President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he does not like seeing former President Bill Clinton deposed over his connection with Jeffrey Epstein — and people are not impressed.
“I don’t like seeing him deposed, but they certainly went after me a lot more than that,” Trump said at the White House prior to leaving on a trip to Texas. He then added, “Look, I like him, and I don’t like seeing him deposed.”
Social media users on X, the social media platform owned by the pro-Trump billionaire Elon Musk, blasted Trump for his comment.
“Don't be jealous Trump,” posted a user called ScarlettMetaX. “Your turn will come if someone has the guts to subpoena you.”
Philosocrat, another X user, also alluded to the fact that Trump himself has not been deposed despite having far more extensive Epstein connections than Clinton.
“Trump says he doesn't like to see Bill Clinton being deposed by the committee investigating Epstein,” he posted, then quoting Trump before concluding “=> ...But better him than me.”
A user called Davidmetroland posted that both Clinton and Trump “are both men who share a wish for their personal history not to be dragged into the open.” Similarly a user called opinionslikeblp argued that “whether he likes him or not isn't really material here. Why he doesn't like Clinton being deposed is because it sets a precedent that means he can be deposed now as well. And that scares the shit out of this gutless pedophile.”
An X user called Greg echoed that thought, writing “throw them both in prison.”
Speaking exclusively to AlterNet, Dr. Robert J. Shapiro characterized the Clinton deposition as “political theater.” Shapiro was a top economic adviser for Clinton and President Barack Obama, and also advised Democratic presidential nominees Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton
“No one believes that President Clinton was anything more than an acquaintance of Jeffrey Epstein, all before Epstein was convicted of prostitution with a young girl in 2008,” Shapiro told AlterNet. “President Clinton knew him in the same way many, many others did—as part of a large social network of wealthy acquaintances.”
Shapiro added, “No one, including the Republicans on the Committee, has even suggested that President Clinton and Epstein were close friends , as Epstein and President Trump were, or that President Clinton communicated with Epstein about young women, as Epstein and President Trump did, much less been accused as President Trump has been of forcing himself sexually on a young teenager. The hearing today is nothing more than political theater likely mounted to draw the public attention away from the tens or hundreds of thousands of instances in which President Trump is named in the Epstein files, even as the Justice Department has held back a reported 3 million pages from the files.”