A Democratic congressman put President Donald Trump's name and the word "pedophile" into the same sentence, prompting a hasty scramble by a CNN host to make a legal disclaimer — and change the topic.
Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA) appeared Thursday on "CNN This Morning," where host Erica Hill asked him to comment on the latest developments in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has pitted the president against the MAGA movement he built.
"Well, two things can be true, certainly this is not a Democratic scandal and conspiracy, this is something the Republicans created many years ago," Liccardo said. "It's for them to figure out, and bluntly, to get the information out to the public. The public deserves to know but, frankly, [the] American public doesn't care about what is or is not in a particular file.
"What they care about is being able to pay bills. They're worried about the future, and we need to be very clear and focused on doing what we can to help Americans who are struggling right now."
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will meet with Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in prison as soon as Thursday, but Liccardo doubted that the Department of Justice would reveal anything that would implicate the president in his former friend's crimes.
"Well, certainly they should release the files, there's no question about that," Liccardo said. "Whether Trump is a pedophile or not, I don't pretend to know, but clearly the Wall Street Journalsuggests there's some implication in the files. Fine, let's release them, let's get the information out in the public, and then let's move on. We're not getting work done right now in Congress, because the Republicans were so worried about the release of these files, they shut the whole place down. We're not getting any work done, and we have a lot of work to do."
Hill reacted to the congressman's pedophile insinuation, pointing out that Trump himself had not been accused of the crimes for which Epstein and Maxwell had been convicted, and then swiftly pivoted to ask about the president's executive orders.
"So I should point out, based on CNN's own reporting, the president has been alerted that his name is in the files," Hill said. "There's no evidence that there is any inappropriate behavior that has been linked to President Trump in this moment.
She then wildly veered to a completely different, "You talk about what's happening, what is happening, the president signing a trio of executive orders addressing AI."
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