Maggie Haberman Calls Out Trump ‘Struggle’ Over Epstein Uproar: ‘Self-Inflicted Wound’
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman called out President Donald Trump for a lack of transparency and “struggle” to manage the uproar around Jeffrey Epstein.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins and Haberman discussed the revelation that the Epstein grand jury transcripts contain testimony from just two witnesses — both of them law enforcement officers.
Both agreed that the “MAGA base” would not likely be satisfied with such a release, and Haberman called the revolt over the issue “primarily a self-inflicted story”:
COLLINS: And what do you make of this revelation about the grand jury testimony only having two witnesses in it, and they’re both law enforcement officials?
And I think what the MAGA base is expecting, and what has been built up here, is this highly, you know, high-profile client list, all of these details. That does not seem, from what Elie just laid out there, to be what would be in here.
HABERMAN: It’s — we always knew it wasn’t going to be in there, Kaitlan. We always knew this was going to be a fraction of any evidence.
And to be clear, we don’t know that there is a client list. This client list idea was generated, I believe, by allies of the President. It may not be there.
But it is worth remembering that the administration put out files related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and there were people’s Social Security numbers that inadvertently went out, leaving people whose Social Security numbers went out because, as we were told, these went out fast because the President wanted transparency. He does have the ability to put these out.
And your point is correct. Democrats are, you know, they were fully able to put this out themselves, if they were so interested in this topic when President Biden was in office.
But it is President Trump’s advisers and allies who have also kept this going.
COLLINS: Well and on the transparency note, this is something the White House always touts. They say they’re the most transparent. We hear it pretty much at every press briefing.
HABERMAN: Yes.
COLLINS: The President himself has said it, and they talk about the access that people get to the President. I mean, that’s a fair point in terms of him answering questions.
HABERMAN: It’s true.
COLLINS: But I do wonder how it sits with the MAGA base, if they’ve promised transparency, and then they don’t end up releasing what they told them they’d release?
HABERMAN: Right, look, I mean, again, this isn’t — this is primarily a self-inflicted story, and a self-inflicted wound, that they are dealing with, and they are struggling to get out of it.
It is absolutely true that President Trump, especially by comparison to President Biden, is more accessible. But that has not much to do with whether they’re releasing information that they themselves set the bar for.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
