The House Oversight Committee’s Monday release of Donald Trump’s disturbing 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein has sent GOP lawmakers reeling.
Some have unquestioningly swallowed the White House’s dubious denials of its authenticity. Some even suggest it was somehow planted by the Biden administration.
Republican Representative Eric Burlison of Missouri, for his part, expressed his interest in examining the signature on the letter. But when faced with a hard copy, he refused to look.
In a Monday interview aired Tuesday evening on CNN’s Laura Coates Live, reporter Manu Raju asked if he had seen the letter.
“I have not,” Burlison replied. “But I would love to see it, like, matched with his handwriting. It just is really, really, um, wild.” (Despite the Trump administration’s claims, the signature on the 2003 letter is a perfect match for contemporaneous examples of his handwriting.)
As the representative answered, CNN reporter Manu Raju produced a printed copy. “Here’s the letter.”
Looking down, Burlison said, “Yeah, I don’t, I don’t really—I don’t want to see that,” chuckling.
The Missouri representative’s ignorance-is-bliss reaction recalls that of Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who, when asked about the letter and whether he wants “to learn more about Trump’s relationship and friendship with Epstein,” answered, “No. I want to have [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel in next week, where we’ll ask him about all kinds of things.… I haven’t seen it. Don’t buy it.”
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