‘WHY did she say those things?’: Nicolle reacts to Melania Trump’s SHOCKING Epstein speech

Hi, everyone. It's 4 o'clock in New York. It has been more than 40 days since we've led this broadcast with news about Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, or for that matter, the Trump administration's refusal to release the Epstein files with any alacrity or consideration for the victims of sexual abuse and child sex trafficking. Melania Trump

changed that today, seemingly on purpose. She summoned the White House press pool and at 2.30 p.m. today, she said this.

The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility, and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation. I never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach. To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn't amount to anything more

than a tribal note. I am not Epstein's victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband by chance at the New York City party in 1998.

To be clear, none of those things, nothing about Melania Trump, was the Epstein headline that was dogging Donald Trump in the days immediately leading up to the start of the war he began with Iran. In those days, it was news of a woman who alleged sexual and physical assault by Donald Trump when she was a child.

That story was all over the news, including in right-wing outlets. Importantly, it's a story that Donald Trump denies. But today, for reasons that aren't completely clear, Melania Trump grabbed the Klieg lights and thrust them back, not just to Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, but her own with

this. Be cautious about what you believe. These images and stories are completely false. I'm not a witness or a name witness in connection with any of Epstein's crimes. My name has never appeared in court documents, depositions, victim statements, or FBI interviews surrounding the Epstein matter. I have never had any knowledge of Epstein abuse of his victims. I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant, was

never on Epstein's plane, and never visited his private island. I have never been legally accused or convinced of a crime in connection with Epstein sex trafficking, abuse of minors,

and other repulsive behavior. The question we have today is, why did she say those things? And why did I? Those questions, that breaking news is where we start today. Washington correspondent and host of the Weekend AM, Jackie Alamany, joins us from the North Lawn of the White House. Also joining us, New York Times White House correspondent Luke Broadwater is here.

We'll be joined in a couple minutes by the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia. Jackie Alimany, I start with you. Why did this happen? And why did she say those things?

Yeah, Nicole, that is the question that we're all asking today. In fact, I just got off a very quick call before we went to air with President Trump, who said he was in the middle of a war meeting and that he couldn't talk for very long and had to go, but that actually he had no prior knowledge to the topic that Melania Trump, his wife, was going to be touching upon today in his statement. In her statement, he then repeated that he had to go, but before we hung up the phone, he said that she didn't know him, presumably referring to Jeffrey Epstein.

This was a really remarkable statement that we heard from the first lady. It was something that my colleague, Jake Traylor, when he pinged some of his, one of his White House sources said that many people in the building were not prepared for this. She also called on a public hearing that's centered around Epstein's victims. This is a sea change from the message that we've been hearing from the White House, specifically from President Trump.

The last time he was asked about this, he actually scolded a reporter. The reporter at the time was CNN's Caitlin Collins, scolded her for even asking the question and then said it was a time for the country to move on. So again, lots of questions here about the timing of this, why this is a president who in the past has preempted negative stories about him. Just a month ago, he posted very negatively about New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, recently, actually just two days ago, a very detailed report about occurrences in the Situation Room, some of the decision-making that was going on in the lead-up to the U.S.

going to the war with Iran was published. It's unclear if that was a direct preempt of that reporting, but needless to say, this is someone who does not hold back when it comes to attacking and criticizing reporters for coverage that they don't like. But I did get off the phone as well with Stephanie Grisham, who is the former secretary to First Lady Melania Trump in the first administration.

And she said that whatever was the impetus for the first lady deciding to take to the camera to do this on a day like today when none of us are talking about Epstein. We are all here focused on the war with Iran. That really is the news at hand today. That it must be something really serious that she didn't decide to put out a statement and

decided to hold an on-camera statement as well, where she summoned reporters to witness this statement.

Jackie, Stephanie Grisham might know the answer to this, and I'm not sure she shared it, but has she done this before? I mean, who has accused, she said, quote, I've never been accused of a crime. Who's accused Melania

Trump of a crime? No one has. And there was a lack of specificity in the statement that the first lady made, which is why there's really so many unanswered questions here. I touched base with a bunch of sources on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee to see if maybe there were some new documents that the Justice Department had released to Congress with regards to the Epstein files, because we are still waiting on missing FBI transcripts from some of the victims who had told reporters and others that in the

past they had provided more detail allegations that were not released by the Justice Department. They said that they haven't heard from them since there was a briefing held with the DOJ some time ago. So it's extremely unclear what she is talking about. There have been some unsubstantiated reports about the first lady's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. But again, none of those things are really anything that are recent or have been substantiated.

Luke Broadwater, she said, Melania Trump saying, quote, I never had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I'm not Epstein's victim. Images and stories are false. Do you know what images and stories she's talking about?

I don't, and everyone I've talked to today about this doesn't know either. You know, if you go online, you can find any number of false rumors and crazy theories about someone.

And there's speculation that she was looking online, saw some things that she didn't like about herself, and decided to call this press conference. But no one really knows what prompted this exactly. I will say, politically, it is in some ways undercutting the message that her husband has been putting out there, which is that the country should move on from this matter, there's nothing to see here, stop looking into it.

And here she is coming out, having a major press conference, which has garnered lots of attention, and is calling for victims to testify and for there to be hearings. So it's a very, very different message that she's, and she came out on her own and did it without, without Donald Trump by her side. So you know, politically, it's very interesting what's happening here between the president and the first lady and their diverging messages.

Stay with us, both of you. I want to bring in Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia of California. He's a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. Are you in possession of any materials that haven't been released to the public yet that suggest any of the things Melania Trump today denied? Quote, I never had a relationship with Epstein.

Quote, I'm not Epstein's victim. Quote, I'm not a witness or a victim to any crimes, quote, I have never been accused of a crime.

We're not. And I'll just start by saying that this kind of press conference that the first lady just had was pretty stunning for for a variety of reasons. First is she is publicly calling for a hearing with survivors that we have been asking for for months and have been told every time that it wasn't possible. Chairman Coomer has not scheduled it. This is the same administration that has called this investigation a hoax.

I mean, just a day ago, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanch, said that the DOJ was not moving forward on any part of the Epstein investigation. This has been an investigation the White House has pushed aside. There have been efforts by survivors to meet with the White House, to meet with the DOJ. And so for the first lady to come out and to essentially say that she is calling on this public hearing for survivors

and to kind of put herself in the center of the story is something that we certainly were not expecting today, but we certainly welcome and agree with her call to hear directly from the survivors. And this pushes back against all efforts the White House has been making and really distances And this pushes back against all efforts the White House has been making and really distances herself from the president and his public statements in trying to end this investigation