‘Why Now?’ Pundits Speculate On the Reasons Behind Melania’s Sudden Epstein Presser
(Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
First Lady Melania Trump’s stunning press conference Thursday in which she insisted she had “never been friends” with Jeffrey Epstein sparked a wave of speculation among political pundits, who openly wondered if there was a damaging story about to drop.
President Donald Trump’s friendship with the deceased child sex predator and his former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, led many of his critics to accuse him of knowing about their child sex trafficking schemes or even participating in them. The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing but new reports have continued to surface about correspondence between the two and Donald Trump’s name is mentioned numerous times in the Epstein Files that have been released so far by the Department of Justice.
On Thursday, Melania Trump held a press conference at the White House in which she attacked people who were making accusations against her about Epstein and Maxwell.
“I have never been friends with Epstein,” said Melania Trump. “Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach. To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell. My email applied to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trivial note.”
The first lady also encouraged Congress to allow Epstein’s victims to publicly testify.
Commentators expressed shock at Melania Trump’s presser and the chatter soon included speculation about what had motivated her to speak out now, especially considering that Epstein was not dominating the news cycle because of the Iran War. Even generally neutral reports about her comments seemed taken aback, like NBC News senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake, who tweeted that the presser was “breathing new life into the Epstein saga.”
“Ok so who’s about to break the Melania/Epstein story she just tried to get ahead of?” asked Obama speechwriter and Pod Save America podcaster Jon Favreau.
Many other pundits had a similar reaction, some taking guesses with names of investigative reporters who had broken previous Epstein bombshells and critics of the president pondering if Melania Trump launching the names Epstein and Maxwell back into headlines was a not-so-veiled attack on her husband for his past infidelities. A sampling of reactions is below.
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