Shane Gillis Jabs at Trump During ESPYs: ‘There Was Supposed To Be an Epstein Joke Here, But…’

 

Comedian Shane Gillis jabbed at President Donald Trump while hosting the ESPYs on Wednesday night.

Over the past week or so, Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files has dominated the news cycle after Trump and several administration officials promised to release documents relating to the deceased child sex trafficker, who the Department of Justice said committed suicide in 2019. Last week, the DOJ said in a memo that Epstein’s long-rumored client list was a fiction. That finding came five months after Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that the list was “sitting on my desk.”

Not surprisingly, many Trump supporters feel betrayed after trusting that the president would deliver on the Epstein case. On Wednesday, what’s been a nightmarish news cycle for Trump seeped into America’s premier sports awards show.

“Jon Jones and Nate Diaz are here,” Gillis said, referring to two MMA fighters. “I actually had a couple drinks with those guys last night at the hotel, and it was terrifying. Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died.”

After some nervous laughter and applause from the audience, Gillis said, “You don’t have to do that. It was fine. I didn’t write it.”

Then came the Epstein crack.

“Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted,” he continued. “Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move on as a country and ignore that.”

Trump has responded to his self-inflicted wound by lashing out at supporters who want the files released.

“It’s pretty boring stuff,” the president insisted on Tuesday. “It’s sordid, but it’s boring. And I don’t understand why it keeps going. I think, really, only pretty bad people, including fake news, wanna keep something like that going.”

Watch above via ABC.

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Mike is a Mediaite senior editor who covers the news in primetime. Follow him on Bluesky.