Trump Scrambles to Create a Distraction From Epstein Files
During an appearance Wednesday on Real America's Voice, Just the News founder John Solomon reported that Trump was open to declassifying information tied to conspiracy theories about the former secretary of state.
One piece was the classified annex of Inspector General Michael Horowitz's 2018 report on the FBI's actions ahead of the 2016 election. The missing annex had become the center of right-wing conspiracies that the FBI had ignored credible information of Clinton's wrongdoing in the investigation of her private email server.
When asked if he'd declassify the annex, Trump told Just the News, 'I would do that.'
'Absolutely. I think it should be looked at. The whole thing was a scam. I would do that broadly,' Trump said.
Trump also indicated he was open to declassifying another classified annex from Special Counsel John Durham's 2023 report, which supposedly contained evidence that Clinton had approved a proposal to 'vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.'
'I would declassify it, yeah. Why not?' Trump told Just the News. 'I would absolutely declassify it.'
But Trump's promises are far from an actual commitment. Trump had previously pledged the 'total declassification of any & all documents' related to Russiagate and Clinton's use of a private email server during his first term, but attorneys from the Department of Justice told the Office of White House Council to simply disregard the president's hollow threat.
Trump has been increasingly desperate to redirect the massive backlash over his administration's toothless findings in its investigation into Epstein, which produced no additional documents and found that the sex offender kept no incriminating 'client list,' even though his attorney general claimed one had been sitting on her desk.
The president posted a furious rant on Truth Social Tuesday, saying that any of his followers who were interested in the Epstein case were falling for Democratic 'bullshit,' and compared it to the 'totally fake and made up story used in order to hide Crooked Hillary Clinton's big loss in the 2016 Presidential Election.' Similarly to Russia's interference in the 2016 election, Trump now claims that Epstein files are a 'hoax.'
Unfortunately for Trump, Americans don't care about Clinton's emails nearly as much as they care about his own administration's scandal: Signalgate, the infamous use of a non-secure messaging app by several top Cabinet officials to discuss sensitive war plans.
After Signalgate, a YouGov survey found that nearly 75 percent of respondents believed the scandal was 'very' or 'somewhat' serious.
After Clinton's email scandal in 2015, YouGov found that 56 percent of respondents thought the issue was 'very serious' and 'somewhat serious.' By 2022, people had become more concerned, but only 62 percent saw it as 'very serious' or 'somewhat serious,' likely at least in part resulting from Trump's constant griping about it.
Meanwhile, a Quinnpac Poll published Wednesday found that 63 percent of American voters disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files.
Trump's looking for anything at all that can distract the angry mob. Just in case the almond moms were sharpening their pitchforks, Trump even promised that he would get real sugar added to Coca Cola instead of high fructose corn syrup. Now there's something everyone can get behind!
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