Fox’s Peter Doocy Says West Wing in the Dark About Melania Trump’s Epstein Statement: ‘We Don’t Know’

Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy revealed on Friday that the West Wing appeared to know very little about Melania Trump’s bombshell Jeffrey Epstein statement, saying he was told, “We don’t know” in the hours leading up to it.

Speaking to Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, and Lawrence Jones on Friday morning, Doocy opened his report by saying that the first lady’s 2:30 p.m. statement on Thursday came with no heads up from the White House, and reporters “turned on a dime from talking about Operation Epic Fury to talking about Epstein.”

When Kilmeade said it appeared the White House was “blindsided” by the appearance, Doocy replied: “I don’t think blindsided, but it seems like there was not a big plan for the message to change from a wartime message and peace talks in Pakistan to this.”

Doocy added that after receiving calls from the afternoon shows asking what the Melania appearance would be about, he called the West Wing and was told, “We don’t know. We’re not sure.”

“And so, it was obviously well-planned by the people in the East Wing, but it was a surprise to all of us,” he said.

Earlier in the show, a senior adviser to the first lady told Earhardt that Trump made the statement to “set the record straight” on Epstein.

“All day long, lies and innuendos are coming through the media about the first lady,” Marc Beckman said. “And she just wanted to set the record straight. If she can’t stick up for herself, if she can’t defend herself and make sure that her reputation is impeccable, who will do it? Nobody’s done it to date.”

President Donald Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein, and claims their friendship ended in 2005. He has called any assertion otherwise a “Democrat hoax.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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