Axios founder rips GOP senator over Epstein excuses: 'What the hell is she talking about?'
February 11, 2026
Sen. Cynthia Lummis' (R-WY) admission on Monday that she now gets “what the big deal is” after she took the time to review the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files earned her a hammering by Axios founder Jim VandeHei as he wondered why she would admit such a thing.
According to Lummis, a Senate backbencher, “I’ve not been one of the members who has glommed on to this as an issue. I’ve sort of intentionally deferred to others to find out about it. But 9-year-old victims … wow.”
Speaking with “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday morning, an exasperated VandeHei pounced on her comments.
Noting that the Epstein revelations are “definitely breaking through,” he added, “And it's great that the senator now is calling for a full release of the documents. But what the hell is she talking about?”
“It's been long known that this creep was running a Ponzi scheme, exploiting not 1 or 2 underage girls, but literally scores of underage girls," he exclaimed. “It was the worst kept secret in Palm Beach, so anyone who was living there was well aware of what was going on. The fact that [Commerce Secretary Howard] Lutnick knew he was a creep, everybody knew that he was a creep, and yet they continued to do business with them or to have relationships with him. That isn't necessarily criminal. I'd say it's morally criminal.”
“I can't believe how many people had contact with this guy, had relationships with this guy after it was well known, the type of person he was after,” he added. “It was known that he was convicted of the grossest, most heinous types of crimes you possibly could.”
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