On Friday’s Morning Joe, the MS NOW panelists delivered a remarkable formulation regarding President Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein matter: they repeatedly portrayed Trump as looking “guilty” — while conceding they do not know what, if anything, he actually did.
The segment began with a clip of Trump responding to a reporter’s question about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s past visit to Epstein’s Caribbean island. Trump said he was unaware of the visit and emphasized, “I was never there.”
That didn’t prevent the discussion from quickly shifting to speculation about Trump’s demeanor and possible wrongdoing.
MS NOW analyst John Heilemann declared that Trump and those around him have “acted guilty” throughout the controversy. He said their conduct makes it look as though they are “hiding things” and that Trump is “guilty of something.”
Then came the striking concession.
HEILEMANN: We still don’t really know what, if anything, Donald Trump did that might be illegal, that might be criminal, it might just be immoral.
The construction was telling. Even while admitting he does not know what Trump did — or whether any crime occurred — Heilemann suggested that whatever the conduct was, it was at least immoral—and possibly criminal.
Guilty of what? Immoral in what way? The panel did not specify.