There were no new details about Epstein, but we may have heard a new Trump talking pointpublished at 19:08 British Summer Time 22 July
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House
We’re now ending our live coverage of the meeting between Trump and Phillippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The meeting may have been about trade and defence cooperation, but for most of the time that reporters were in the Oval Office with the two leaders a majority of the questions and answers touched on two things: deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s list of past grievances.
They were linked. When asked about Epstein, and the furor over the government’s decision to not release federal records on him, Trump launched into extended attacks on his political enemies and made baseless claims about the 2020 election.
He also appeared to debut a new talking point that revolves around a favourite target, former President Barack Obama.
On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused “the most powerful people in the Obama admnistration” of undermining the electoral process and released documents related to the 2016 election, which Trump won. On Sunday, she repeated the claims in an interview and said she had referred the matter for criminal investigation. Trump, meanwhile, posted an AI-generated video depicting Obama being arrested.
Dismissing questions about Epstein as “nonsense” on Tuesday, Trump returned to the allegations, telling the media “that’s really what you should be talking about” and calling Obama “seditious”.
For context, there is no evidence Obama committed sedition and he has not been criminally charged with the serious offense. You can read more about the allegations from my colleague Mike Wendling here.
In the three weeks of the Epstein files scandal, political observers have noted that the administration has been seeking to find an issue that would capture the attention of his MAGA base, which has been clamoring for more transparency on the so-called Epstein files. They have also noted it has had little success.
It’s very likely that we will hear about this new topic involving Obama, at length, from Trump administration officials and his allies in the coming days.
You find more on today’s story, including a possible justice department interview with Ghislaine Maxwell and what happened on Capitol Hill, here. Be sure to check back with the BBC for any future developments.
Image source, Reuters
