First Lady Melania Trump made a seemingly unprompted announcement earlier today denying any ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Speculation has arisen online that she made this statement to get ahead of some news that may come out about her, but Reuters White House press correspondent Bo Erickson believes it's just an important issue to her.
"Obviously this has been bugging her, and the way that she did it is very exceptional when it comes to contemporary first ladies who don't really lean into controversies," he told Heather du Plessis-Allan.
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Episode Transcript
To Milania Trump's bizarre press conference at the White House
this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need
to end today. To be clear, I never had a
relationship with Epstein. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
By way.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Erickson is the Royces White House press correspondent.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
High Bow, Hello there, what brought this on?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I was in the room with the First Lady for
the surprise statement, and the timing is still very unclear
about why she chose today. I was told behind the
scenes that she's been wanting to talk about Epstein and
kind of try to refute some of the online claims
and allegations about her for some time. But it's still
very unclear about why today. But I will not being
(00:48):
in the room. She was standing in the main state
floor of the White House in between two American flags
underneath a huge presidential seal. This is where president to
give big speeches like about war and policy. So there's
a lot of gravitas here. So kind of like underscored
how important this was for the First Lady.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So can we discount the fact the I guess the
conjiction that she might have been doing this to get
a hit of a story that's about to break. That's
not true.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
We don't know about that right now. There is a
lot of speculation about that online, and of course someone
could be working on something. But in the speech, she
really kind of went after kind of some of the
biggest claims about her in these last you know, six months,
and was kind of noting that some of the biggest
allegations some reporter slash content creators have had to kind
(01:44):
of walk those back and even sometimes apologize.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Donald Trump know anything about this hippening.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That is another big question. I was told that the
First Lady's team let the West Wing know. It's hard
to imagine that he did not know that his wife
was going to give this blockbuster statement, you know, just
a few yards down the West Wind Colonnade from where
he was at the time. It could be that, you know,
he didn't know everything she was saying. But this is
(02:12):
definitely a topic that the President does not want to
be talking about. But in this I also think what's
kind of been undercovered here is that by bringing these
up and trying to take on these issues head on,
she is in essence defending herself and the President from
some of these, you know, allegations about their relationship with Epstein.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Is there is it possibility that she's missing with him
because he has just managed in the last six weeks
with Iran dominating the news, he's managed to get rid
of the Epstein files off the news, which it had
become kind of difficult for him to negotiate. The moment
that we get into a space where the Iran wills
winding down, up we go again and we're talking about
Epstein because of a.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I think what this reveals is that this is an
important issue for her. I don't know about the timing,
and I don't know if she was messing with the
President to use your words, but in doing this today
you could hear the emotion in her voice. She used
this kind of stern, straightforward approach. So obviously this has
(03:17):
been bugging her, and the way that she did it
is very exceptional when it comes to contemporary first ladies
who don't really lean into controversies.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
All right, bo, thank you, as always appreciated as bo
ericson Ryce's US politics correspondent.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to
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