CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Out Trump’s ‘Evolving’ Story After New Epstein Bombshell
CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called out President Donald Trump over the “evolving” story of his breakup with onetime pal-turned-sex criminal corpse Jeffrey Epstein.
While in Scotland, Trump claimed the reason for his falling out with Epstein was that his then-friend was poaching employees from Mar-a-Lago. The White House had previously claimed Trump “kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”
Trump stunned reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday with the bombshell that deceased Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre was among the staffers Epstein “stole” from the spa at Mar-a-Lago.
Collins was on hand after the plane landed to confront him over the Giuffre revelation, and called out the shifting stories on Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins:
KAITLAN COLLINS: After several days in Scotland, President Trump returned to Washington, tonight, where questions have continued to follow him, over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, questions likely only amplified after the President acknowledged that Epstein recruited one of his victims, from the President’s Mar-a-Lago Club, many years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, you said yesterday your falling out with Jeffrey Epstein was over him taking some of the workers from your business. But your administration in the past said that you threw him out because he was a creep. So can you explain that discrepancy?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, maybe they’re the same thing. You know, sort of a little bit of the same thing. But no, he took people that worked for me, and I told him don’t do it anymore, and he did it. And I said, ‘stay the hell out of here.’
REPORTER: Epstein has a certain reputation, obviously. Just curious, were some of the workers that were taken from you, were some of them young women?
TRUMP: Were some of them —
REPORTER: Were some of them young women? TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to say, but everyone knows the people that were taken. And it was the concept of taking people that work for me is bad. But that story has been pretty well out there. And the answer is yes, they were.
REPORTER: Yes, they were young women.
TRUMP: Yes.
REPORTER: What did they do? What kind of jobs (ph)?
TRUMP: In the spa.
REPORTER: In the spa?
TRUMP: Yes, people that work in the spa. I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago. And people were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone.
And other people would come and complain, ‘this guy is taking people from the spa.’ I didn’t know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa, I don’t want him taking people.’ And he was fine, and then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘out of here.’
REPORTER: Mr. President, did — did one of those stolen, you know, persons, did that include Virginia Giuffre?
TRUMP: I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people, yes. He — he stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Virginia Giuffre, who the President was asked about there, died by suicide, earlier this year. She was a teenage employee, when she was recruited by Epstein, and accused him of trafficking her and forcing her to have sex with his friends. That recruitment was put in place, she said, and in motion by his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIRGINIA GIUFFRE, AMERICAN-AUSTRALIAN ADVOCATE OF JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS OF SEX TRAFFICKING: We need to get to the bottom of everybody who was involved with that, starting with Ghislaine Maxwell, and going along the lines there.
I was recruited at a very young age from Mar-a-Lago, and entrapped in a world that I didn’t understand, and I’ve been fighting that very world to this day, and I won’t stop fighting. I will never be silenced until these people are brought to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The President’s answers today, about his fallout with Jeffrey Epstein, have only raised new questions, about what the President knew exactly about the late sex trafficker’s misconduct.
It’s important to note, the President himself has — himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing, in connection with Jeffrey Epstein. But his answers on their relationship, and their fallout, have evolved, after yesterday, he told reporters, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: But for years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein, I wouldn’t talk. Because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said, Don’t ever do that again. He stole people that worked for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Tonight, as he returned to the White House, I asked the President whether Epstein’s moves, then raised questions about his conduct.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Mr. President, you said earlier that Jeffrey Epstein was stealing young women. You said Jeffrey Epstein was stealing young women from your spa. Did that raise alarm bells for you?
TRUMP: Be quiet.
COLLINS: Did that raise alarm bells for you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: As you can see, the President did not answer that question.
And when it comes to unanswered questions, here in Washington, Congress may have a lot more tonight. That’s because, as we were — first reported here on CNN today, Ghislaine Maxwell responded to her congressional subpoena for her testimony with a list of demands.
Those demands include being granted formal immunity before she testifies. For the interview to take place outside the correctional facility where she’s serving her 20-year sentence. She also wants all of the committee’s questions in advance. And any testimony that she would give would have to come after the Supreme Court weighs in on her bid to overturn her conviction, meaning that it could take months before any testimony would happen.
But tonight, it remains very unclear, and seemingly unlikely, if this goes anywhere, because we’ve already heard from the House Oversight chair, James Comer, who issued that subpoena, rejecting the notion that Ghislaine Maxwell would be granted congressional immunity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): I don’t think there are many Republicans that want to give immunity to someone that may have been sex trafficking children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
