CNN Host Schools MAGA Star Kevin O'Leary on Jeffrey Epstein GOP Fallout

Yahoo

2 days ago

MAGA Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary was shut down swiftly and repeatedly by CNN host Abby Phillip while absurdly arguing that Americans don't care about the Jeffrey Epstein files.
'Nobody gives a poop about this,' O'Leary insisted Monday night.
'A lot of Republicans do,' Phillip cut in.
The Canadian-born businessman was attempting to downplay the issue as the panel debated the latest developments on the topic consuming Donald Trump's supporters.
'Average Americans are awake for 18 hours a day. How many minutes do you think they spend worrying about this stuff?' the Canadian-born businessman said of case materials about the convicted sex offender.
'Maybe they were raped. Maybe they weren't. This is not what American families give a damn about.'
Phillip interjected to note, 'Just to be clear, they do know that there were victims. That is not speculative.'
Various polls have shown that public interest in the matter is extraordinarily high, and Americans are largely dissatisfied with the amount of information that's been shared with them by the Trump administration.
Phillip wasn't the only one on the panel shutting O'Leary's assertions down.
Political analyst Ahmed Baba chimed in to point out root causes of the fervor on the subject—including Trump's yearslong conspiratorial rhetoric.
'The reason why people care about this a lot—not just because of the very real Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking and then the crimes that were committed—is the fact that Donald Trump himself spent years, him and his allies, promised their base, 'We are going to deliver the Epstein client list that's going to take down all of your Democratic [enemies],'" he said.
'Bring it!' O'Leary replied. 'Nobody gives a poop.'
'You don't give a poop," The Young Turks host Ana Kasparian interrupted. 'Okay, but other people do, including people like me, who want justice. And I want to know how many of those people are in our government.'
Trump's MAGA base has for years been fixated on the so-called Epstein files, and many of its members have been very unhappy with the Trump administration's lack of transparency.
Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor. He faced federal charges of sex trafficking minors when he died by suicide in 2019. His longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and related crimes.
The Epstein files issue has consumed Trump supporters for weeks since the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations announced, in a reversal, that no further materials on the matter would be released.
Usually-divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill have even managed to work across the aisle to secure bipartisan support for legislation that would force the government to release the documents.
Some of Trump's most devoted supporters have been speaking out in a remarkable break from a president who values loyalty above all else.
'If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People,' Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X in a cryptic warning on Monday.
'If not. The base will turn and there's no going back.'