A Fox News panel suggested over the weekend that President Donald Trump probably did sign a risqué birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite Trump’s repeated denials.
On Sunday, Fox News host Howard Kurtz pointed out that Trump had “repeatedly insisted he had never sent any birthday note,” even after House Democrats released what appeared to be a copy of the letter. “The president was boxed in by his earlier denials and continued to say he had nothing to do with that message,” Kurtz said. “Both he and his press secretary were essentially asking, ‘Who are you going to believe, us or your lying eyes?’”.
Conservative reporter Sarah Bedford noted that the other letters in Epstein’s collection have been verified. “Well, all of the other letters in the book, so far as we know, are authentic, right? It’s extremely plausible that this was Donald Trump’s signature,” she said. “Donald Trump is really good at muddying the waters on things that he doesn’t, you know, want to acknowledge head-on.”
Bedford also questioned why the White House would make such a big deal about denying it. “From a political optics standpoint, it doesn’t make sense to me why the White House is spending so much political capital denying this. The denial makes no sense to me,” she said.
Fox Business reporter Charlie Gasparino tried to defend Trump by saying he may not even remember signing it. “He probably doesn’t remember signing it because I know people that are around Donald Trump, he signs a lot of stuff sometimes,” Gasparino argued. “And he might not have even known where he was signing it. I mean, trust me, I know people that deal with Donald Trump. That is very plausible that he does not remember this.”
Kurtz acknowledged the awkwardness of the situation. “It looks like his signature, but he says no,” he observed.
“It’s weird,” Bedford admitted. “It doesn’t look great, right? Who would do that in 2003? Right, but it’s entirely plausible that someone typed up the weird message on the body of it and Donald Trump signed it.”
Bedford added that the White House has only made things worse by the way it has responded. “The way that they’ve handled it, though, has made the White House appear guilty when there’s never been a scintilla of evidence that Donald Trump did anything wrong,” she said.
The panel’s back-and-forth reflected the larger problem the White House faces whenever Epstein’s name comes up. While no evidence has tied Trump to Epstein’s crimes, the denials and defensive posture only keep the controversy alive.