Latest news with #GerrymanderMidterms
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The White House's Epstein ‘Hoax' Explanation Makes Zero Sense
To no one's surprise, President Donald Trump's demand that everyone shut up about Jeffrey Epstein isn't going over too well with Americans who are upset about the Justice Department ignoring calls for transparency about the dead convicted sex offender. As the administration struggles to get their outraged surrogates back in line, its answers to basic questions about the case are becoming increasingly incoherent. Trump has already fallen back to absurdist claims that the lingering questions about Epstein's alleged sex trafficking operations and the circumstances surrounding his death are a 'hoax' engineered by former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — one his supporters were 'stupid' for believing. When asked during Thursday's press briefing exactly what Trump thinks is the 'hoax,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied: 'The president is referring to the fact Democrats have now seized on this as if they ever wanted transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein,' and that 'the Democrats have control of this building, the White House, for four years and they never did a dang thing when it came to transparency in regards to Jeffrey Epstein and his heinous crimes.' So the 'hoax' is that Democrats didn't release the Epstein files while they were in power? This makes zero sense considering Trump has been saying Democrats 'made up' the files in the first place as part of a ploy to make him look bad, a la the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, the Trump's administration is actively attempting to bury the situation and demanding that their supporters simply look the other way. Leavitt went on to stumble through a whole round of questioning regarding the administration's reversal on promises to release large troves of evidence related to Epstein, and their decision to effectively close the book on allegations of a widespread sex trafficking ring. When asked if Trump would consider pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell 'if the Epstein case is a hoax,' Leavitt simply ignored the question. She also indicated Trump will not appoint a special prosecutor to assess the trove of Epstein evidence the Justice Department is keeping under wraps. When asked what was stopping the administration from redacting sensitive information that could potentially harm or identify victims, Leavitt deferred to the Justice Department, and said that it was 'out of the president's control.' 'I only say, the American people should trust in President Trump,' Leavitt said at one point. Given that the president is currently calling the people who trusted him and his administration to provide the public answers about the Epstein case 'stupid,' it's hard to imagine why anyone would take his spokesperson at her word. More from Rolling Stone Republicans Obey Trump, Vote to Cut Funding for NPR and PBS 'Five-Alarm Fire': Texas Dem Sounds Off on Trump's Bid to Gerrymander Midterms The No Kings Playbook to Confront Trump's 'Authoritarian Breakthrough' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Sues Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch Over Report on Epstein Birthday Letter
Following The Wall Street Journal's bombshell report on a birthday letter Donald Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, the president sued the newspaper's parent company, News Corp., Dow Jones (its publisher), two reporters for the Journal, and billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp. owner. According to the lawsuit filed in Southern District of Florida on Friday and obtained by Rolling Stone Trump is seeking at least $10 billion in damages and accused the Journal of 'knowingly and recklessly published the numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements' in their report. He also alleged that reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo 'falsely represent as fact that President Trump drew the naked woman's breasts and signed his name 'Donald' below her waist. Trump also accused the reporters of having 'failed attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained,' adding: 'The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists.' In the Journal's story published Thursday evening, the newspaper alleged that a collection of letter had been gifted to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday and compiled in a 2003 album by Ghislane Maxwell, also a convicted sex offender. According to the newspaper, among the pages of the album was a note bearing Donald Trump's name outlined by a drawing of a naked woman that also enclosed the text: 'We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.' The president has vehemently denied that he wrote the letter or drew the picture. 'The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,' he wrote on Truth Social following the report. 'These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures.' Despite Trump's denial that he doesn't doodle, he has a well-known history of drawing pictures for charity events. Trump himself has boasted about his penchant for scribbles, and in a 2010 book titled Trump Never Give Up, he wrote: 'Sometimes being a giver will open you up to new talents. Each year I donate an autographed doodle to the Doodle for Hunger auction at Tavern on the Green. It takes me a few minutes to draw something.… Art may not be my strong point, but the end result is help for people who need it.' In a Truth Social post shared on Friday, Trump wrote: 'I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his 'pile of garbage' newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!' More from Rolling Stone Republicans Obey Trump, Vote to Cut Funding for NPR and PBS 'Five-Alarm Fire': Texas Dem Sounds Off on Trump's Bid to Gerrymander Midterms The No Kings Playbook to Confront Trump's 'Authoritarian Breakthrough' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
