GOP congressman scurries as CNN panelists gang up on his excuses for Trump-Epstein scandal
CNN panelists ganged up on a Republican congressman after he attempted to downplay the revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) appeared Wednesday on "CNN This Morning," where he waved away concerns about the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case and the delayed release of investigative files as required by a law passed last fall by Congress despite initial resistance from Republican leadership.
"Well, let's just be clearabout where we're at and why," Haridopolos said. "For four years, no one cared. Ro Khanna, no interest, [Thomas] Massie inour party – I guess he's still inour party – had no interest inthis issue. Suddenly, thepresident comes in. We're herebecause Donald Trump kept thisissue alive and I've actuallytalked to some of the people whoare involved in the acquisitionof all this material. It'svoluminous we're talkingmillions and millions."
Host Audie Cornish interrupted to say he was only half right.
"Can I stop you there?" she said. "You are,in fact, here because Donald Trumpkept this issue alive, andnow people don't believe hisadministration is followingthrough on its promises oftransparency."
Haridopolos excused the administration's delay by arguing that the sheer volume of the material, combined with the requirement to redact identifying information about the victims, presented tremendous challenges, but Cornish pointed out that many of the survivors had their names and images released.
"So make it make sense for avictim who says, 'Well, wait asecond, out of all the thingsthat have been released, it'sbeen a couple of our names, acouple of our bodies,' andmeanwhile there are redactednames of men who may have beenco-conspirators," Cornish said. "Those things arestill under wraps."
She pressed the congressman to explain the disparity between the men accused of abusing these women when they were teenagers, and Haridopolos retreated to partisan politics.
"I'm very happy to heareveryone has found religion onthis because no one gave a crapfor four years," Haridopolos said. "The Democratssaid nothing to see here,nothing to see here, and nowthey took it on. We're here andwe're getting the informationout. This is a huge amount ofinformation, and there's goingto be mistakes when you havethis much information out thereand it looks like folks arefinally being called on thecarpet for it, which I think isgood."
Cornish asked him specifically about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who contradicted previous claims about his relationship with Epstein by testifying that he'd visited the sex offender's private island in 2012 with his wife and children.
"I hopehe's being candid about it,because in Washington, we allknow eventually all the factsare going to come out," Haridopolos said. "Might aswell tell the truth early andoften."
"Congressman, respectfully, ittook a force bipartisan vote forthe information to be released," interrupted Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, "and now that has there wastremendous pressure in order forDOJ to continue to release thefile. So it wasn't like thecampaign promises made by [Vice President JD] Vanceand others who said, we're goingto release the files on my desk.It wasn't like they just will-nilly decided to release them.There's a force effort, buthere's my direct question foryou: Will the information thatis found in the files, will Republicans take an honestoversight approach and holdfolks accountable when they findout that there may be people inthe Republican circles that arein the files in a disgusting way?"
Haridopolos again blamed Democrats for turning the Epstein case into a problem for the president.
"Well, I think the fact that Lutnick is now out there, he's abig player in the in the Trumpadministration, it's out there,but again, I can't I got to goback to why didn't we have thisconversation on CNN for fouryears when Joe Biden waspresident?" he said. "Why not? I don'tunderstand that."
"Republicans campaigned on wanting to do this," Seawright reminded him.
"No, no, no, no," Haridopolos insisted. "For four years, no one cared.I looked it up."
"I think what people are confusedabout," Cornish interjected, "is the plea deal the pleadeal itself the thing thatstarted this whole scandal, ithappened before Biden. Ithappened under Trump. We're backat Trump where people like [FBI Director] Kash Patel typed it up in his book."
Haridopolos defended the administration, saying the DOJ's efforts to release millions of investigative files was unprecedented, but Cornish rejected his point.
"So you say you deserve points, points for participation," she said. "Itfeels like points forparticipation."
"I don't want any points onanything," Haridopolos yelped. "Yeah, I wish thisthing never happened. This is,what's happened to these boys andgirls is horrific and thesepeople who manipulated thesystem. Epstein manipulatedpeople on their ego, this isn'tall an ego play. He's aconcierge to the stars. He getsthem planes or fancy islandtrips, and these people aresuckers and played it. And I'mglad to see them exposed."
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