MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell tore into Vice President JD Vance’s attempt to hold a private meeting about the Epstein scandal at his house.
On The Last Word Thursday night, O’Donnell reported that a dinner meeting originally scheduled for the vice president’s residence never happened—thanks to a leak from inside the Trump White House.
“This was the worst possible choice of venue,” O’Donnell said, pointing out how easy it is for the press to monitor who enters the vice president’s residence. “Just stake out the driveway.”
The leak revealed Vance intended to host a high-level gathering at his residence, Number One Observatory Circle, bringing together White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney.
NBC News confirmed that no meeting occurred at the residence. A group instead met at the White House to discuss the Epstein situation, according to CNN.
Still, the leak itself raised more questions. “Even when they kept it indoors at the White House with no one able to watch who was coming and going,” O’Donnell noted, “someone—at least one person—is leaking about the meetings, their scheduling, and the fact that they’re even happening.”
O’Donnell said this suggests internal efforts within the Trump administration to distance the president from his association with Jeffrey Epstein. “Someone working for Donald Trump wants news organizations to know that the Trump White House and Trump cabinet members are desperately trying to figure out how to rewrite history,” he said.
He then referenced Epstein’s own past remarks, bringing up an article from the Daily Beast which carried a quote from the deceased sex offender: “I was Donald’s closest friend for ten years.”
According to NBC’s reporting and O’Donnell’s segment, the new meeting location avoided media visibility, but it didn’t prevent the story from surfacing.
Vance, meanwhile, denied on Wednesday that he was hosting secret Epstein talks at his house. “It’s completely fake news,” Vance declared.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Blanche, and Vance were initially reported to be having dinner at the vice president’s Naval Observatory mansion, but it is not clear if they were at the reported White House soiree.
The meeting’s last-minute relocation, MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin suggested, was designed to throw off watchful eyes.
“Everybody in Washington was looking to the vice president’s residence, to see who was going to gather there. Certainly, they diverted our attention from there,” she said.
White House officials have not publicly commented on the meeting or the leak, but The Daily Beast has asked for a statement. JD Vance’s office has been contacted for comment, too.
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