AP’s Julie Carr Smyth asked Vice President Vance about the “Jeffrey Epstein matter” during an event Monday in Ohio:

JULIE CARR SMYTH, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: I guess I’m going to be that person. There are some protests outside accusing the GOP of protecting pedophiles, and we’re wondering what you think of the reasons the U.S. government should shield the client list of Epstein from the public, and what you’d say to its relevance here today? VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE: Let me say a couple of things. First of all, the president has been very clear-we’re not shielding anything. The president has directed the Attorney General to release all credible information, and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. He’s been incredibly transparent about that stuff. And some of this stuff takes time. You’ve got to assemble and compile the stuff, redact some victims’ names so you protect the victims. But the president has been very clear-he wants full transparency. He’s asked that from the Attorney General. I happen to know because I talk to her. I talk to the Attorney General and she is working hard on the issue right now. But I think I’ve got to make an observation. There’s an interesting thing about this case that the American media seems to totally ignore. For four years under Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, the media didn’t give a damn about the Epstein files or about the Epstein case. For literally 20 years, the story about this scumbag-and he’s a scumbag pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, he’s dead now-but for 20 years you had the Obama and George W. Bush Departments of Justice go easy on this guy. They didn’t fully investigate the case. They didn’t show any curiosity about the case. And now Donald J. Trump is asking his Department of Justice to show full transparency. And yet some of the criticism is going to Donald J. Trump and not Barack Obama and George W. Bush? If you want to criticize the people who arne’t showing full transparency, you ought to go after the administrations who went easy on Jeffrey Epstein, the administrations who concealed this case for 20 years, and the administrations that failed to show transparency. Dpnald J. Trump has nothing to hide, his administration has nothing to hiude, and that is why he’s been an advocate for full transparency in this case. He’s going to keep being an advocate for full transparency, but while we’re focused on that, Donald Trump is also working on making sure these workers get more take-home pay and better jobs.

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