‘The View’ Hosts Guess Why Trump Is Suddenly Supporting Epstein File Release

The hosts of The View have been vocal advocates for the release of the files in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted child sex trafficker who allegedly had high-profile clients, so on Monday’s (November 17) edition, they tackled the latest development in the matter first thing.

This time, the story centered on Donald Trump‘s about-face to express support for the release of the files, which came on the heels of a discharge petition finally receiving enough signatures with the post-shutdown swearing in of a new Arizona congresswoman who openly supported the measure.

“Last night, he threw in the towel and called on Republicans to release the files all of a sudden, claiming he has nothing to hide. So why the sudden 180° turn on this?” Joy Behar, stepping in as moderator in Whoopi Goldberg‘s absence, asked.

Sara Haines was the first to answer, saying, “He’s losing any support he had. They say right now, the Republicans are flocking to support this, because this isn’t political. This is a crime. There was a pedophile involved here.” She went on to show the now-viral video of survivors holding images of themselves at the age when they first met Epstein and calling for the files’ release. “I remind everyone of the innocence of life lost,” Haines said in response to the video. “These are our young people, and they will carry this forever. So the least people can do is demand transparency and hold people accountable.”

Sunny Hostin pointed out that survivors’ inclusion of photographs of themselves at the age of victimization is a tactic prosecutors of sex crimes also use in courtrooms. She also reacted to, without naming names, Megyn Kelly‘s heavily criticized suggestion that Epstein’s victimization of a 15-year-old is less egregious than a 5-year-old, and he was just “into the barely legal type.”

“I have a 19-year-old. A 15-year-old, 16-year-old is a child,” Hostin insisted. “That is not a ‘young woman.'”

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She went on to address the question at hand, saying, “Trump always had the ability to release the Epstein files on his own… He can order the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files without Congressional authorization, but he has refused to do so. Why has he refused to do so?”

Ana Navarro was the next to speak and said, “I think the reason he didn’t want this out is, first of all, he’s all over the files. He’s all over the emails.” When Hostin then pointed out that Trump has not been criminally implicated in the files, Navarro countered, “It doesn’t matter that it’s not criminal wrongdoing. It’s embarrassing, it’s mortifying. Do you think Donald Trump wants to hear Epstein — his close friend of many years before they had that breakup — talk about him being insane and having dementia?” She also guessed that “his financial malfeasance” might be another motivator. “Remember, that is the thing that most gets to Trump when people say that he was doing financial shenanigans. And it’s also, listen, it is Trump’s circle, circles in New York and circles in Palm Beach. There are a lot of rich, powerful men who are maintaining a relationship… They are implicated in rehabbing Epstein’s image after he had served jail. They are implicated in accepting him in polite society after they knew that he was a registered sexual predator.”

She then went on to quote Trump’s words on Epstein in 2002, saying, “‘He likes women just as much as I do, and he likes them on the younger side,'” Navarro remembered. “Bottom line here, and this is what should disgust us, I think so many people knew, had an inkling, should have known what Jeffrey Epstein was doing, if not before 2008 when he got put in jail, then certainly after 2008, but they chose to look the other way because they think that rich and powerful men can do whatever the hell they want without any accountability.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin then offered a different theory about why Trump is changing his tune on the Epstein files release, saying, “I don’t buy this 180 at all. I think it’s PR. I think that he’s hearing from the MAGA base, who he usually really has his finger on the pulse of what they care about, and he realizes this is out of control. He can’t convince them to not care about it.”

She then echoed Hostin’s point that Trump has the ability to release the files unilaterally, and wondered, “So it’s purely hoping that some of his followers are like, ‘Oh no, see, he does want to release the files.’ And the reason that I think this is sticking, which I’ve gone back and forth, ‘Wiill Epstein matter? Will it not?’ But it’s because it hits to the core of what got Trump into power: ‘Drain the swamp.’ So many of his followers thought he was going to take on the powerful and the politically connected, and by not releasing this, not leaning into full transparency, he seems like he’s protecting those very people…. I think it is breaking through, and I think it couldn’t happen at a worse timing because this comes on the heels of him saying the U.S. doesn’t have enough talented people, in reversing and saying, ‘We need more foreign workers.’ It comes on the heels of him saying, ‘The affordability crisis is a con job,’ and him giving this idea of 50-year mortgage loans to buy homes. He’s really kind of betraying his face on the core issues they cared the most about. And I don’t think it will go away.”

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC