At Tuesday night’s coronavirus press briefing, Donald Trump was thrown a question about Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s “recruiter” who was arrested last week and charged with conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse and traffic minors.
Asked about Maxwell, Trump replied, “I just wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach but I wish her well, whatever it is.”
CNN’s Dana Bash said Trump was sending her a signal: “It was stunning, especially since as president of the United States, the answer should have been, ‘I’m not going to comment, it’s an ongoing federal investigation.’ But this is a classic Trump M.O.. That turn of phrase, ‘I wish her well,’ is the same kind of turn of phrase that he used for people like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort and others who he later, you know, gave help to, but it seemed at the time was trying to send a signal to. And that’s how I took it. That he wanted to use the opportunity to, you know, get it out into the ether that, you know, he’s on her side.”
Said Morning Joe‘s Mika Brzezinski: “I know that there’s no proven connection in any way, but we’ve shown on this show video of Donald Trump dancing with Jeffrey Epstein and a bunch of girls dancing around him, and he wishes her well. I’m extremely uncomfortable with what I just heard, and I think everybody should be, and the questions in this case need to be asked and asked and asked until they are answered, and I just think it’s very strange that the president would make a comment like that in a case like this.”
Others had similar responses:
