CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Out Trump Allies Blocking Out Epstein After ‘Years Talking About It’
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins called out allies of President Donald Trump over their disinterest in the Epstein Files after they “spent years talking about it.”
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee dropped a bomb Wednesday morning with the release of emails that Jeffrey Epstein sent to accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and author Michael Wolff that directly referenced Trump.
Republicans responded with a dump of tens of thousands more documents and emails, many with explosive revelations. As the media attention grew, Trump officials convened a meeting at the White House with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) to convince her to abandon efforts to release more Epstein documents.
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the anchor asked analysts Bakari Sellers and Scott Jennings about the White House’s complaint that Democrats weren’t “so fervent” about Epstein under the last administration.
But then she asked Jennings about Trump and Republicans “who spent years talking about it, but now that they’re in power, don’t want to talk about it”:
COLLINS: Bakari, I wonder how you see that in terms of the — you know, we talked about this complaint from the White House. They’re saying, Democrats didn’t bring this up, when Joe Biden was in office. They weren’t as fervent on this, as they have been in the last few months. What’s your response to that?
SELLERS: I mean, first, I mean, it’s a really, really rough week for Republicans and Donald Trump.
Affordability is an issue that Republicans don’t want to deal with. They’re putting their head in the sand. Prices are rising. People are going to have to pay higher costs for Thanksgiving meals coming up.
We’re seeing this. We’re seeing health care premiums about to spike. Republicans don’t know what to do with our health care conundrum we have in this country. They failed the American public year after year after year.
And then, per Scott Jennings, I mean, he just said it in the last block. I mean, everybody knows that Donald Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Nobody tried to hide that.
And so, yes, you have to wear around your neck that you were friends with one of the most notorious pedophiles in the history of the country.
And there is a trove of evidence that deals with his actions or inactions. And you said you were going to release them. And so now, dealing with the political issues, dealing with the sensationalized issues, he is — he finds himself in a box.
COLLINS: Yes.
Scott, can I ask you? Because you’re criticizing Democrats who weren’t talking about this, when Joe Biden was in office, but are talking about it now, right?
JENNINGS: Yes.
COLLINS: OK, but what about–
JENNINGS: I mean, it’s absolutely true.
COLLINS: But what about the Trump officials who spent years talking about it, but now that they’re in power, don’t want to talk about it?
JENNINGS: Look, I don’t know what the internal conversations are at the Justice Department, or at the White House, about the propriety of releasing these documents.
All I know is that the President has previously expressed some discomfort, about the idea of releasing a bunch of files, from an investigation that is closed, that may contain names of people who did nothing wrong, but would be smeared if the files were to become public.
I mean, obviously, there were powerful people involved. I don’t think anybody disputes that. And I have said, repeatedly, and Bakari and I agree on this, if powerful people got away with things, we need to know that, and they do need to be brought to justice.
But it is highly likely that there will be names in these documents, of people who literally did nothing wrong, yet would be smeared by just having their name, in a file, sitting on somebody’s desk at the Justice Department. That is a — that is something that has to do with governing responsibility. Sometimes, governing responsibility means making some of your supporters mad.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
