SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
NPR's Ron Elving joins us now. Ron, thanks for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: And how does the White House respond to the release of these Epstein emails and the coming vote in the House to release more?
ELVING: In a word - aggressively. It has been a hallmark of Trump's career that when threatened, he strikes back. When accused, he accuses someone else. And in this case, at Trump's instigation, the attorney general has announced an investigation of several former officials and Democratic donors who Trump alleges have something to hide with regard to Jeffrey Epstein. Now, the obvious way to deal with a lot of this shadow boxing and innuendo would be to release all the Epstein files. That's what candidate Trump promised a year ago, but President Trump has resisted that and driven other leaders in the Republican Party to do the same.
SIMON: So far, do you think his response has been effective even among supporters?
ELVING: In a sense and in the short-term, yes. Suddenly, we're seeing pictures of the people Trump wants investigated appear on television and in other media. That reduces the amount of time those media are focusing on Trump and all those videos of him with Epstein. But down the road, it doesn't change the nature of Trump's own involvement with Epstein. And it doesn't stop the calls for transparency that come from voters, including more than a few of Trump's on supporters.
Now, even Marjorie Taylor Greene, the familiar firebrand from Georgia - she is a Republican representative in Congress and a fierce defender of the president. In multiple interviews, she has called Trump misguided in fighting the release of the Epstein files. And that, of course, has drawn Trump's ire. In a long post on Truth Social last night, the president called Marjorie Taylor Greene, quote, "wacky," unquote, and said he was withdrawing his support of her.
SIMON: Democrats were unable to get an extension of the health care subsidies in the spending bill that just passed. But they say their message, quote, is "the fight continues." How's that being received?
ELVING: It's not enough for the hardcore Democratic voters, and that includes the hardcore Democrats who serve in the House. Most of them rejected the deal that reopened the government. They wanted to hold on to the leverage they got by blocking the stopgap funding bill. That's why we had a shutdown. It may not be much, but it's all the Democrats have right now with both chambers of Congress and the White House in Republican hands.
Ultimately, though, there were just enough Democrats in the Senate who thought the pain of the shutdown had gone too far, gotten too intense and fallen hardest on recipients or former recipients of food assistance programs. That's not to dismiss the other effects of the shutdown, but only to say that those effects pale in comparison to hungry families. It simply wasn't clear when the hunger of those families was going to change the political calculus for the White House, which is still seeking to block some of the food assistance payments.
SIMON: And, Ron, what are you watching for in these next few weeks?
ELVING: We should be watching public reaction to all of this. That includes a spike that's coming in the cost of health care for Obamacare users and for many people on Medicaid. Their pain may be real, but will it be felt and shared by enough of the voting public that it changes some minds in Washington? And we've already had one round of elections this month that sent some strong political signals, but there won't be any other elections before the next round of health care showdown votes in December and in January.
But there will be polls. And we know the Obamacare subsidy extensions poll exceptionally well. People want them extended. And we know Trump's own personal approval rating, in an average of all recognized national polls, is lower than it's been before in his second term. There is a sense that he is nervous about voter sentiment. He announced a list of foods - including beef and coffee - would be exempt from tariffs after all. And that might slow down inflation people are seeing in the grocery stores, but it's unclear if it will actually lower any of those prices. And with the midterm elections now just a year away, that is a strong indicator of what we might expect.
SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving. Always good to speak with you. Thanks so much for being with us.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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