Vance SWEATS As The View PRESSES On Trump Epstein Ties

Just as the New York Times dropped a major investigation into the final days of Jeffrey Epstein questioning some of the, let's say, quote, unquote, conspiratorial narratives about how Epstein's life appears to have ended, Vice President J.D. Vance went on The View where he got pressed by the hosts on whether he was an Epstein conspiracy theorist, what happened with Epstein, the president's relationship with Epstein. Let's start here with E1. By the way, again, sorry, do I have to defend my boss? I know you guys don't always appreciate this. But one of the things you see in the Epstein emails is that Jeffrey Epstein hated Donald Trump, and that Donald Trump literally reported Jeffrey Epstein to the police. That's one of the things that came out of these files. They were best friends for about a decade, and remember, he signed that Transparency Act under duress when some Republican women, Congresswomen like Lauren Boebert, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, did not give in to his pressure of not signing. He brought Lauren Boebert into the Situation Room to pressure her into caving on not voting for that bill. So let me respond to that. That's all true. Let me respond to that. So number one is yes, Donald Trump, he said this. He knew Jeffrey Epstein back in the 1980s. He also threw Jeffrey Epstein out of his club when he found out it was a creep and reported him to the police. That's something that the media often misses when it reports the story. They tell the fact that they knew each other in the 80s, which the president himself admits. They ignore the fact that he narked on him to the police and led ultimately to Jeffrey Epstein's downfall. To that point, Anna, you know the Republican Party, well, it's one of the things that led to law enforcement investigation. But on the point that you made- And it was allegedly over a real estate deal that they got into a fight over. But the email says, the email says actually he- And they didn't just know each other. Let's just be truthful and transparent here. They didn't just know each other. He's in a lot of pictures. They were incredibly close friends. He reported him to the police. That's what I'm saying. That is objectively true. But Anna made another point that I think, it would be if I may, cuz Anna made a very important point. This question about, did Donald Trump release these files only under duress from Republicans? And Anna, you know the Republican Party probably better than I do. The idea that Donald Trump runs around afraid of Republican congressmen, as opposed to the other way around, is kind of crazy. Well, it was a bipartisan vote, it was Republicans and Democrats. But because the Republicans control the House and the Senate, particularly the Senate, you need the Republican sign off. What the president did is, look, I will say this, again, I was in there in the meetings. He was very frustrated that the Democrats were making this about him. When he's like, look, I threw the guy out of my club. I am the guy who reported him to the police, or one of the people who reported him to the police. The president was frustrated about that, absolutely. But he eventually came to say, you know what? Let's just get everything out there. Let's have this out in the public. And he actually called the senators. I was there. He called the senators and said, you know what? Pass this bill, I'll sign it, and that was it. And just a couple of hours later, he told Megyn Kelly that he believed this big New York Times story, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, about the Situation Room conversation regarding the Trump administration's plans for disclosure in the Epstein case. He said that there were certain things in there that, quote, legitimately made me worried that people were taping. And in the Situation Room, which is a felony, he said that story was very bizarre. It was sort of a nothing, a story in the sense that everybody sort of knew all these details, but the fact that somebody had taped. So that seems to be some confirmation from J.D. Vance that it was taped, Ryan. Or certainly that it's all true. That's also the interesting part. If there was any doubt as to whether or not what was reported by Swan and Haberman there is accurate, it's put to bed by Vance saying that it basically matches verbatim his recollection of the meeting, which means that they used the Situation Room to devise a scheme to cover up the Epstein files. Nobody is talking enough about the fact that this was in the Situation Room, first of all. Now, do I know how the Trump administration uses the Situation Room? No, but you're not supposed to be able to bring phones or recording devices in there. And actually, what it sounds to me is like they were discussing a story with serious national security implications, per the drop site reporting in the Epstein case. Yeah, apparently there is national security implications to it. I don't think they're taking political meetings normally. Now, the Trump administration, not exactly normal, but I think it's pretty odd to be taking a meeting about political strategy in the Situation Room. But didn't it say Cash Patel and Bongino, or at least Cash Patel joined by speakerphones? Yes. I wonder who. I mean, I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but go on. If somebody is going to tape it, it's the dude on the speakerphone. Or presumably they were in a skiff. I don't know. Maybe they weren't. But, yeah. He's at the club. Yeah, he was in Vegas. It was the guy with him at the club. The poodle clown? Who recorded it. Yeah. So. Maybe he was in an Uber. He could have been. The New York Times dropped a major story about questions into Epstein's death. And this happened, I think, just within 24 hours of Vance going on this tour and answering Epstein questions. And it's a very, very long story, many new interviews, many new details in it. But a couple of the nut graphs here I'll just read from. They say, Our reporting establishes that Epstein showed a clear pattern of behavior in the weeks before his death, suggesting an intent to kill himself. The apparent suicide note memorialized Epstein's despair and desire to, quote, say goodbye on his own terms. That's referring to the suicide note that Tartaglione, his once cellmate, discovered, gave to his lawyers, and talks about a bit in the story as well. Other writings from his final days, the Times continues, presented a picture of a fraying mental state that sharply contrasted with the upbeat picture he presented to jail psychologists, including another note in which he hinted at ending his life. In addition to this, we were told by a former cellmate that Epstein made more than one previously unreported attempt to craft a noose. And we located a former inmate, never before interviewed, who was housed in a neighboring cell at the time of Epstein's death, and whose account circumstantially supported the conclusion that Epstein died by hanging himself. This cellmate says he heard Epstein tearing what sounded like sheets. He wouldn't have known that, but that's what he says. Consulting with independent pathologists, we determined that a likely error in catalyzing evidence from his cell created the appearance of mysteries regarding his injuries that were, in fact, potentially explained by other evidence from the scene that was overlooked at the time. They say what Michael Bodden, who was hired by Epstein's brother to observe the autopsy, said about some breaking around the neck area could have been because of the way that he attempted to hang himself with a noose connected to the bed. And so, Ryan, this is going to be used as a way to undercut, quote-unquote, conspiracy theorists. It's sort of always been true that Epstein could have legitimately killed himself. And a lot of this other stuff, as Dropsite has reported from both the leaked emails and the released emails, is quite obviously still accurate and true. Some of the foreign dealings and the like that you've dug really deeply into. At the same time, also, there are coincidences in this New York Times story that kind of get some explanations. What was going on with the guards? Why did the guards not do the rounds? Why did they appear to sleep? That you get some explanation for, but you don't have to buy those explanations because it's still very weird. Yes, it's true that they had cameras down for a long time. Still doesn't change the fact that they had a camera precisely missing that L-tier Epstein access point to his cell. It still doesn't change the fact that the guards were sleeping on the jobs, that they incorrectly lied on forms. So none of that stuff changes, and I'm willing to buy some of the story, actually, but there's still some big questions. Right, and they've got interviews with Nicholas Tartaglione, the cop accused of, convicted of murdering four people, strangling one of them, who after they determined that Epstein was a suicide risk, they made him his cellmate. A lot of people have said that they believe that he's the one that was then contracted, basically, to kill him. He tells the New York Times that when he came back from one of his hearings, he said, how do you make a noose? He says he caught him with a noose under his mattress once and told jail guards who laughed it off. Times says they can find no evidence of him telling that to jail guards. The counter-argument is that Epstein had always wiggled out of everything, that his life was a series of obstacles that he overcame, and that it's not obvious that they had much new in the way of criminal activity, and he had a non-prosecution agreement in place. He had a plausible legal path towards freedom. Now, it had taken him a long time to reconstruct his social standing after the first time in prison. Now, he was facing global cancellation plus this. The counter-counter-argument is that on the other side of this, even if he got free, he'd have his money, but he wouldn't have what he really craved, which was being the guy at the middle of the party, and so he could escape to France or whatever and continue to do sex crimes with 16-year-olds, but that's not really—but he can't do it with Bill Clinton anymore. Some of the evidence that the Times story brings out is the way he was communicating with people close to him in the days before his death, leading up to his death. Are him seeming down actually kind of about that point, that he's not going to be able to wiggle out of this one, that there's really not enough money in the world that he's— Social death was upon him. Yeah. At one point, he says—I'm paraphrasing. This is the height of Me Too and everything, too. Yes. At one point, he says something like, you can't—this is no way to live. There's no way to live in prison. And so he makes a— Not compared to what he's used to. Yeah. Exactly. And that seems to be what he's getting at, is in some of these communications, he makes a call that could be perceived as a goodbye call to his girlfriend at the time, saying, I won't be able to talk to you for a month, blah, blah, blah. And he has this note that does seem to be his, because Tartaglione saves it, gives it to his lawyers right away. So that looks somewhat legitimate, that he did find the note that said, what are you going to do, bust out crying? The joke that he often used to his brother, I think it's from Little Rascals. And yeah, I actually am willing to accept to some extent he felt like his life was over and that the walls were quite literally closing in on him, and that he wasn't going to be able to buy his way out of this, that it had— And also, for people who are like, no, it's impossible, they definitely killed him, driving him to do this would also accomplish the same goal. Yeah. In a more effective way. Right. And some questions still remain. He didn't have a cellmate that night, which he obviously should have been a cellmate. There are questions being drawn about his mental state. So there's still some weird stuff going on, which in and of itself, to quote JD Vance, the fact that you have a man who is a sexual predator, who has all of these connections in the world of international politics and finance, it's weird. And then you add to this that there are all of these legitimate questions about what happened to him. Also weird. You can't dismiss any of that. So it just leaves us, I think, even once again, with more questions than answers. But that is par for the course as we cover Epstein stories. All right. Let's bring in Ro Khanna and Corey from AIPAC Tracker. Yeah, that's right. Let's get to it.