Still, all he had to do to deflect this was to claim that the evidence had been tampered with during JoePedo's term and was no longer admissible in court. If he'd just done that, everyone currently angry at Trump over Epstein would be angry at the previous administration instead. What a botch calling it a hoax was. Unless, of course, it was intentional to throw away Congress in the midterms.
Or even just be sympathetic with the people wanting the release, if he had said something like "I know it's disappointing, but the evidence we have in the Epstein case does not implicate anyone else", sure plenty of people (like myself) wouldn't believe it, or at least would only be willing to believe that the files were destroyed or tampered with, but no one (besides the usual suspects) would blame Trump over it. His whole "If you want the Epstein files released then you're a traitor and I spurn you!!!" is just making it seem like he's trying to cover something up.
Still, all he had to do to deflect this was to claim that the evidence had been tampered with during JoePedo's term and was no longer admissible in court. If he'd just done that, everyone currently angry at Trump over Epstein would be angry at the previous administration instead. What a botch calling it a hoax was. Unless, of course, it was intentional to throw away Congress in the midterms.
Or even just be sympathetic with the people wanting the release, if he had said something like "I know it's disappointing, but the evidence we have in the Epstein case does not implicate anyone else", sure plenty of people (like myself) wouldn't believe it, or at least would only be willing to believe that the files were destroyed or tampered with, but no one (besides the usual suspects) would blame Trump over it. His whole "If you want the Epstein files released then you're a traitor and I spurn you!!!" is just making it seem like he's trying to cover something up.