JD Vance Says ‘I Have No Idea’ If Trump’s Epstein Letter ‘Exists’ — Despite Trump Calling it ‘Fake’

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Vice President JD Vance clarified his criticism of a recent Wall Street Journal article on a “bawdy” letter President Donald Trump reportedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein for his birthday – a report Vance originally called “bullshit.”

MSNBC host Chris Hayes pushed Vance to comment after the New York Times reported Thursday that Trump’s name is indeed on a list of contributors for Epstein’s birthday book. “The contention is that the book is entirely fake? Or Trump being a contributor is fake, or all that is real but someone created a totally fake Trump letter and stuck it in the real book?” Hayes asked Vance online.

“The contention–which is pretty clear if you just read what I said–is that it’s bogus for the WSJ to publish a hit piece without showing us the letter,” Vance replied, adding:

I have no idea if the book exists–WSJ won’t show it to us. I have no idea if the letter exists–WSJ won’t show it to us. What I find absurd is the idea that Donald Trump was writing poems to Epstein, and I find it equally absurd that a major American paper would attack the President of the United States without revealing the basis for the attack.

We all know what’s going to happen. They’re going to dribble little details out for days or weeks in an effort to assassinate the president’s character. They won’t show us this book or allow us to refute it until they’ve wrung every bit of fake news out of the story. And everyone will just move on from the fact that the WSJ is acting like a Democrat SuperPAC. It’s disgraceful, and it’s why the president sued.

Trump and his team have insisted that the letter in the Wall Street Journal report is “fake” and have since sued the WSJ for $10 billion. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” Trump told the WSJ in reply to the original report, adding, “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

Vance seemingly acknowledging the letter could be real is a notable break from the president’s adamant denials on the topic.

Trump was asked again on Friday if he still contends he “did not write a letter for Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday?” Trump replied:

I don’t even know what they’re talking about. Now, somebody could have written a letter and used my name. That’s happened a lot. All you have to do is take a look at the dossier, the fake dossier. Everything’s fake with that administration. Everything’s fake with the Democrats. Take a look what they just found about the dossiers. Everything is fake. They’re a bunch of sick people.

Vance’s original reply to the July 17th WSJ report was much more closely aligned to Trump’s rhetoric as he said, “Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it. Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?”