{"id":279792,"date":"2025-11-13T06:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279792\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T06:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:10:12","slug":"nothing-to-see-here-trump-press-chief-in-full-denial-mode-over-epstein-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279792\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing to see here: Trump press chief in full denial mode over Epstein | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump<\/a> was described as \u201cthat dog that hasn\u2019t barked\u201d in an email by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/jeffrey-epstein\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>. Don\u2019t tell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/kristi-noem\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kristi Noem<\/a>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2024\/apr\/26\/trump-kristi-noem-shot-dog-and-goat-book\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has a way<\/a> of dealing with troublesome hounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The US president would love nothing more than to let sleeping dogs lie, but that hope was dashed on Wednesday when Democrats released emails suggesting that Trump was aware of Epstein\u2019s conduct and had spent hours with one of the disgraced financier\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/white-house-press-secretary-karoline-leavitt-prays-before-facing-reporters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">says a prayer<\/a> before each briefing, was dispatched to the podium to defy the laws of moral physics by explaining why the true wrongdoers here were Joe Biden and the Democrats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Leavitt\u2019s critics <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SundaeDivine\/status\/1974092946795606390?s=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">have compared her<\/a> to M3gan, an AI-powered lifesize doll in the sci-fi horror films of the same name. She speaks uncannily fluently with barely an um or an er. There was no escaping the chill that went through the briefing room as she dismissed Epstein questions as coolly and clinically as an AI datacentre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Weijia Jiang of CBS News asked: \u201cDid the president ever spend hours at Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s house with a victim?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Leavitt ducked and lobbed back a double negative: \u201cThese emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She went on: \u201cAnd what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach and so was Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a paedophile and he was a creep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Up until now Trump and his spin doctors have been breaking the cardinal rule of political scandals, insisting there is nothing to see here, only for a drip, drip, drip of revelations to keep the story alive. Why not just release the full Epstein files, asked one reporter, and put the matter to rest?<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Leavitt fired back: \u201cThis administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She claimed the justice department has \u201cturned over thousands of documents\u201d to the American people, and that the administration was cooperating with the House of Representatives\u2019 oversight committee. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the reason you are seeing these documents that were released today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It was fabulously audacious. No matter that every Democrat in the House of Representatives wants to release the files while all but a few Republicans are opposed because of their devotion to Trump. In Leavitt\u2019s black mirror, it\u2019s the Republicans who are champions of transparency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis administration has done more than any, and it just shows how this is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat party, for now they\u2019re talking about it all of a sudden because President Trump is in the Oval Office,\u201d she said, a note of indignation rising in her voice. \u201cBut when Joe Biden was sitting in there, the Democrats never brought this up. This wasn\u2019t an issue that they cared about because they actually don\u2019t care about the victims in these cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Leavitt then got philosophical. \u201cThere are no coincidences in Washington DC,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning ahead of Republicans reopening the government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-rsfwa\">Sign up to This Week in Trumpland<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration<\/p>\n<p>Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In her telling, it was all a \u201cdistraction campaign\u201d by the Democrats and the liberal media so that Leavitt would be asked questions about Epstein instead of the government reopening thanks to Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She was asked about a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/11\/12\/politics\/trump-administration-meeting-house-effort-epstein-document-release\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CNN report<\/a> that indicated that the White House would meet Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who has signed on to the petition to force the House to consider compelling the release of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cDoesn\u2019t it show transparency that members of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump administration<\/a> are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please?\u201d she responded. \u201cDoesn\u2019t that show our level of transparency?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Again, you almost had to admire the chutzpah. Then Leavitt pulled a familiar tactic that is serving her and Trump well in his second term: she switched gears and took a question from Reagan Reese, White House correspondent of the Daily Caller, a rightwing website co-founded by Tucker Carlson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Reese announced: \u201cI have a question on the government shutdown.\u201d Leavitt responded: \u201cThank you. I\u2019m glad someone does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The playbook had worked again. When momentum among the press pack is building dangerously, Trump or Leavitt nips it in the bud by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/oct\/04\/maga-white-house-press-corps-trump-administration\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">calling on a friendly face<\/a> who is sure to change the tone and lighten the mood. Instead of going after the Epstein emails like a dog with a bone on Wednesday, reporters asked about a variety of subjects, including Jack Schlossberg and which Wall Street executives were coming to dinner at the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">What might have been a wretched, career-threatening crisis for any another political leader became just another passing storm in the room. Leavitt did not break sweat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump was described as \u201cthat dog that hasn\u2019t barked\u201d in an email by Jeffrey Epstein. Don\u2019t tell&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-279792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}