Bannon has ’16 hours’ of Epstein interviews — with some about Trump — locked in vault: report
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D‑Pa.) says she can’t understand why President Donald Trump spent his Christmas focused on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files instead of global conflicts or the economy.
Speaking to CNN on Friday about Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Dean questioned the president’s priorities.
“This is what I wish the president were focused on instead of taking additional strikes here and there around the world. How about focus on peace in Ukraine? How about focusing on — and I sent a letter to the president about this, about making sure that the 20-point plan for Gaza is fulfilled, that humanitarian aid gets into Gaza. And how about we take up our role again as a leader in providing USAID to places like Africa?”
Her comments came after reports that Trump ordered airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas, claiming his administration had found ISIS activity there. According to the BBC, Trump asserted he had uncovered the terrorist group despite previously declaring ISIS was “completely defeated” in 2019. Dean added that Congress had not been informed of the attacks.
CNN anchor Kate Bolduan then pressed Dean on Trump’s renewed attention to the Epstein case.
“You’re an attorney,” Boudin said. “How how do you just find 1 million documents that you didn’t previously have in an investigation that’s gotten this much scrutiny?”
“You don’t,” said Dean. “Unless you tried to bury them somewhere. Hide them in a ballroom or a basement. I don’t know, but it makes absolutely no sense.”
Dean also lamented the end of a congressional session she described as frustratingly unproductive under GOP leadership. She blasted the president’s misplaced priorities in his Christmas message, which included grievances and references to the Epstein files.
“The American people are waiting for us to lead, waiting for us to deal with the economy and the cost of living the economy in terms of their health care,” she said, citing the statistic that 300,000 Pennsylvanians will likely lose their healthcare due to “this cliff.”
However, Speaker Mike Johnson “sent us out of town because he didn’t want to have to deal with Epstein. It makes no sense. It defines — it defies credulity for anybody to say, we just found a million pages of documents they have known all along where the documents are. And there are there have to be hundreds of people who worked on these files who would be able to provide the expertise to get them out. The victims deserve no less. And this is a painful way for this administration to continue this cover up. What is Mr. Trump is so afraid of that on Christmas night, he’s tweeting about Epstein? What is he afraid of?”
