JD Vance's 'laughable' excuse for fumbling Epstein files chided by Dem: 'He clearly knew'

A Democratic lawmaker chided the way Vice President JD Vance described the White House's handling of the Epstein files.

While speaking with CNN anchor Erin Burnett, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) reacted to comments that Vance made while he was on The Joe Rogan Experience earlier this week.

"I say this with all candor. Like, we absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files," Vance told Rogan. "We just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is that we were trying to hide something? No."

Before Burnett could finish asking whether Vance's claims were believable, Garcia shouted, "That's laughable," as he shook his head.

"That's laughable," Garcia repeated. "The Vice President was holding essentially classified meetings in the Situation Room with the entire top level of the administration, including the AG, the Chief of Staff, the FBI director, trying to actually manage the release of the files."

Garcia was referring to details that emerged from reporting by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their book Regime Change.

Garcia explained that in the meetings, Vance was trying to "basically take the heat off Donald Trump," and dismissed Vance's description of those scenes as simply a communications problem.

"The vice president was in the situation room trying to manage the Epstein files, and he's saying it was a comms problem?" Garcia said. "He clearly knew that this was much bigger than a comms issue, which is why he's trying to have these secret meetings in the situation room."

Garcia added, "We know from reporting that they were trying to use Ghislaine Maxwell as a possible way of exonerating the president. It's outrageous."