Newsmax host: “Fox News has been essentially mandated not to talk about” Epstein
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From the July 17, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Finnerty
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): Michael, does the White House not get that this story matters to people? I was expecting something today, a special counsel, something. And it was essentially what we've got for the last 12 days.
MICHAEL KNOWLES (GUESST): I sympathize with President Trump's frustration. I've said from the beginning, I don't think there's anyone who's more frustrated with the way the Epstein story has played out — the Epstein story, which long predates Trump. It doesn't really implicate Trump. I don't think anyone's more frustrated than the president, because he wants to be talking about all of his many accomplishments on immigration and trade and foreign wars and all the rest of it.
But I do think there's a little bit of a disconnect here, because it's not even primarily that the MAGA movement needs total transparency. No government gives total transparency on anything. If what the — a lot of the MAGA movement believes is true, that there's some kind of intelligence angle, as has been reported, then you're not going to get full transparency. I think what MAGA people want, and I'm speaking for myself here, is we just want to know that justice is being done. And we trust Trump. We trust the plan. You know, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. He's been the most successful president of my lifetime. But we want to know that some justice is being done. And so I don't even know that it's an issue of action on the part of the administration. I just think the messaging has to be clearer and blunter.
FINNERTY: And Trump has got his hand on the pulse of MAGA. You know that better than anyone. You were there last weekend —
KNOWLES: Certainly.
FINNERTY: And it was unbelievable how many people — 63%, according to Quinnipiac, don't think that the administration is being transparent about the Epstein story. And I just think that Trump, for whatever reason, has got a blind spot for this story. And that's when you get speculation about, you know, whatever is going on. That's how conspiracy theories are born.
The other part of this story — and I just I don't get this. Maybe you can explain it to me. A lot of conservatives are afraid to talk about this. Fox News has been essentially mandated not to talk about this. Why do you think that is? Why are people afraid to talk about it?
KNOWLES: Well I suspect it's because — I think President Trump rightly understands that his enemies outside the Republican Party, and even some of them within the Republican Party, are seizing on this story in a cynical and opportunistic way —
FINNERTY: I get that.
KNOWLES: To beat him down.
FINNERTY: Right
KNOWLES: And so I think when he looks at this, he says, well, it's the liberal media. And, you know, I'm going to try to primary Thomas Massie. And it's Massie's colluding with the Democrats. And so he's really hitting them back. It's just a reflex in politics.
But there are a lot of people in MAGA who are huge supporters of the president, who have been supporters consistently for ten years and remain supporters who are simply recognizing this issue poses more of a threat to the coalition, to the median voter, to all those great people that Trump was able to bring in by rewriting the Republican Party.
And so as we look ahead to the midterms to 2028, to the long legacy that we want President Trump to have, I do think this is going to have to be addressed in a more robust way, not out of any cheap shots at the president, but for the very people who are most hoping for the president to succeed.
FINNERTY: Absolutely.