Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary insists ‘nobody gives a poop’ about Epstein – UK Times

Seemingly running cover for the Trump administration, which continues to face demands from MAGA supporters to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary declared on Monday night that “nobody gives a poop” about the deceased sex trafficker.

When confronted with poll numbers that found a vast majority of Republicans want all the documents related to the Epstein case to be published, the pro-Trump businessman and self-described “Mr. Wonderful” doubled down while continuing the shrug off the controversy.

“The average American, awake for 18 hours a day, how many minutes do you think they spend worrying about this stuff?” O’Leary wondered. “Maybe they were raped, maybe they weren’t.”

Since the Justice Department concluded in a July 6 memo that Epstein died by suicide and did not keep a “client list” to blackmail prominent figures, despite Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming months earlier that she had the supposed list sitting on her desk, the administration has faced a MAGA uproar for walking back its promise to release the Epstein files.

After initially reacting to the blowback by lashing out at his “PAST supporters” and calling them “weaklings” for continuing to focus on the Epstein case, which he suddenly began calling a Democratic “hoax,” Donald Trump was able to – at least for the time being – united the MAGA base by tapping into a shared grievance: disdain for the mainstream media and Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media mogul whom the far-right deeply mistrusts.

Following the Wall Street Journal’s bombshell detailing a lewd birthday card that Trump allegedly gave Epstein in 2003, highlighting the once-close relationship the president shared with the convicted sex predator, many of those on the right who had been critical of the administration’s handling of the saga quickly rallied around Trump as he sued the WSJ and Murdoch.

Trump has since followed up by throwing a series of other distractions at the MAGA base in order to fully dissipate the anger over the Epstein case. Pointing his supporters at a list of common enemies, for instance, the administration has reignited the GOP’s years-old complaints about the “Russia witch hunt” by repackaging intelligence documents to accuse former President Barack Obama of a “treasonous conspiracy.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s accusations, however, have been described as “frivolous” and “foolish” by conservative legal experts.

Amid Trump’s continued efforts to deflect and dodge, which also include House Republicans preparing to leave on a six-week vacation without voting on a motion to release the Epstein files, O’Leary appeared on CNN Monday night to run cover for the administration.

During a panel discussion on CNN NewsNight, columnist Ahmed Baba noted that the “fundamental deal Trump made with his base was that he was gonna root out this mysterious cabal of elites that were running things,” adding that the Epstein files were a “key part” of this narrative.

“Essentially, what he is proving is that he actually is one of these corrupt elites himself, right?” Ahmed wondered.

O’Leary, however, eventually jumped in and exclaimed that “nobody gives a damn about Epstein because he’s still dead,” asserting that the “average person at the kitchen table is not worrying about Epstein.”

This eventually prompted CNN anchor Abby Phillip to interrupt and point out that a recent survey found that 83 percent of Republicans want the administration to release all the documents related to the Epstein investigation. O’Leary, though, remained unswayed.

“The average American, awake for 18 hours a day, how many minutes do you think they spend worrying about this stuff? Maybe they were raped, maybe they weren’t. This is not what American families give a damn about,” he shot back.

“We do know there were victims, so that’s not speculative,” Phillip reminded her guest.

The reality TV star would continue undeterred and continue to brush aside the administration’s bungle with the Epstein files, reiterating that he believed this was an issue of very little public interest.

“Nobody gives a poop! Nobody gives a poop, poop, poop,” O’Leary groused. “Worst case scenario, all this stuff’s true. Does that in any way affect the American economy?”

After The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian responded that there’s “more to life than the American economy” and the public could be concerned that “we might have pedophiles serving in our government right now,” O’Leary continued to mock the drama surrounding the case.

“Oh my goodness! That’s horrible. I’m just saying, what people care about is how to feed their families and how the economy grows,” he sneered. “This stuff is poop on a stick!”