"Had to do the 180 to save face": Megyn Kelly predicts why Trump shifted stance and supported Epstein files' release

Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly discussed President Trump's views on the release of Epstein files. On Tuesday, Congress and the Senate passed a bill that required the Department of Justice to release documents related to convicted s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein. A day later, Donald Trump also announced that he had signed the bill.

President Trump reportedly expressed his reservations over the bill initially and often called the Epstein files a "hoax." However, recently, he agreed to let the bill pass and even encouraged Republican lawmakers to vote for the bill. Megyn Kelly analyzed the apparently changed views of the President during her Wednesday podcast. She was also joined on the show by Buck Sexton, the co-host of The Clay and Buck Show.

Kelly said that Trump had "reversed," noting that just a week and a half earlier, he reportedly asked Lauren Boebert not to vote for the release of Epstein files. The Megyn Kelly Show host said the bill was "immediately" passed by the House and the Senate following Trump's "reversal." The political commentator added that she had her "own theory" on why the POTUS "did the 180."

"He knew he was going to lose it. Like the Republicans were determined to vote yes on this. He was going to lose the vote in the House. And he didn't want to look like 'he did something he didn't want'... So, I think he had to do the 180 just to save face. And then that made the ball, you know, go even faster in the House and then the Senate," Kelly said.

The podcaster, a known supporter of President Trump, slammed the media reports for allegedly making the Epstein files release a "story about Donald Trump."

"The story is not about Trump. It's about Jeffrey Epstein and his disgusting pals who were using and abusing, and s*xually molesting young women for years. They have nothing to suggest that Trump was one of them," she added.

Megyn Kelly highlighted that the main alleged victim, on the record under oath, stated that "Trump never touched her."

Megyn Kelly argued that if Trump were "worried" about the Epstein files, he could mark documents "classified" and redact

Despite the passage of the bill on the release of Epstein files, some exceptions would enable the DOJ to withhold or redact certain information. Kelly said that if the President were "genuinely worried" about certain documents, he could potentially designate them as "classified" to prevent them from being public.

"But look, there are enough exceptions to what the DOJ has to turn over that if Trump were really worried about a document or two, there is the potential that he could just designate it classified and we wouldn't see it," Kelly noted.

Pointing out the exceptions in the bill, Megyn Kelly said that the DOJ would not be releasing "classified documents" or anything that would "reflect identities of victims." She reiterated that she didn't believe for a single moment that the "Epstein scandal is about Trump."

However, Megyn Kelly wondered what changed the President's opinion on the Epstein files. She said that Trump's trust in Pam Bondi might have given him "some level of comfort."

"I do think something has gone on that changed his opinion. And given that he controls the DOJ, Pam Bondi answers to him; he's got to have some level of comfort that nothing's going out there that's going to completely crush him, because otherwise I think he'd be standing where he stood in July, which is 'we're not doing this,'" she added.

On Wednesday, via a Truth Social post, the POTUS confirmed that he signed the bill on Epstein files transparency. The DOJ is now required to release the documents obtained in the investigation associated with Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days.

Edited by Anuj Singh Kushwaha