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JD Vance Scoffs At Idea The GOP Forced Trump To Release Epstein Files

Vice President JD Vance seemed ready to get grilled about President Donald Trump's links to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as he made his debut on "The View" on Tuesday.

While there to promote his new book, "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," Vance had an arsenal of calculated answers about the U.S.'s trembling economy, brutal deportation agenda and the White House's heavily scrutinized handling of documents related to Epstein.

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The most fiery moments in the 40-minute interview came as the panel argued with Vance over whether Trump was forced to sign last year's Epstein Transparency Act because of intense pressure from his own party.

Vance practically laughed at the suggestion, saying, "The idea that Donald Trump runs around afraid of Republican congressmen as opposed to the other way around is kind of crazy."

He also shot down accusations that the White House was withholding information and blamed the Justice Department's delayed release of Epstein-related documents on Trump being "frustrated" with how much Democrats focused on his name appearing in the files.

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Vance pointed to the fact that Epstein regularly mocked Trump in emails revealed in the document dumps.

"Epstein hated Donald Trump," he said.

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Trump's second-in-command also highlighted how his boss reported Epstein to the police in 2006, referring to records of a 2019 FBI interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter.

"I think that it's crazy that you have this guy who is clearly a *** predator who is hanging out with a lot of wealthy and powerful people. That bothered me," Vance said, claiming his stance was always "full transparency."

Though the interview volleyed between testy and chummy, the barrage of Epstein-related inquiries prompted Vance to half-jokingly beg, "Let's talk about the book, I'm here to sell books."

Last week, The New York Times reported thatVance and top officials at the Justice Department had secretly strategized about how to handle the release of the Epstein files.

Asked if he had considered trying to exonerate the president by having right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson interview Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as the Times had reported, Vance told "The View," "I would say, first of all, don't believe everything that you read in any newspaper, whether it's a right-leaning paper or left-leaning."