MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough lashed out at Republicans downplaying the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein by accusing them of “trying to whitewash the greatest pedophile of the 21st Century.”
Pressure is mounting on the GOP to release the Epstein files, which President Donald Trump now dismisses as a “Democratic hoax that never ends.”
A small number of Republican rebels are needed to force a vote on the issue in Congress.
Releasing the files is at the heart of a MAGA conspiracy theory, fueled by Trump during the 2024 campaign, that the disgraced financier was killed as part of a cover-up, but for which all official investigations have found no evidence.
Several Epstein victims stood side-by-side with lawmakers on Wednesday to demand action and a document dump. Survivor Lisa Philips said, “Congress must choose: Will you continue to protect predators, or will you finally protect survivors?”
The Morning Joe host questioned how a party that spent years loudly peddling conspiracy theories about child sex trafficking rings now has the gall to stay silent on a real pedophile with high-profile connections.
“The speaker said, the president wants it all out. This is not true,” Scarborough said. “He’s saying it’s not even real. He’s saying it’s a democratic hoax.
“Before, he was blaming it on previous administrations. He’s blaming it on Obama. It all happened during his administration. He’s blaming it on Biden. It all happened during his first administration.
“And so, you look at all of this, and again, the irony that this movement, that would find rando Hollywood stars and just call them pedophiles because they voted for Democrats. And they would find random public figures, and they’ve spent 20 years calling these people pedophiles.
“And now you’ve got a group of people in that same movement trying to whitewash probably the greatest pedophile of the 21st century, the 20th and the 21st century, as far as, you know, a public figure moving among the rich and the powerful, among royalty. And now they’re saying, ‘Oh, everything’s out there or this is a hoax.’ It’s — again, how rich.”
Continuing his rant, the host referenced the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theory from 2016, which saw conservatives and right-wing media spread false rumors that the Democratic Party was running a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor in D.C.
“What I don’t understand is, again, think back to Pizzagate,” he continued. “Where again, this movement started a lie that Hillary Clinton was part of a pedophile ring. And a guy comes down and he shoots up a pizza joint, and then it’s like, ‘Oh my God, it was all a lie.’
“Think about how, you know, even over the past several years, they had movies celebrating guys that would go down and, you know, bust up pedophile rings. But it was like this singular obsession, right? They would call out Hollywood stars like Tom Hanks, they would call out Oprah, they would call out these wild conspiracy theories about pedophilia.
“Now they have it right in front of their face. And they’re like, we’re not interested anymore. Let’s move on. This is a democratic hoax.”
Co-host Willie Geist added, “You’re right, there have been a lot of imaginary pedophiles in the minds of conspiratorial people over the last generation or so, and now we have a very, very real one, and very, very real survivors that we heard from yesterday. And for some reason, Donald Trump now doesn’t seem interested in pursuing that story.”
A discharge petition, co-signed by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, requires 218 signatures to force a vote on the release of the files. As of Wednesday, it had 206, with just four GOP lawmakers breaking ranks with the party to sign it.
