Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Halperin, Spicer, Ex-Dem Strategist Explain Why Dems’ Epstein Files Push Could Backfire On Them

Mark Halperin, Sean Spicer and former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine warned that Dems' push for the release of Jeffrey Epstein files could backfire. (Screenshot/YouTube/2way Morning Meeting)

Political analyst Mark Halperin, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine warned Tuesday that Democrats’ push for the release of materials pertaining to late convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein could backfire.

Democrats have called for the release of Epstein information and forced a vote Tuesday to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to publish any “records and evidence” regarding the federal government’s investigation into and incarceration of Epstein, but House Republicans moved to block it. Halperin, Turrentine and Spicer said on “The Morning Meeting” that information on Epstein could disproportionately harm Democrats.

Turrentine said Democrats should push for “transparency” but added it could come at a cost.

“[I]t’s always a good answer. And I get it — there’ll be Democrats that are probably going to be embarrassed, some former officials that may not feel pretty good if that happened but so be it. Be on the side of transparency always. That’s what I would do.”

Halperin said a source told him that besides President Donald Trump, the vast majority of “prominent men” commonly linked to Epstein are Democrats.

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“Name a Republican who’s been associated with it the way, like, [billionaire philanthropist] Bill Gates has,” Halperin said. “Who’s a Republican here? Who’s a Republican who was friends with Epstein? Who borrowed money from him or asked him for money or banked with him? Name one.”

Turrentine said Epstein’s associates were “bipartisan.”

“I don’t know. I looked at the list of names of people publicly. And, again, remember, some people hit him up for money, right? It doesn’t mean there was anything sexual,” Halperin said. “But his relationships — the ones we know — tended to be substantially more Democratic than Republican. What this person said is these Democrats who are now calling for a release of the lists may be creating problems for a lot of Democrats and far fewer Republicans.”

Spicer said he agreed with Halperin’s source.

“I will stipulate that the names that we’re talking about are the ones that are in the public domain, at least largely. So, with that being said, I believe that Democrats are playing a risky game here — which is, they don’t believe that Republicans will ever do it or that the courts will ever allow it,” he said. “Therefore, they’re trying to play a little triangulation here, which is: we get to say it, we know it’ll never happen.”

“But I think this is like a lot of things — you better be careful,” he said. “Because to your point, if finally somebody flips and puts this out and goes, ‘You called for it,’ Bill Gates is not going to be happy. Bill Clinton’s not going to be happy. I’m sure there’s a bunch of other Bills there.”

Public demand for the remaining documents tied to Epstein intensified since the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a memo on July 6. The memo said the FBI found no “client list” or foul play in Epstein’s 2019 death, sparking renewed calls for transparency.

Attorney General Pam Bondi promised to release files related to Epstein. In February, Bondi told Fox’s Jesse Watters that the public would soon see “a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.”

When a group of conservative influencers left the White House with binders labeled “Epstein Files: Phase One,” they found little new information. Bondi later said that the DOJ had not yet received all documents, adding that additional evidence had been sitting in the Southern District of New York. Trump released a statement Saturday defending the attorney general and criticizing questions surrounding the case.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/2way Morning Meeting)