An analyst on Thursday revealed why Vice President JD Vance's comments on the Epstein files threw President Donald Trump and his administration under the bus.
Journalist Chuck Todd told CNN that Vance's stunning admission during his interview Wednesday with Joe Rogan uncovers more about Vance — who has called himself an "OG conspiracy theorist" — and how he plans to position himself politically among fellow conservatives and the MAGA movement.
"I think that tells you a little bit more about Vance's own politics, right?" Todd said.
"He wants to stay in the good graces of that part of the information ecosystem that has been ... a portion of MAGA where Epstein and that scandal has been an important rallying cry, if you will," Todd added. "And it shows you, I think, Vance wants to be one of them."
Vance made a quiet confession to Rogan when he described the DOJ's release of the highly anticipated materials as a communications problem.
"So, in a weird way, he was pushing distance because the comms problem was the president, right?" Todd said. "It was the comms issue that he talks about: the president slow-walking the legislation, trying to stop it from being passed in the House, trying to stop it from being passed in the Senate, then finally stopping it from being released, trying to do that crazy deal with Ghislaine Maxwell. So in his own way, he was stabbing the president in the back with those comments."
