“The Daily Show” correspondent and part-time host Ronny Chieng isn’t buying Donald Trump’s answer about declassifying the Jeffrey Epstein files.
In a recent interview with Fox News, the former president was asked if he would declassify certain files if he were elected again. Trump quickly said he would declassify files about 9/11 and JFK, but stumbled when it came to the financier who helmed a sex trafficking operation for minors.
“Yeah, I would. I guess I would. I think that less so,” Trump said in the interview.
“That was a bit suspicious, right?” Chieng asked Tuesday night. “I mean, look at the panic in Trump’s eyes. I’ve seen more relaxed people in the exit row of a Boeing flight. And why though? Why are you so weird with the Epstein stuff? It’s not like Donald Trump has any particular reason to not want the Jeffrey Epstein files opened up.”
As Chieng questioned why Trump was being “so weird,” “The Daily Show” posted a photo of the former president smiling beside Epstein. The comedian then told his audience that they should hear out Trump’s answer before playing the rest of his interview with Fox.
“You don’t want to affect people’s lives if there’s phony stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world,” Trump said.
“OK, he’s definitely in that file,” Chieng said. “He’s already in that file. He’s like, ‘Look, there’s going to be a lot of phony stuff in there — names, pictures, my DNA. You can’t believe any of it.’”
The Comedy Central host also dismissed Trump’s claims that he’s worried about protecting other people from anything “phony.”
“I mean, this is the same guy who said Obama was born in Kenya and Ted Cruz’s dad killed JFK. Now all of a sudden he’s like, ‘Look, if you put inaccurate information out there, it can really destroy someone’s reputation,’” Chieng said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to ask Trump to declassify anything. He’s just going to leave it on the buffet table at Mar-a-Lago.”
