Trump Voters Tell CNN the President Should Testify About Epstein Files: ‘He Betrayed the Promise’
CNN’s John King found among people who voted for President Donald Trump varying degrees of support over his handling of the Epstein files, but all agreed the president should testify on the matter.
On Friday’s edition of Inside Politics, Dana Bash played clips from King’s new streaming series All Over the Map, where he spoke to Trump voters about the controversial release by the Department of Justice of files related to the case of late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi met with lawmakers for a deposition on Friday about the release of the files, which came after Congress pushed DOJ to do so. Critics, including some Epstein survivors who were on Capitol Hill, have demanded less redactions in the files and questioned DOJ’s claim that Epstein was not sex trafficking for other high profile associates.
“[Whether] he was cynically lying to get my vote or whether there was powers that be that have stopped it, I don’t know and, quite frankly, I’m not sure if I really care at this point, but he betrayed the promise,” one 2024 Trump voter told King.
Others offered more supportive messages.
“They’re not giving him enough time. They’re already on top of him. Like, I feel like he’s the only one that’s mentioned the children out of this whole thing,” another voter said.
“When I think about Russia and I think about all of these attacks that they’ve made against President Trump, it makes me believe that there are ulterior motives to this deal and they will do anything they can to take him down,” yet another Trump voter said.
A final Trump supporter added, “When there is smoke, there is fire. And sometimes there’s just smoke.”
“I mean, that last line in particular is, to me, is sort of a classic Trump supporter. You just want to believe everything that he is saying,” Bash said.
King noted that while some were still supportive of Trump, all of the voters he talked to agreed that he should testify about the Epstein files — while also admitting that’s not likely to ever happen.
He said:
And yet, all four of those Trump voters, different states, different ages, different relationships with Trump, some are all in, some are more reluctant Trump voters, all four said they think the president should testify about this, and they all said they think he should testify now about this. All four also said that was not gonna happen. They didn’t think that was gonna happen while he was president of the United States, if ever. But there is this — look, they were promised by Pam Bondi, by Kash Patel, by all these people that this was going to be full transparency, and now they see anything but. And so they all know there’s something going on.
Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. His longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years for sex trafficking, crimes DOJ said at the time she committed in coordination with Epstein.
Watch above via CNN.
New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!
Comments
↓ Scroll down for comments ↓