Right-Wing Media Is Now Falling In Line With Trump On Epstein

Conservative media’s outrage over Attorney General Pam Bondi saying she wouldn’t release more Jeffrey Epstein files appears to have been short-lived. After President Donald Trump stomped his feet and told his supporters to move on over the weekend, his base seems to have fallen in line.An assessment by the journalism watchdog group Media Matters found that Fox News has largely stopped talking about Epstein over the past two days. By noon on Monday, the network had mentioned Epstein zero times, the group found. That’s compared to 46 mentions of former President Joe Biden in that window. The morning wasn’t a fluke. By the end of the day, the tracking effort found that the network had racked up 158 mentions of Biden and only eight of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail while awaiting trial on sweeping sex trafficking charges.The pattern continued on Tuesday, Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz reported.Fox News didn’t comment when asked about the absence of Epstein mentions. The shift follows Trump’s lengthy Truth Social post from Saturday, lashing out at his base for their furor over the unreleased Epstein files ― documents many on the right believed would legitimise their conspiracy theories about a “deep state” coverup, and that both conservatives and liberals believed may expose public figures’ connections to Epstein.Fox News host Laura Ingraham appears alongside Trump during an election town hall in February 2024.“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’” Trump wrote. “They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.”“For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again,” Trump continued. “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.”Laura Ingraham was among the Fox News hosts to pull an about-face. Last week, she said on her show that the Bondi closing the case contributed to the “confusion” and “doubt” about the Trump administration’s promises to be fully transparent with the Epstein files. She also asked the crowd at Friday’s Turning Point USA conference if they were “satisfied” with the decision, setting off mass boos from the audience.But on her show on Monday, Ingraham suddenly seemed to be reprimanding Trump supporters for questioning him, describing the fallout as “conservative influencers... eating their own about Epstein” while the focus should be on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s shooting. Fox News host Bret Baier did bring up the ordeal during Tuesday’s episode of “Special Report,” suggesting he’ll keep discussing it.“This story does not go away here,” he told correspondent David Spunt, who described Trump as “tamping down the Epstein story.”Another sudden shift came from right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who spent Friday riling up his followers about the remaining Epstein files days after the Justice Department said it was reversing course and would not be releasing them.Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk in the Oval Office in May.“How many of you think the Epstein thing is a big deal? Raise your hand.” Kirk asked the crowd at his Turning Point USA event, the same one Ingraham attended. “Every hand has gone up,” he remarked.But Kirk said on Monday he’d be moving on for now ― a day after CNN reported that President Donald Trump had called him to quell some of the criticism.“Honestly, I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being,” Kirk said on his talk show. “I’m going to trust my friends in the administration. I’m going to trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it. Ball’s in their hands. I’ve said plenty this last weekend.”But after that clip from his show went viral, Kirk returned to talking about Epstein on Tuesday’s episode and railed against the media for allegedly misrepresenting what he’d said on Monday.Kirk said he’d simply needed to focus on updates on Russia, Ukraine and NATO in that episode but reiterated he trusts members of Trump’s administration to handle the Epstein files properly.It remains to be seen how Kirk proceeds with the subject, but the back-and-forth suggests these may be choppy waters for MAGA influencers to navigate.

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