Mark Halperin Argues Trump Should Recuse in Epstein Case: ‘They Were Close Friends’

Veteran political reporter Mark Halperin argued that President Donald Trump “shouldn’t be making decisions” in the Jeffrey Epstein case, citing the fact that Trump and Epstein were “close friends” and Trump’s “weird” handling of the controversy surrounding it.

Halperin’s comments came on Thursday’s edition of his show, Next Up with Mark Halperin, during which he told his audience that Trump and Epstein’s relationship “continues to be one of the undercover aspects of this story.”

“Donald Trump is, based on his public reaction, not just in the last couple of months but historically to Jeffrey Epstein., there’s something going on there. I don’t prejudge what it might be. But I look at what he said, how he said it, okay? This is a guy with an infamously checkered and reckless history regarding women. Just in what’s public. His publicly adulterous affair with his second wife, Marla Maples, his “grab them by the pussy” comments that came out during his first presidential campaign. The Stormy Daniels situation. There are endless examples of Donald Trump’s rude, mean-spirited, and vulgar comments about women that he’s feuding with. Could give you lots of examples of that.”

“In all these cases, Donald Trump has faced down every criticism, okay? Every one. He has survived these,” continued Halperin. “But I can tell you this about Donald Trump without having discussed this matter with him. He is savvy enough, canny enough, and aware enough, and sensible enough to understand that a connection to Jeffrey Epstein, it’s just different. As damaging as those other sexual matters might have been, Epstein is different.”

He went on:

And when you look at what his [Trump’s] spokespeople say when they’re forced to respond on Epstein. They always make a point of emphasizing that Donald Trump cut off the relationship. And there’s no reason to doubt that. There’s no reason to doubt it. But at the same time, there’s also no reason to doubt they had a years-long association, the contours of which we still don’t know. The Wall Street Journal says Donald Trump wrote Jeffrey Epstein a letter for his birthday book. I don’t if it’s true or not, the president denies it. I’ll say again, I don’t pre-judge. The president might be telling the truth, he might not. But that letter, if it’s accurate, if its authentic, to me, it’s not about whether Donald Trump wrote something bawdy or not. This is a guy who associated with porn stars, right? It’s not about that. It’s about a reminder that even now, we don’t know the contours of their relationship. There’s so many questions about it, we don’t know. The president doesn’t want to talk about any of that.

Toward the end of his monologue, Halperin professed not to be a “suspicious person,” or to assume “the worst about Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

But, he said, “the building blocks for me remain. He [Trump] shouldn’t be making decisions in this case, because even though he broke off his relationship with Epstein by his own account, as best we can tell, they were close friends. The level of closeness is something still to be figured out, but they were close friends. He shouldn’t be running this thing. But he’s chosen to, and he’s chosen to try to get the story to stop. Limited disclosure.”

“The irony is the president’s desire to make this story go away has only fueled it,” concluded Halperin. “Because I’m not the only one who looks at the way he’s handled himself, the way’s talked about this, not just now, as I’ve said, but over years, and wonders, ‘What is that about?’ You don’t have to have a PhD in Trump studies to say, ‘String together his squirreliest answers, and you will see something weird.'”

Watch above via Next Up with Mark Halperin on YouTube.