A striking call during C-SPAN’s Washington Journal has gained attention after a viewer used the live program to deliver a direct warning to President Donald Trump’s family, advising them to keep his grandchildren away from him.
The moment happened during a call-in segment when the caller stated that his “top story for the year” was the Epstein files and then shifted to a warning aimed at Trump’s family. “I would advise Ivanka Trump, his daughter, and Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, to please hide the grandbabies,” the caller said, according to a clip circulating online.
He continued, “Do not let these grandbabies go around Papa, Papa Trump,” before escalating into a serious criminal claim that the president is a predator.
Raw Story, which featured the clip, described the segment as a shocking moment. It quickly reached a wider audience beyond C-SPAN’s usual viewers, appearing in social media reposts and discussion threads within a few hours.
C-SPAN’s Washington Journal is a long-running program that takes calls from viewers sharing their thoughts on the news of the day. In this instance, the caller’s comments stood out because they served as a warning about children in Trump’s family, linked to ongoing discussions about Epstein, which shows how much reputational damage is has done to the president.
In the final weeks of 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice has slow-rolled the release of the Epstein Files. The Justice Department has now confirmed that it is reviewing over 5.2 million pages of material, far more than earlier estimates. This process is likely to extend into January as federal attorneys examine the records to prepare them for release. The expanded review follows a congressional mandate under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the DOJ to make unclassified records available to the public.
Trump told you to elect him so he can release the Epstein files. Since his election, he has spent a full year covering them up. pic.twitter.com/cmkOl4jHtK
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) December 29, 2025
Among the thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents that have already been released are references to Trump. These references include historical flight records, which contradicted the president’s claims. One document released this month includes a note from an internal prosecutor showing that Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet multiple times, sometimes with Epstein’s close associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Although none of the records contain criminal allegations, they provide new insight into the extent of Trump’s interactions with Epstein before Epstein’s conviction and death.
DOJ officials have stated that some claims in the files, such as unverified reports submitted to the FBI before the 2020 election, are “untrue and sensationalist,” urging caution in interpreting every mention of Trump.
The politics surrounding the Epstein files have become linked to struggles within the Republican Party. The biggest fallout has been Marjorie Taylor Greene having a bitter split with Trump, while others turned against him by calling for the files to be released.
Trump reluctantly signed off on the release, but the damage has been done as he campaigned on making it public before backtracking, along with his aides such as Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, and the soon-to-be former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.
