Vance says Trump administration ‘screwed up’ communications around Epstein files | CNN Politics

Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration “absolutely screwed up the comms” around the Jeffrey Epstein files and should have released everything immediately, while insisting the administration was not trying to conceal information. “I say this with all candor, like we absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files, like we just did,” Vance said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” when asked whether there had been “undue influence” in trying to keep the files under wraps. “But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No,” Vance said in the podcast episode released Wednesday. Vance’s comments come as the administration has been dogged by blowback from the president’s own base over its handling of the Epstein files. As for what went wrong, the vice president pointed to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi’s public comments suggesting a purported client list was on her desk, while he noted that the binders of information handed out to right-wing social media influencers in February 2025 were “largely documents that were already released.” “I don’t know what the purpose of it was, but I know the e