The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper tore into Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after documents appeared to contradict claims that he had cut off contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Lutnick, the billionaire turned top Trump official, was grilled at a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday about his past interactions with Epstein.
The Trump-appointed commerce secretary claimed in an October interview that he met his New York neighbor Epstein in 2005 but decided to sever ties after finding him “gross” and “disgusting.”
“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again, a one and absolutely done,” Lutnick said at the time.
However, documents included in a January release of Epstein-related files showed that Lutnick visited Epstein’s private island in December 2012.
On Tuesday night, Klepper showed a clip from the Senate hearing, in which Lutnick acknowledged visiting the private island with his wife, four children, and nannies. The commerce secretary told lawmakers he “did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation.”
Klepper mocked Lutnick’s explanation.
“Oh, Howie, you’re breaking my heart. What was with all the one and the done and the gross and the gross? Was eating with a sex criminal your only option for lunch, Howard? You couldn’t have tried making a PB and J just once?” Klepper said.
“Howard, look, man, I don’t think I could be more disappointed in you,” the late-night show host continued.
He added: “Howard! ‘I went to Epstein Island but don’t worry, I brought my kids,’ isn’t the excuse you think it is. Good God, man.”
Klepper then cut to a clip of Lutnick telling the hearing that “We had lunch on the island—that is true—for an hour. And we left with all of my children.”
“Father of the year over here,” Klepper joked. “So just to be clear, Howard Lutnick went from ‘I never saw that gross man again’ to ‘OK, I did visit his island’ to ‘Hey, back off, I left with all my kids, OK? I counted them. I’m the good guy here!’”
Late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel also trashed Lutnick on Tuesday night over the revelations, describing him as a “rodent.”
“What a fun dad,” Kimmel joked. “‘Where do you want to go, kids? You want to have lunch with the most notorious pedophile in American history?’”
“The fact that you brought your family to Epstein Island is not the point. It’s super crazy, but it’s not the point,” he continued.
“The point is, you lied about never being in the room with that ‘disgusting person’ ever again,” Kimmel added. “Not only were you in the room with that disgusting person, you sailed to his island for lunch.”
The January release of millions of documents followed legislation passed in November mandating the disclosure of Epstein-related files.
Separately, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin alleged in an interview with Axios on Tuesday that Trump’s name came up in the unredacted Epstein files “more than a million times.”
The White House did not address Raskin’s allegations when asked for comment.
