Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday suggested that Democrats attacking President Donald Trump over his handling of investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are hypocrites.
Democrats have ramped up pressure against Trump for not releasing Epstein’s “client list” and other information, even as the Department of Justice says no such list exists and the president has accused the Left of planting “hoaxes” and spreading “fake news” about the now-deceased sex offender.
During an appearance on Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime, McCarthy slammed Democrats for criticizing Trump, suggesting their scrutiny of Epstein is simply a ploy to destroy the president and distract from their own party’s failures. When he was speaker of the House in 2023, Democrats “never once” requested an investigation into Epstein, McCarthy said.
“They tried to hide from it,” the former speaker told Watters. “You know, they’ve got nothing going. It shows in the poll, they have no leader, they have no message, they have no policy. So they’re lashing out at this. “
“But what I love, even watching CNN, they are failing. We think about it for one moment. This is the most transparent president we’ve had, Donald Trump. He’s before the press every single day. Look what he’s accomplished, exactly what we elected him to do,” McCarthy continued. “[Trump] didn’t hide from this, he had the authorities investigate this.”
His comments reiterate Trump’s statement on Friday that criticized Democrats for not releasing more files related to the Epstein case when they controlled the Senate and White House during the Biden years.
“If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had [former Attorney General Merrick] Garland and [ex-prosecutor Maureen] Comey in charge, use it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!”
The president’s statement follows efforts this week by Democrats in both chambers of Congress to investigate Epstein.
In the upper chamber, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is pushing a measure to help preserve records related to the Epstein case. Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) are among others in the Senate accusing Trump of “hiding the Epstein list.”
In the lower chamber, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Marc Veasey (D-TX), and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are among a flock of lawmakers calling for the Trump administration to release all documents and other information related to Epstein.
“The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,” Jeffries said Monday. “Democrats didn’t put the Epstein matter into the public domain. This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years, and now the chickens are coming to roost.”
Many Republican lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), as well as MAGA supporters, are also clamoring for more information related to the case as the Justice Department faces more criticism for its handling of the Epstein files.
Asked by reporters Thursday if he supports using congressional authority to investigate the Epstein matter, Johnson replied, ”Look, we’ll see how it all develops.”
“We’re for transparency. I’ve said that repeatedly, so has the president,” he continued. “And all the credible information needs to come out, and the American people need to make their own decisions.”
Trump has long promised to release the files, and at his direction, Attorney General Pam Bondi began leading the DOJ in releasing information on Epstein.
But the rollout stirred controversy when the DOJ and FBI issued a joint memo earlier this month concluding Epstein’s 2019 death was a suicide and that he did not have a “client list” of powerful individuals he was blackmailing by bribing them with sex with minors.
Trump has said in recent weeks that claims that there was a client list were spread by the “fake news” and Democrats looking to sabotage his administration.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls***,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” he said on Wednesday.
However, the Justice Department’s move to release surveillance camera footage outside of Epstein’s cell from Aug. 9, 2019, the day he died, has also fueled debate about transparency.
While Bondi called the footage “raw,” or unedited, journalists at Wired discovered that the video uploaded by the DOJ “was modified” and “assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ’s website.”
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT STILL WON’T REVEAL ABOUT JEFFREY EPSTEIN
Amid the growing divisions, Trump ordered Bondi to release relevant grand jury testimony on Thursday evening in Epstein’s case.
“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” he said. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”