Fox News host Jessica Tarlov shut down the Trump administration’s “preposterous” attacks on Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others amid questions about the president’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On The Five, Tarlov first dismissed co-host Kennedy’s suggestion that the former president may have to “worry” about being prosecuted.
“No, I actually don’t think that anybody is sweating any piece of this,” Tarlov said, citing the protection that former presidents have from prosecution thanks to the Supreme Court.
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“Barack Obama now has immunity for every single thing that he ever did because that is how Trump wanted it, and the same thing will apply to him. So, end of story,” Tarlov said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked about that conundrum earlier Wednesday, completely sidestepped the question, saying it was up to the Department of Justice.
The “unprepared” press secretary “should read up on all of the things Trump wanted,” Tarlov said in response.
The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Daily Beast.
Tarlov then noted the potential for a public blowup between Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has been on the frontlines of the administration’s attacks on Trump’s political rivals, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was GOP chairman for the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee when it issued a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to criticize Hillary Clinton.
“That is the same thing also that Tulsi Gabbard spoke to when she was on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2018," Tarlov said, pointing out Gabbard’s sharp change in public statements.
“There is also video footage of Barack Obama himself saying it, saying that no machines were altered, they did not hack the infrastructure, but they tried do an influence campaign, which we have all acknowledged,” she continued.
“This is such old news, it’s beyond comprehension that we’re talking about it,” Tarlov concluded.
“And I understand that this Epstein situation is very tricky for the administration, and day by day it gets worse and worse and worse, but they are pulling out all of the greatest hits to try to inflame the minds of their most, you know, conspiracy theory-addled base, so they hear Brandon, Clapper, Obama, Hillary, and they get act won’t be mad at Trump anymore for not releasing the Epstein files or whatever he had to do with any of it,” she said. “It’s preposterous that we’re talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails again.”
Trump has deployed a number of tactics to try to move on from the Epstein saga, including using Obama’s middle name and demanding the NFL’s Washington Commanders revert to their old name.
But stories delving into the relationship Trump had with Epstein, the sex offender who died in prison in 2019, have kept the focus off what Tarlov called “old news.”
