Fox News turns blind eye to latest Epstein bombshell — even when talking to man in charge of investigation
“I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue. I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue,” Donald Trump said Tuesday when asked to respond to the “bawdy” birthday letter he allegedly sent to deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, which was made public by House Democrats Monday.
It would appear that Fox News has also decided to treat the latest Epstein bombshell as a “dead issue,” despite getting the opportunity to speak to the congressman in charge of the investigation into the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein case.
Of course, there’s nothing new about Fox News turning a blind eye to the furor surrounding the so-called Epstein files. For the past two months, and especially after Trump essentially ordered his supporters to stop talking about the saga amid a MAGA backlash over the DOJ’s conclusion that there was no Epstein “client list,” the conservative cable giant has given scant coverage to the explosive political story.
The right-wing network continued to sweep the issue under the rug after the Wall Street Journal – its corporate cousin – reported on the existence of the hand-drawn card included in a book compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Despite (or perhaps because of) the president launching a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the paper and its owner Rupert Murdoch over the story, Fox News barely covered the WSJ’s reporting.
Still, Monday’s publication of the letter – which was produced by Epstein’s estate and handed over to the House Oversight Committee following a subpoena – seemingly should have opened the door for the top-rated cable channel to at least give cursory coverage to the issue, if even to just jump on board with the rest of MAGA world’s increasingly desperate denialism that it is a “hoax.”
Instead, Fox News has doubled down on the strategy it’s long held to when it comes to an inconvenient story that might make the president look bad – it’s just outright ignored it.
Since the drawing was first made public, which showed a hand-drawn figure of a naked woman framing a poem allegedly written by Trump to Epstein and the president’s scribbled signature mimicking pubic hair, the network has only mentioned the story once on the air – and briefly at that.
During Monday evening’s broadcast of Special Report, Fox News’ flagship “hard news” program, chief political anchor Bret Baier – whom the network generally relies on to provide token coverage of uncomfortable stories for Fox viewers – brought on correspondent Chad Pergram to give a quick rundown of the latest developments.
“Well, the Oversight Committee received the first set of documents it subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate today. It includes a birthday book that Ghislaine Maxwell assembled for Epstein’s 50th birthday,” Pergram stated. “Also in the documents: a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between the feds and Epstein. Now, the birthday book purports to include a letter from President Trump, committee Democrats say that President Trump writes about ‘a wonderful secret between he and Epstein.’ The White House says the president did not draw the picture nor sign it.”
And that was it. Those 30-plus seconds have represented all of Fox News’ on-air coverage of Trump’s alleged lewd sketch to the late pedophile, as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, on the network’s digital news site, Fox News posted a story about the Epstein documents handed over to Congress – but shifted the attention to a different note written by former President Bill Clinton to the disgraced financier.
The report barely mentioned Trump, other than to note that the president has “vehemently denied” the veracity of the letter allegedly written by him, and that both he and Clinton have not “been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein.”
The Epstein blackout extended to a Tuesday morning interview with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who has been highly critical of Democrats on the committee for “cherry-picking” documents from the Epstein estate in order to embarrass Trump.
“It’s appalling Democrats on the Oversight Committee are cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate today,” Comer said in a statement Monday night. “Oversight Committee Republicans are focused on running a thorough investigation to bring transparency and accountability for survivors of Epstein’s heinous crimes and the American people. President Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing and Democrats are ignoring the new information the Committee received today.”
