Jen Psaki Calls BS on Trump Over ‘Bumbling’ Epstein Island Answer — That Threw His Commerce Secretary ‘Under The Bus’

MS NOW host and former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called BS on President Donald Trump’s “bumbling” response to a question about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, and accused Trump of throwing Lutnick “under the bus.”

Secretary Lutnick was grilled at a hearing Tuesday over new revelations about his association with Epstein, including his visit to the private island with his wife and children in 2012 — years after Epstein’s conviction on sex crimes.

Trump was asked about the revelations on Thursday and simultaneously pleaded ignorance and commented on the visit in some detail.

On Thursday’s edition of MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Psaki dug into Trump’s answer as contradictory, self-serving, and an implicit slam on Lutnick:

PSAKI: Today, Trump was tucked away, all cozied up in the White House, bumbling through a nonsensical answer. And yet another one of his buddies associations with Jeffrey Epstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Mr. President, were you aware that secretary of commerce visited Epstein’s island? And do you continue to have —

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I wasn’t aware of it. No, I didn’t — I actually haven’t spoken to him about it. I wasn’t, but from what I hear, he was there with his wife and children. And I guess in some cases, some people were. I wasn’t. I was never there. Somebody will someday say that. I was never there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PSAKI: Okay, first of all, I love the way he starts his answer by saying I wasn’t aware of it, which is not believable. But okay, maybe that’s his approach. I wasn’t aware of it, and then in the next breath makes it clear that he is in fact very, very aware of it.

And the fact that he is so quick to assert that he has never been on the island himself, it’s kind of feels like he’s throwing his commerce secretary under the bus there. I mean, was that Donald Trump, the former best friend of Jeffrey Epstein, admitting out loud how bad it looks to have visited the island? Because it sure sounded like that to me.

And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is hardly the only senior member of the administration taking heat for his association with Epstein.

I mean, we all just learned that yet another member of Trump’s administration is in the Epstein files. Trump’s administrator of Medicare and Medicaid doctor, Mehmet Oz, appears to have invited Jeffrey Epstein to a Valentine’s Day party in 2016. Now, he hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing, but that invitation came long after Epstein first pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with underage girls long after.

Who wouldn’t want that creepy man at their party celebrating love? I mean, Dr. Oz wanted him there, apparently. So, there’s that. The number of people in Trump’s orbit who associated with Epstein really does seem to grow by the day. There’s a new story every day, and that is to say nothing of the thousands of times Trump himself is mentioned in the files.

Watch above via MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki.

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