’ve been all these subsidies. And then a couple of years ago – and this is what this is all about – Joe Biden and the Democrats said, “Prices are going up even higher. We need to put new subsidies on top of the old subsidies during COVID.” These are the Biden COVID bonus subsidies. Those are the ones that Democrats set – set to expire this year. That’s what the fight is about. If the Democrats bring a bill that actually lowers the cost of care, that’s something I think people want to talk about. But I don’t expect that to happen. They just want to extend these subsidies, which is just putting another big Band-Aid on a gaping wound that needs major surgery.

WELKER: So you’re saying you won’t extend them in their current form? I hear you critiquing Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act, Senator, passed 15 years ago. Republicans have been criticizing it, threatening to repeal and replace it ever since, but where is the Republican health care plan 15 years later?

BARRASSO: Well, as you know, not a single Republican voted for the Obama health care law. We are going to have a meeting of the Finance Committee on Wednesday, again, focusing on health care. I’m on that committee. A number of physicians are also on that committee. I think that we need to make sure people understand the costs and give them choice and give them control. What we’ve seen is health insurance companies’ stocks have gone up 500-1000% since Obamacare became law. We can’t continue to subsidize this failure. If people are given the money to make their own decisions and buy what works best for them and for their families, I think that those – the choice, the opportunities are much, much better. Now, on this committee, of course, is Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders. And they want to do one-size-fits-all, government-run health care that they have in Britain right now, which is failing that country. I want to put people in charge of their decisions, not bureaucrats, which is what we’ve had with Obamacare.

WELKER: Senator, but what I hear you saying is that there’s no plan. There’s no bill. President Trump is calling for direct payment to Americans, which would inevitably lead to repealing Obamacare. Just to be very clear, will any plan include repealing Obamacare?

BARRASSO: We need a plan to lower the cost of health care in America. I know very well what’s going on in Wyoming with 40,000 people who are on Obamacare get very high subsidies, over $900 a month –

WELKER: So do you want to repeal it, Senator? Do you want to repeal it?

BARRASSO: Their premiums are going up. What matters – I want to make sure we have a health care plan that works for the American people, and Obamacare has failed. We cannot continue just continuing to subsidize a failing plan, which is causing more and more costs and hardship around the country. What the Democrats have offered was $350 billion more dollars to prop up Obamacare, which has failed. And of course they first started the shutdown, which has been a disaster for the country, by demanding more money for health care for illegal immigrants. I mean, that’s where they have gone. We need to work to get a health care insurance program that works to lower the cost. And the way you do that is put people in charge to make those decisions. And that’s what I’ve been fighting for.

WELKER: Senator, as you know, you bring up the shutdown. President Trump was calling on Republicans to get rid of the filibuster. He has continued those calls, Senator, even with the shutdown over. Are you 100% confident that the filibuster will still be intact at the end of President Trump’s second term?

BARRASSO: Well, President Trump makes a compelling argument. I’ve always supported the filibuster because I view that as a tool that we have as conservatives to prevent Democrats from doing things that I think would be very bad for the country. And they’ve said what they’d like to do. So I think Democrats would love for Republicans to get rid of the filibuster because the Democrats want to make sure that D.C. and Puerto Rico become states with four new Democrat senators. They want to change voting rules to get rid of voter ID, make it easier for illegal immigrants to vote. We – we know that what they want to do is put four new members on the Supreme Court who don’t really follow the Constitution. In my opinion, those things would be disastrous for the country. So I believe that we’re going to and I continue to support the filibuster.

WELKER: But Senator, just to be very clear, would you rule out ending the filibuster, voting to end the filibuster?

BARRASSO: Well, I support the filibuster, as do I believe a majority of Republicans in the Senate. So I expect it’s going to continue to be here.

WELKER: Okay.

BARRASSO: President Trump has been very consistent. And I’ll tell you, I appreciate his leadership during this shutdown. Because we have – the Democrats have put this country through tremendous pain with this shutdown. And we just heard from your former guest. We’d still be in a shutdown today if it were up to the majority of the Democrats.

WELKER: Okay, let me turn to the other big story we are tracking today, which is the big battle over the Epstein files. President Trump has referred to this as a hoax. Do you believe that it’s a hoax?

BARRASSO: Well, let me give you my take on this whole issue, because of course I want accountability. You – you want to make sure there’s transparency. You want to make sure that the victims are taken care of. What you’re concerned – and I’m concerned – is that if there is information out here about other individuals that need to be prosecuted, they need to be prosecuted. But what I saw Ro Khanna say is they want to make President Trump a lame duck president. This is all about him. I fully believe that had there – had there been something here that the Biden administration could’ve used to go after President Trump the last four years, they’d have gone after him with double barrels. But this is an administration, the Biden administration, which abused justice. They have gone after eight United States senators, spied on them, went after their phone records, targeted them. So they have abused the laws of the land. And I think they would’ve gone after President Trump if there was anything there.

WELKER: Okay –

BARRASSO: To me, this Epstein matter, as well as the shutdown, they’re trying to get out of the – the pain they’ve caused the country in the shutdown, and that’s why the Democrats want to use this, and they want to make President Trump a lame duck president.

WELKER: Senator, you take me to my next point, because President Trump this week asked the Justice Department to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with some top Democrats. And yet, in July, the Justice Department and the FBI released a memo about the Epstein case that said, quote, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” Senator, if there wasn’t evidence to justify further investigation in July, why is there evidence now?

BARRASSO: I’m not sure what evidence is out there. What I do know is that the House is going to vote this week, try to make a decision, and we’ll see if they send something to the Senate. And if they do, we’ll take a look at that. But we want transparency and accountability. What I also know is that Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted sex offender and he is dead. And President Trump threw him out of Mar-a-Lago 21 years ago. To me, what’s going on with the Epstein and what’s going on also with – with the shutdown is this is the Democrats trying to appeal to their far-left base and trying to change the topic from a failed shutdown, which hurt many, many Americans, like a lot of people I was with last night at a veterans event in Wyoming where they wanted to talk about the pain each one of them experienced in the shutdown, and Epstein never came up for discussion.

WELKER: But Senator, very quickly, four months ago the Justice Department said there was nothing to investigate. And then hours after President Trump called for an investigation, Pam Bondi said she was opening an investigation. Is that appropriate, from your perspective?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: I think there’s a lot more important things to talk about right now to get the country back on track, to lower prices for the American people, and that’s what we need to do is make life more affordable. The president and the Senate and the House need to be functioning and working on that, not on what’s happened to a convicted sex offender who is now dead.

KRISTEN WELKER: Senator, if the Epstein measure passes the House will it get a vote in the Senate?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: It’ll come to the Senate. We’ll take a look at it. If it passes the House, we’ll see what it says. We all want accountability and – and transparency. But to me, this is not about truth. It’s not about justice. This is about an attempt by the Democrats to make President Trump a lame duck president. And I’m not going to aid and abet them in their efforts to do that.

KRISTEN WELKER: But you don’t commit to a vote, Senator? You don’t commit to holding a vote if the Epstein measure passes in the House? Just very quickly. We’re almost out of time.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: Well, what I’ve said and what Senate Leader Thune has said is we’ll look at it. We’ll look at what’s come over. I don’t even know that it’s going to pass the House. The Senate will make a decision. We’ll have a discussion about it and make a decision from there.

KRISTEN WELKER: All right, let me ask you about this feud between President Trump and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who does support the full release of the Epstein files. Congresswoman Greene has been critical of what she has described as President Trump’s fight to get these files released. She says, quote, “Most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream.” Senator, do you believe that President Trump is out of touch with his own MAGA base?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: No. And I’m not going to get into the issue between the two of those. Oh no, President Trump is fully in tune with where we need to go as a country and getting America back on track. We’ve had the most successful year, as you can imagine, in terms of reversing the damage done by the Biden administration. The president is fully focused. We passed the working families tax cut bill. I heard about that from ranchers, from coal miners. People all around Wyoming heard about it last night at the veterans event. People that are very happy with the fact that they’re going to have more money in their pockets. And what we need to do is make sure that life is affordable for those folks. That’s the president’s focus. That’s the Republican focus. That’s where we need to take this country. We need to remove the distractions. The president is totally focused in on getting America –

KRISTEN WELKER: All right.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: – back on track. We’ve had great wins for energy. We’ve had great wins at the border. He has secured the border and we’re on the right path.

KRISTEN WELKER: All right, Senator John Barrasso, thank you so much for being here this Sunday. We really appreciate it.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: Thanks, Kristen.