CNN’s Kasie Hunt was visibly exasperated on the Wednesday edition of her show while discussing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s appearance in the Epstein files with CNN’s resident conservative Scott Jennings.
Responding to two clips of Lutnick played back to back—one in which he said he never met with Epstein after their first meeting, and the second, taken from his Tuesday appearance on Capitol Hill, in which he admitted to visiting Epstein’s private island—Hunt threw up her arms and said, “You can’t make this s— up!” as Jennings defended Lutnick’s lie as a mere “PR blunder.”
Directing her outrage towards Jennings, Hunt continued, “You cannot make it up! And his name was redacted in these files!”
“I don’t know why you’re yelling at me,” Jennings replied, prompting CNN political commentator Xochitl Hinojosa to reply, “Because you defend the administration!”
“This is something that was labeled as a conspiracy theory by some people on the left during the campaigns for sure, and you have rightly criticized the Biden administration and others for not doing more about it,” Hunt said to Jennings. “But it turns out that the people that said that there was something really, really, really wrong here that was being covered up were correct.”
Appearing in front of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday, Lutnick was questioned about his relationship with Epstein, which was laid bare by the newly-released Epstein files.
The commerce secretary, who had previously denied having a relationship with the convicted sex trafficker, told the subcommittee that he had nothing to hide, and that despite planning a visit to Epstein’s island years after he was first convicted of sex crimes, he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein.
“Why do the Epstein files show you coordinating a meeting and planning a visit with Jeffrey Epstein on his private island in December of 2012?” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen asked.
“I met Jeffrey Epstein when he moved—when I moved to a house next door to him in New York. I met him then,” Lutnick replied. “Over the next fourteen years, I met him two other times that I can recall. Two times. And that is none for six years.”
Lutnick had previously claimed on an October episode of the Pod Force One podcast that he had visited Epstein’s home once in 2005 for coffee, been shown the pedophile’s infamous “massage room” and decided never to be in a room with him ever again.
“If that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross,” Lutnick said in the interview. The Epstein files revealed that Lutnick continued to interact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, including doing business with him and visiting his private island.
“I am in agreement with you that this is a horrible public relations blunder,” Jennings said of the lie, adding, “He did not commit any crimes. There’s a big difference between committing a PR blunder and lying.”
“It’s a public relations blunder to say in public that you never spent time with a pedophile when in fact you had, and you didn’t actually cop to it until you were forced to and you were under oath?” Hunt replied.
“Of course it’s a blunder. Are you saying it’s not?” Jennings asked Hunt.
“I’m saying that it might be more than a blunder. That perhaps you are understating the case,” Hunt replied.
Several lawmakers called for Lutnick’s resignation following the revelation, including Sen. Adam Schiff who said, “Howard Lutnick lied to the American people about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein… [He] has no business being our Commerce Secretary, and he should resign immediately.” Republican Sen. Thomas Massie also called for Lutnick’s resignation.
President Donald Trump stood by his embattled Commerce Secretary, with White House spokesperson Kush Desai saying in a statement that failed to address the criticisms directly, “The entire Trump administration, including Secretary Lutnick and the Department of Commerce, remains focused on delivering for the American people.”
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