It’s Fox News’ turn to answer questions about “selective editing.”
A top Democrat in Congress is demanding answers about comments Donald Trump made in an interview that aired on the network in June of 2024, in which the then-candidate tried to cast doubt on any information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Trump told interviewer Rachel Campos-Duffy—wife of current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy—that as president he may choose not “declassify” documents related to Epstein in case they contain “phony stuff”—but the network left that part out of his answer when it first aired on television.
A Fox News spokesperson denied that the omissions were “selective editing,” in a statement to The Daily Beast, but California Rep. Robert Garcia, who heads the House Oversight Committee, insists in a letter obtained by CNN that “Fox News’ selective omission raises serious concerns that the network may have deliberately sought to shield then-candidate Trump from any further association with Epstein.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Garcia—and the White House—for comment.
The revelation that two different versions of the interview—one in which Trump responds that he would “absolutely” declassify the Epstein files as well as those related to “9/11” and “JFK”—and one in which he said he’d be “less” likely to declassify Epstein because “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if there’s phony stuff in there”—comes as MAGA struggles internally with the DOJ’s closing of the case after years of anticipation for bombshell reveals about Epstein’s dealings.
When several prominent voices in the base insisted on continuing to ask questions about Epstein, Trump railed against dissenters by calling them “stupid” “weaklings.” The alleged child sex trafficker said he was “Donald Trump’s closest friend” before his death in 2019, but the president has desperately tried to distance himself from the man and the allegations against him.
Now there are questions about whether Fox News helped Trump do just that when the interview in question was televised on Fox & Friends. The unedited version of his answer on Epstein, in which he backtracked on whether or not he’d “declassify” the files, aired the following day on Fox’s radio station and weekday morning show.
“It is legitimate to ask whether President Trump himself or those close to him may have actively encouraged” the network to omit his Epstein comments, the letter reads. A Fox News spokesperson said the interview “had standard editorial cuts for time” and pointed out that Trump’s “full answer” did ultimately air the next day.
The contention comes after Trump accused 60 Minutes of editing Kamala Harris’ campaign trail interview to make her appear more polished, and sued Paramount Global for $10 billion, and then $20 billion. The network caved to the president amid its planned merger with Skydance, despite the show’s producers insistence that that “routinely select the most concise and coherent responses to fit the time constraints of a broadcast” and that the “editing was not intended to deceive or mislead viewers.”
Trump ultimately got Paramount to cough up $16 million to settle what had been characterized as a “frivolous” lawsuit.
The post Fox News Accused of Deceptively Editing Trump’s Epstein Answer appeared first on The Daily Beast.
