CNN’s Abby Phillip challenged Republican strategist and CNN political commentator Scott Jennings on Thursday, questioning why President Donald Trump doesn’t “just own up to” being named in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — if he appears in them.
The exchange took place during a CNN NewsNight discussion about the unreleased Epstein files. The Trump administration has thus far declined to disclose the records in full.
“He attacked his own base for caring about this,” Phillip said. “He called them stupid and weak, he said he didn’t want their support, and it all seems that that is because he knew something was in there that was incriminating to him. At the end of the day, I mean, if he’s in the files, just like a lot of the other people who might be in there because they associated with Epstein at one point, just own up to it. Why doesn’t he just do that?”
Jennings pushed back. “Own up to what? What the Wall Street Journal calls ‘unverified hearsay’? Which is a redundant term that an editor should strike. Unverified hearsay.”
“Here’s the deal,” he continued. “Why should he go out there and have to own up to anything? He’s not ever been credibly accused. The Washington Post ran a fact-check on this the other day and said, ‘We’re confident there’s nothing about the president. If there were, we would know about it.’ Unverified hearsay is what he’s dealing with and you want him to go out and fight this ghost?”
Phillip countered, “I think the point is mostly that, obviously, everybody knows that Donald Trump is in some shape or form represented in these documents — his name is — because for so long he was associated with Epstein. So that’s actually not a secret. That’s not new.”
Jennings replied, “Of course it’s not. It’s old news.”
“So why act as if this is like, you know, something that he has to protect himself against as if it’s the biggest deal in the world?” Phillip concluded.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, which is currently being sued by Trump, the president was informed by the Department of Justice in May that his name “appeared multiple times” in the Epstein files.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly told the president the documents included “unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past.”
