'How the hell did that happen?': Bill Barr reveals Trump's reaction to learning about Epstein's death

[AZJonnie]

6. The frequent characterization of "Trump's campaign promise to release the full extent Epstein Files"

Is really an exaggeration. Such a promise was in no way a centerpiece of his campaign, or part of his platform.

In fact, he was always mealy-mouthed about his commitment to doing so. The most famous time was an interview on Faux where they asked if he'd "declassify" the Epstein files (along with those for JFK and MLK who were discussed immediately before), and he said "Yeah. Yeah, I would" but then immediately proceeded to walk it back.

Rachel Campos-Duffy (Fox News): “Would you declassify the Epstein files?”

Donald Trump: “Yeah, I would.”

(At this point, the original TV airing ended. The full answer, later broadcast and published, continued)

Donald Trump: “I guess I would. I think that less so because, you don’t know, you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.”

Campos-Duffy: “Do you think it would help restore trust?”

Trump: “I don’t know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It’d be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn’t happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I’d go a long way toward that one.”

So, his answer was qualified—he initially agreed, then immediately hedged about "phony stuff" and seemed ambivalent by the end of the exchange. Fox’s initial on-air version only included “Yeah, I would,” but later acknowledged and aired the fuller exchange

Here's literally THE other time, in September on a Lex Fridman podcast:

Lex Fridman: "The list of clients that went to the island has not been made public."

Donald Trump: "Yeah, it’s—It’s very interesting isn’t it? Probably will be, by the way, probably."

Lex Fridman: "So if you are able to, you’ll be—"

Donald Trump: "I’d certainly take a look at it. I’d have no problem with it."

That is what the media have turned into "Trump’s campaign promise to release the full extent Epstein Files".

If this sounds like I'm defending IQ47, I'm really not. Fact is, he's ALWAYS hedged when asked, and never brought it up on his own. This is NOT exculpatory, in fact, it's only *slightly* less guilty-seeming as "promising you will", then later saying you won't.

However, I'm always annoyed by lies. And framing it in this way ... is a lie. He didn't "promise" any "full release", and it was never framed by him like "Vote for Me and I'll Release The Files". Its more accurate to say that "Trump always declined to commit to releasing the full files when pressed whether he would".

Again, not at all an indicator of innocence, rather it's an indicator that he's actually been frightened to release them all along. It's not just as of this year. Nor is his fake news angle new