Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham teased her program would be talking about some “new news” from The Wall Street Journal on Thursday night, following a commercial break. But when “The Ingraham Angle” returned, the program did not cover anything regarding WSJ or their story on Donald Trump’s racy birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein.
“Coming up, Democrats pretend to care about an issue that has the podcast world going crazy. We’re asking for transparency,” Ingraham said heading into the commercial break. “But we have new news coming on about this as well, from the Wall Street Journal. A new report tonight, next.”
You can see that moment below:
The story Ingraham was teasing, presumably, was the WSJ report, published Thursday, saying President Trump had contributed a tawdry entry in a leather-bound compilation of birthday messages for “pal” Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
Less than an hour after the report was published, the president said the report was bogus and that he would be suing Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp and the Wall Street over the report.
“The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so.”
Trump followed that post up with another on Friday, saying he looked forward to having Murdoch testify in court over the WSJ report.
Murdoch founded Fox News in 1996 and remains Chairman Emeritus of both Fox Corporation, the channel’s parent company, and News Corp.
Ingraham’s mention of “an issue” that has caused an uproar in the podcast world hinted at the irritation from many pro-MAGA influencers and creators over the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein story. Last week, the Justice Department and FBI said there was no incriminating Epstein client list to release or proof Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.
That answer upset many Trump supporters in conservative media. To point to a few examples, Tucker Carlson called out Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying “you’re not going to shout me down” for asking “pretty reasonable questions” about Epstein. And The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh also said he will not drop the issue, even though the president would like conservative commentators to do so.
“I want to make this very clear to those on the right, including the president himself, who are telling us to just drop the subject and move on. We can’t drop it,” Walsh said on his podcast.
On Thursday night, President Trump said he had ordered Attorney General Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.” He added “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
