Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) repeatedly tried to suggest that the growing scandal involving Donald Trump, members of his administration, and the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are not a big deal, but was immediately fact checked by a CNN host and other guests on “CNN This Morning.”
“Well, let’s just be clear about where we’re at and why,” Haridopolos began. “For four years, no one cared. Ro Khanna, no interest, [Thomas] Massie in our party – I guess he’s still in our party – had no interest in this issue. Suddenly, the president comes in. We’re here because Donald Trump kept this issue alive and I’ve actually talked to some of the people who are involved in the acquisition of all this material. It’s voluminous we’re talking millions and millions.”
Host Audie Cornish interjected, “Can I stop you there? You are, in fact, here because Donald Trump kept this issue alive, and now people don’t believe his administration is following through on its promises of transparency.”
The congressman claimed the millions of Epstein files has delayed full release of the materials and overwhelmed the Department of Justice, which is led by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“So make it make sense for a victim who says, ‘Well, wait a second, out of all the things that have been released, it’s been a couple of our names, a couple of our bodies,’ and meanwhile there are redacted names of men who may have been co-conspirators,” Cornish noted. “Those things are still under wraps.”
Rather than respond directly, Haridopolos blamed excessive partisanship on Capitol Hill.
“I’m very happy to hear everyone has found religion on this because no one gave a crap for four years,” he whined. “The Democrats said nothing to see here, nothing to see here, and now they took it on. We’re here and we’re getting the information out. This is a huge amount of information, and there’s going to be mistakes when you have this much information out there and it looks like folks are finally being called on the carpet for it, which I think is good.”
What about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has been caught in a blatant lie about how many times he met with Epstein, Cornish asked.
“I hope he’s being candid about it, because in Washington, we all know eventually all the facts are going to come out,” Haridopolos said. “Might as well tell the truth early and often,” the congressman replied.
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright joined the discussion and dropped a verbal bomb on Haridopolos.
“Congressman, respectfully, it took a force bipartisan vote for the information to be released, and now that has there was tremendous pressure in order for DOJ to continue to release the file. So it wasn’t like the campaign promises made by [Vice President JD] Vance and others who said, we’re going to release the files on my desk. It wasn’t like they just will- nilly decided to release them. There’s a force effort, but here’s my direct question for you: Will the information that is found in the files, will Republicans take an honest oversight approach and hold folks accountable when they find out that there may be people in the Republican circles that are in the files in a disgusting way?”
The Florida Republican again tried to pin blame on Democrats, even though he had just failed with that same argument.
“Well, I think the fact that Lutnick is now out there, he’s a big player in the in the Trump administration, it’s out there, but again, I can’t I got to go back to why didn’t we have this conversation on CNN for four years when Joe Biden was president?” he said. “Why not? I don’t understand that.”
“Republicans campaigned on wanting to do this,” Seawright noted.
“No, no, no, no,” Haridopolos said. “For four years, no one cared. I looked it up.”
Cornish: “I think what people are confused about is the plea deal the plea deal itself the thing that started this whole scandal, it happened before Biden. It happened under Trump. We’re back at Trump where people like [FBI Director] Kash Patel typed it up in his book.”
But the DOJ was acting, Haridopolos responded, only to have Cornish utterly destroy him.
“So you say you deserve points, points for participation,” she said. “It feels like points for participation.”
His voice rising as he grew exasperated, the congressman blurted, “I don’t want any points on anything. Yeah, I wish this thing never happened. This is, what’s happened to these boys and girls is horrific and these people who manipulated the system. Epstein manipulated people on their ego, this isn’t all an ego play. He’s a concierge to the stars. He gets them planes or fancy island trips, and these people are suckers and played it. And I’m glad to see them exposed.”
The Epstein files are a major problem for Republicans and the White House, especially with the midterm elections now less than a year away. If we’re lucky, it will bring about a massive blue wave that gives control of Congress to Democrats. Maybe then we can hold people accountable for the crimes they may have committed with sex traffickers and their enablers.
