U.S. President Donald Trump speaks throughout a bilateral assembly with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on Nov. 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Photographs
President Donald Trump on Tuesday referred to as for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked as he lashed out at one of many community’s reporters who requested him why he has chosen to not launch the federal government’s recordsdata on infamous intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I feel you’re a horrible reporter,” Trump stated within the Oval Workplace, saying he took difficulty with the ABC Information journalist’s “angle.”
“Individuals are sensible to your hoax,” the president stated. “Your crappy firm is among the perpetrators. And I will let you know one thing … I feel the license ought to be taken away from ABC. As a result of your information is so faux and so flawed.”
“We’ve got a fantastic commissioner … who ought to take a look at that,” he added, apparently referring to Federal Communications Fee chief Brendan Carr.
In September, Carr threatened ABC’s license over remarks that one of many community’s late-night discuss present hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, made concerning the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“We will do that the straightforward manner or the arduous manner,” stated Carr, whose company controls media firms’ broadcast licenses, in a podcast interview. “These firms can discover methods to vary conduct, to take motion, frankly, on Kimmel, or you realize, there’s going to be further work for the FCC forward.”
Hours later, ABC and Nexstar Media Group, which hosts ABC-affiliated native stations, stated they had been indefinitely pre-empting “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell!” The present returned to air a couple of week later following waves of backlash towards ABC and its mother or father Disney.
Trump’s offended remarks Tuesday got here shortly earlier than the Home of Representatives was set to vote on a invoice to compel the Division of Justice to launch all of its information on the deceased financier.
Trump has railed towards Democrats over their concentrate on the Epstein recordsdata, calling the matter a “hoax” and urging his allies to drop the matter. Trump and Epstein had been pals, however had a falling out years earlier than Epstein’s 2019 loss of life whereas in jail on federal intercourse trafficking prices.
However the president has been unable to shake off his hyperlinks to the intercourse offender — which grew extra seen final week, when Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee launched emails exhibiting Epstein discussing Trump. In a single e mail from 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew concerning the women.”
On Sunday night time, because the Epstein invoice’s possibilities of passage appeared to rise, Trump instantly reversed course and urged his GOP allies to help the measure.
However Trump doesn’t want to attend for Congress to cross a invoice; he may order the DOJ to launch extra Epstein recordsdata unilaterally, information retailers have reported.
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