Jake Tapper says Trump is gaslighting the public on Epstein: ‘You're being played for fools'

Independent

09-07-2025

CNN anchor Jake Tapper tore into Donald Trump for his sudden about-face on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, claiming that the public was being 'played for fools' after the Justice Department released a memo essentially saying the case was closed and Epstein had no 'client list.'
Tapper's scathing monologue came just hours after the president indignantly dismissed a reporter's question about the Epstein files and discrepancies in the information that was released this week, prompting Trump to fume that it was 'unbelievable' that 'people are still talking about this creep.'
During Tuesday's broadcast of CNN's The Lead, the veteran journalist kicked off his segment by highlighting the amount of rage that the Epstein memo has provoked among MAGA supporters, specifically noting that former 'first buddy' Elon Musk has been increasingly outspoken about the matter.
'How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won't release the Epstein files?' Tapper asked, quoting a tweet from Tuesday afternoon by Musk, who has reignited his feud with the president in recent days.
Pointing out that the Tesla CEO's post 'gets at a serious question prompted by MAGA fans,' Tapper added that this comes after the DOJ determined in its memo that Epstein did not blackmail high-profile clients, did not maintain a 'client list,' and was not murdered in his jail cell in 2019.
'Despite the fact that the very same administration officials are now asserting there is no there there, many of them were the ones ginning up the controversy before President Trump was reelected and while they were in office,' the Lead host stated.
Underscoring that the memo also happened to come out just a month after Musk accused the president of 'being in the Epstein files' and claiming this was the 'real reason' why they hadn't been released, Tapper brought up the billionaire's recent social media broadsides against the administration.
Spotlighting a meme Musk shared that shows a guy putting on progressively more clown makeup before eventually declaring 'there is no Epstein list,' Tapper then aired clips of Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming in February that she had the deceased sex offender's 'client list' on her desk for review.
After playing additional footage of Bondi walking back those remarks and the president complaining about being asked about the Epstein memo, the CNN anchor explained to Trump why there is still intense interest in the disgraced financier.
'Mr. President, the reason people are talking about this guy is because people serving in the highest levels of your administration have been talking about this guy for years and talking about how the list, the Epstein list, needs to be released,' Tapper exclaimed.
From there, Tapper rolled a montage of several Trump officials – and the president himself – saying that it was imperative that the Epstein list needed to be released and how it would almost certainly lead to mass arrests of prominent political and business figures.
Vice President JD Vance, for instance, said just before the 2024 election that it was 'an important thing' for the list to be publicly released. FBI Director Kash Patel, who along with his deputy Dan Bongino spent the past few years as MAGA podcasters trafficking in Epstein conspiracies, declared in 2023 that the list hadn't been released yet because of 'who's on it.'
Bongino, in fact, was insisting just weeks before he was tapped to be second-in-charge at the FBI that he was 'never going to let this story go' because of what he heard from a source about Bill Clinton's trips on Epstein's plane. (After Epstein's arrest in 2019, a Clinton spokesperson said the former president had no knowledge of Epstein's terrible crimes.)
After airing a clip of then-White House counselor Alina Habba claiming in February that the administration had 'incredibly disturbing' and 'shocking' files on Epstein that it was about to make public, Tapper snarked: 'I'm shocked that none of that's been released.'
Explaining that Bondi continually teased the imminent publication of the Epstein files, only to drop a dud when she handed 'Phase One' binders full of already-public information to MAGA influencers, the host clarified exactly how the president and his administration were gaslighting the American people.
'Remember, Trump made part of this his platform,' he declared, playing a clip of the president telling Fox News last year that he'd declassify the Epstein files.
'So what's really going on here? I mean, what's really going on? Well, experts such as our friend Julie Brown from the Miami Herald, who has been covering Epstein for years, say that the notion of Epstein having an easy-to-access client list is likely a red herring.' Tapper said.
'And that's what the Trump Administration is relying on, that there likely isn't a list, per se, but they are also now relying on the fact that because it's MAGA influencers who often put forward so many falsehoods, legacy news media won't push the point that while there might not be a list, there are certainly files that can be released,' he continued.
Stating that there's a 'trove of information' on Epstein that the administration is refusing to share right now, which could implicate powerful folks who took part in the sex trafficking of Epstein's victims, Tapper wrapped up the segment by warning the president that he can't just shrug this off and move on.
'So while there may not be an official client list to be released, as the administration is now saying, there's a lot of extra information that is not being made public despite Trump's Justice Department basically now saying case closed,' he concluded. 'This isn't going to go away. The public – you – you're being played for fools here.'