MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday covered newly-released correspondence from late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, who wrote in an email from 2019 made public earlier in the day that President Donald Trump “knew about the girls” being victimized.
The “Last Word” host appeared to feign surprise during the show’s Wednesday episode, having long wagered that Trump likely did.
“Donald Trump has obviously been living all year in fear of release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and tonight that fear has to be more intense than ever,” said O’Donnell. “The fear that makes him snap and call Republicans ‘very bad’ and ‘stupid’ is an informed fear.”
He added, “It’s an informed fear because Donald Trump knows exactly what his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was. We don’t. Donald Trump knows exactly how much direct exposure and familiarity he had with the people Jeffrey Epstein calls ‘the girls’ in his email.”
Trump indeed warned “stupid” Republicans joining Democrats in demanding answers in the case. He also once again decried the matter as a “Hoax,” while the emails made public Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee suggested otherwise.
Epstein told his then-co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in a 2011 email that Trump had once “spent hours” at his house with one of the victims, describing Trump as the one “dog that hasn’t barked.” Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
“Donald Trump knows everything about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that might be in the Epstein files, and knowing everything that Donald Trump himself knows about his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump had a choice,” O’Donnell said.
He argued that Trump could have ordered all classified Epstein files to be released with “nothing to fear” if he wasn’t concerned, but that he decided after being briefed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year that the documents “must never come out.”.
“That’s the position he has chosen,” said O’Donnell. “And now the dog is barking at the ‘very bad’ and ‘stupid’ Republicans who support the release of the Epstein files, after the dog barked at those Republicans and called them ‘bad’ and ‘stupid’ at 2:03 p.m. today.”
O’Donnell began the segment by noting that Vice President JD Vance has been silent amid all this, just as his predecessor, Gerald Ford, was in 1974 when then-President Richard Nixon was watching his legacy crumble under the weight of the Watergate scandal.
“But what is JD Vance supposed to say tonight when he reads an email written by Jeffrey Epstein during the Trump presidency in 2019, six months before Jeffrey Epstein’s second arrest, saying, ‘Of course he knew about the girls?’ — meaning Donald Trump,” he said.
O’Donnell noted that Trump has always denied involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Whether the walls are truly closing in on the president remains to be seen, though the “Last Word” host left off with some rather considerable news.
“Politico reported senior Republicans privately believe dozens of Republicans will vote for it, possibly 100 or more, according to five people granted anonymity to speak candidly,” he said. “And so the mad dog might be on his way to creating the biggest bipartisan landslide vote against Donald Trump the House of Representatives has ever seen.”