CNN Anchor Bluntly Asks Donie O’Sullivan ‘Just How Pissed Off’ Are Trump Fans About Epsteingate
CNN anchor Abby Phillip bluntly asked MAGA-world expert Donie O’Sullivan “just how pissed off” were Trump fans at a recent conference over the “Epstein Files” debacle.
The backlash to President Donald Trump’s attempt to quash conspiracy theories about deceased rape criminal Jeffrey Epstein escalated to demands for Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi’s firing and rumors about FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino resigning in protest.
That backlash was evident from the stage of the Turning Point USA conference over the weekend, as Megyn Kelly got huge cheers for calling out the scandal.
On Monday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, O’Sullivan — whose beat frequently intersects with fervent Trump fandom — told Phillip that the energy was just as high behind the scenes at the conference:
PHILLIP: Again, trusting the government isn’t really their thing, or at least it wasn’t.
Joining us in our fifth seat is Donie O’Sullivan, who spent some time this weekend with the MAGA faithful. Donie, just how pissed off are the MAGA folks right now?
DONIE O’SULLIVAN: They’re very pissed. As you mentioned, I spent a great weekend in Tampa, Florida, at the —
PHILLIP: It sounds nice and muggy.
O’SULLIVAN: — Turning point USA conference talking about Jeffrey Epstein. So —
PHILLIP: Let’s be happy you didn’t end up in Alligator Alcatraz.
O’SULLIVAN: Right. But, yes, I mean, this was — everybody was talking about it on stage, off stage. We spoke to a lot of people. We didn’t meet anyone who didn’t want Trump to be more transparent and to release whatever it is, whatever people imagine these Epstein files to be.
PHILLIP: Did you talk to people after the Trump the Trump X or Truth Social post?
I’m sorry. Because the consensus online seemed to be, oh, wow, this guy’s got something to hide.
O’SULLIVAN: Yes. I mean, so the folks we were chatting to this weekend, I mean, the people — nobody we spoke to — actually we spoke to folks before he posted that on Saturday night, but nobody at the MAGA event, unsurprisingly, I guess, thinks that there’s anything bad about Trump in these files. They think maybe that he — some of his friends are in there and that it could ruin their lives.
What I found really interesting about that posts from Trump, the gals, guy — boys and gals post, that’s on Truth Social, right, which is basically a pro-Trump echo chamber. I checked earlier tonight. There’s, I think, about 47,000 comments on that post, and wouldn’t be sure, a lot of them — everything is negative. It’s all Trump’s own supporters calling him out saying, dude, you got to do something about this. That’s really unusual to see on that platform.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
