US Politics
JD Vance unwittingly sparks new wave of calls to release the Epstein files in Fox interview
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Vice President JD Vance’s latest attempt to shift the narrative away from the Jeffrey Epstein furore over the weekend has only succeeded in inspiring fresh calls for the release of all federal files on the late pedophile.
Appearing on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Vance sought to kill off the uproar that has raged ever since the Justice Department and FBI ruled in early July that the deceased sex trafficker left behind no “client list” and died by suicide in August 2019. That verdict enraged President Donald Trump’s supporters, who continue to demand answers and allege a “cover-up” to protect influential people.
“I have to say, Maria, I laugh at the Democrats who are now all of a sudden so interested in the Epstein files,” the VP told Bartiromo on Sunday.
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“For four years, Joe Biden and the Democrats did absolutely nothing about this story. We know that Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with left-wing politicians and left-wing billionaires.
“And now President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years.”
Vance’s comments only succeeded in reviving calls for full disclosure on Epstein after a clip of the interview was circulated on social media.
“Fine. Release all the files,” wrote Defending Democracy’s director Bill Kristol. “With victims and survivors’ names and PII redacted. But no redactions of clients, enablers, and see-no-evil associates.”
“The thing about people on that list that bothers me is not their political leanings or their bank account,” said newspaper columnist Brigitte Pellerin.
“Donald Trump’s name is in the Epstein files and JD Vance has been plotting with the AG and FBI Director to cover it up,” alleged Pod Save America host Jon Favreau. “Release the names! Democrats, Republicans, billionaires, or not. What are you afraid of, JD Vance?”
Trump continues to face questions about his past friendship with Epstein, but has not been accused of any wrongdoing and is currently suing The Wall Street Journal for reporting that he once sent the sex offender a “bawdy” doodle for his birthday.
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It has been reported that the president was briefed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who stated that his name appears in the files, but this does not imply misconduct.
Trump is known to have become increasingly frustrated at the story’s continued dominance of the news agenda over the past five weeks and has even lashed out at members of his conservative coalition for obsessing over Epstein.
“Look, the whole thing is a hoax,” he declared impatiently in the Oval Office last week.
“It’s put out by the Democrats because we’ve had the most successful six months in the history of our country. That’s just a way of trying to divert attention to something that’s total bulls***.”
His attempt to dismiss the matter did not satisfy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for one, who commented: “Trump’s disastrous handling of the Epstein firestorm last month was starting to die down and now he has let the corporate media bait him into re-launching a new Streisand effect.”
Jones was referring to the phenomenon through which a public figure’s efforts to suppress an unwanted story only succeed in drawing more attention to it.
