Comer tried to head off 'sticky line' of inquiry for Melania over Epstein: MS NOW
As House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) spoke to reporters about the depositions of the Clintons on their potential connections to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, he made a curious statement that, according to MS NOW's Ali Vitali, was an effort to shield President Donald Trump — but also first lady Melania Trump.
"I want to make a statement, because they'll probably not mention this when they come out here," Comer told reporters. "Ranking Member [Robert] Garcia asked President Clinton, quote, 'Should President Trump be called to answer questions from this committee? And President Clinton said, that's for you to decide. And the president went on to say that President Trump 'has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved.'"
"Okay," said anchor Katy Tur. "So, Ali, that was Comer's characterization of what President Clinton said. Congressman Garcia just was speaking a moment ago, and he said that's not quite accurate."
"I think there's two things that struck me," said Vitali. "First is that Democrats keep trying to respect this idea that they are not supposed to talk about the substance of what's happening in these depositions, like truly specifics about what's happening in these depositions until the transcript and video are released. But we've seen now is Republicans and Comer doing a pretty good job of trying to set the narrative of what is said inside."
More broadly, though, she said, Comer's remark "gives us some insight into how he might be thinking about the future of this investigation, is that they are trying to use Bill Clinton as a way to rebut claims from Democrats and others who say, okay, if you got a former president, Bill Clinton, why are you not asking President Trump, who has mentioned hundreds of times in the files, potentially more than any other person in there, or one of the top mentioned people in the files, and Comer by trying to use Clinton to say, well, Clinton says he never had any reason to think that Trump was involved with Epstein. They're basically trying to cut that line of inquiry off at the pass."
But it's not just the president who would be vulnerable to this issue, Vitali added — it would be the first lady as well.
"If the committee wants to ask spouses who don't have insight into their husband's actions, for example, as Hillary Clinton didn't into Bill, then why are you not also asking Melania Trump, who, by the way, is actually pictured in some of the Epstein files and has at least one correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell, right?" said Vitali, referring to Epstein's primary sex trafficking accomplice. "So it opens up this, this sticky line of partisan questioning. And that's what I saw in Comer, they're trying to rebut."
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