MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” called out President Trump for his repeated claim that the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files are a “Democrat Hoax,” despite his own supporters’ belief that they are very real.
Host Joe Scarborough opened the Wednesday segment by criticizing Trump for repeatedly deflecting questions about his ties to Epstein and bringing up Democrats’ connections to the convicted sex trafficker instead. “Even him doing that invites blowback that he doesn’t want,” Scarborough said. “I’m not exactly sure why he keeps saying things when, again, his own MAGA base isn’t going to go, ‘Oh, that’s a left-wing media hoax.’ They can’t do that.”
“Why can’t they do that? Because they’re the ones who’ve been pushing for the release of the Epstein Files while Democrats during the Biden term were going, ‘Uh… what?,’ [and] didn’t say a word then,” he continued. “It was the MAGA folks who have been pushing this. So when he insults people for pushing for these files to be released, he’s insulting his own base.”
Fellow MS NOW anchor Ali Vitali echoed Scarborough’s sentiments. “The call has always been coming from inside the house on this one,” the “Way Too Early” host said. “It’s why the White House’s about-face in the first place when they first started saying they wouldn’t [bring] more transparency on the Epstein files was so stunning and landed like a rock on Capitol Hill among people like Marjorie Taylor Green.”
While Americans wait to see if Trump himself actually approves the release of the Epstein files, a decision that is expected to come Wednesday, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei told the “Morning Joe” hosts he does not expect the files themselves to make as much of a splash as some people think if they are eventually released.
“I’m a little skeptical that we’re going to see a lot of new information that gets released. Remember, the Justice Department, both under Biden and under Trump, has been sitting on all of these documents,” VandeHei explained. “There’s a lot of people internally in both administrations who had a heavy incentive to get the worst stuff out, particularly if they wanted to move the investigation along.”
“There’s going to be a legal justification to black out a lot of information that might be very tawdry but is not illegal,” the CEO predicted. “I wouldn’t think you’re going to suddenly get this amazing new portrait of all the grossness around Epstein and the people who [were] affiliated with him.”
Regardless of the files’ actual contents, VandeHei argued that the controversy around them has done irrevocable damage to Trump’s political position. “This was a 100% total loyalty movement that is no longer 100% total loyalty,” he said. “That has political consequences.”
