Vice President JD Vance has found the Trump administration’s new scapegoat to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein story: Democrats.
Vance claimed to Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that Democrats had not investigated the Epstein case during Joe Biden’s presidency and painted Epstein as more closely aligned with Democrats.
“The Democrats have tried to make this whole Epstein thing about anything but the fact that Democrat billionaires and Democrat political leaders went to Epstein island all the time,“ Vance said.
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While Epstein—a registered sex offender who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019—was friends with a variety of Democrats, the case has been heavily scrutinized due to his friendship with Donald Trump.
The vice president then hinted that Democrats may have more cause for concern in light of the House Oversight Committee’s subpoenas of several former government officials—including former President Bill Clinton, an old Epstein friend, and former first lady Hillary Clinton—regarding the case.
”Who knows what they did, but it’s totally reasonable to ask these questions," he said.
His comments drew ridicule from those on both sides of the aisle.
“If that’s so, then why aren’t you releasing the files?” Republican lawyer George Conway wrote on X.
“Who’s going to tell him?” House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark wrote, linking to an article with the headline, “Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files.”
Trump was a Democrat between 2001 and 2009, during which time Epstein was a member at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
A Vance spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether the vice president believes the unreleased files implicate high-profile Democrats.
Vance also tried to implicate the former president, repeating Trump’s oft-repeated claim that Clinton went to Epstein’s private island “26 times, 28 times.” A Clinton spokesperson said in 2019 that Clinton had never visited the island and had only taken four trips aboard Epstein’s plane.
The vice president also evaded reports that claimed he would meet with top government officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, about the Epstein case in light of a month of MAGA backlash over the administration’s decision not to release more files.
Vance confirmed he met with Patel and Bondi at the White House, but he denied it had anything to do with Epstein.
“We have a great FBI director and a great Department of Justice lead, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and we met to talk about how to ensure we have justice for the American people,” he said. “We actually didn’t talk about the Epstein issue at all. That was never meant to be the subject of the meeting.”
