President Trump believes it is completely fine that he, as President of the United States, retweeted a conspiracy theory about a link between former President Bill Clinton and the death of billionaire financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump claimed it was “fine” for him to perpetuate the far-right conspiracy because the person he retweeted, Terrence K. Williams, has a “lot of followers.”
“He’s a very highly respected conservative pundit, he’s a big Trump fan. That was a retweet, that wasn’t from me, that was from him. But he’s a man with a half a million followers, a lot of followers,” Trump told reporters about Williams, a comedian and conservative pundit who’s been criticized in the past for saying racist things on Fox News. “The retweet was from somebody who is a very respected conservative pundit, so I think I was fine.”
Trump also suggested that his retweet was admissible because Attorney General Bill Barr had opened an investigation into the Epstein’s death.
“As you know, Bill Barr wants to do an entire investigation of the whole Epstein matter. What happened, he’s been going on for a long time, the whole Epstein episode, and I know it’s under investigation by Attorney General Barr,” he said. “I want a full investigation, and that’s what I am absolutely demanding.”
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell on Saturday, where he was awaiting trial for federal charges that he ran a sex trafficking ring with underage girls in the early 2000s.
Trump claims it was fine he retweeted Clinton-Epstein conspiracy theory bc it was from a "respected" conservative pundit pic.twitter.com/vL6g92V28k
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 13, 2019
