Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Joy Reid Torches Biden’s AG For Failing To Catch J6 Pipe Bomber, Release Epstein Files

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Fired MSNBC host Joy Reid condemned former Attorney General Merrick Garland on “The Breakfast Club” Tuesday for failing to nab the man suspected of placing pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, and release documents related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Garland was attorney general for former President Joe Biden’s entire term, during which the pipe bomb investigation went stale and releasing the Epstein files was not a priority. Reid suggested on the show that Garland was an unproductive attorney general.

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“I don’t understand why he escapes the smoke. Even the Epstein files thing. I’m like, wait a minute,” Reid said. “You’re telling me nine months into this administration, the podcast guys are claiming they caught the — now, I don’t know if this young man is the person that put the pipe bombs … but I know they said we solved the case in nine months.”

“Merrick Garland was there for four years. What were you doing?” she added. “The Epstein files. Merrick, what were you doing? For four years? You had the same evidence, the same files. Why didn’t you release them?”

President Donald Trump administration officials took credit for identifying the suspect, Brian Cole, at a Thursday press conference, saying they used the same data the Biden administration had. Cole was arrested on Thursday and charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials.

The arrest ended a nearly five-year manhunt after the bombs were planted on Jan. 5, 2021, near the Republican and Democratic national headquarters, and were discovered the following day, preventing detonation.

The Democratic Party has come under fire for only pushing for the release of the Epstein files since Trump’s return to office. The president reversed course and urged House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files in November, with the House of Representatives subsequently passing the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” to publish the documents.

Reid also criticized Garland for not prosecuting Trump as quickly as she had desired.

“Merrick Garland did, to me, nothing for four years,” she said. “He might as well not have been there.”

Biden regreted picking Garland as attorney general due to the Department of Justice not doing enough to prosecute Trump, people familiar with his comments told The Washington Post in December 2024.

Garland appointed former special counsel Jack Smith in November 2022, days following Trump’s announcement that he would seek the presidency for the third time. Smith first indicted Trump in June 2023.

His initial indictment of Trump was the first federal indictment of a former U.S. president in American history.