Former Vice President Kamala Harris delivered what critics are calling one of her most tangled explanations yet during an appearance this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, offering a meandering answer when pressed on why the Biden administration failed to release the Epstein files while it had the chance.
The interview largely focused on familiar attacks against President Donald Trump, but briefly shifted to a topic that has increasingly drawn scrutiny from across the political spectrum: the handling of records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. When host Jimmy Kimmel asked Harris why the documents were not released during the Biden administration, the former vice president responded with a lengthy and unclear explanation that appeared to avoid the heart of the question.
“To give you an answer that will not satisfy your curiosity, I will tell you, perhaps to our damage, um, but we strongly and rightly believed that there should be an absolute separation between what we wanted as an administration and what the Department of Justice did,” Harris said. “We absolutely adhered to that, and it was right to do that.”
She went on to insist that the Justice Department operated independently, free from political or personal influence. “The Justice Department would make its decisions independent of any political or personal, uh, vendetta or concern that we may have and that’s the way it worked,” Harris said, before Kimmel abruptly moved the show to a commercial break.
The response raised eyebrows even among longtime observers of Harris, who has often been criticized for offering verbose answers that generate more confusion than clarity. Rather than directly explaining why the files were not released, Harris framed the issue as one of institutional separation, leaving unanswered why no action was taken during the administration she served in for four years.
The exchange comes as Harris has begun publicly signaling interest in another presidential run. After suffering a decisive defeat to Trump in the 2024 election, where she secured 226 electoral votes to Trump’s 312, Harris has floated the possibility of returning to the national stage in 2028. While she has not formally announced a campaign, she told the BBC she would “possibly” become the first female president.
“I am not done,” Harris said in an October interview. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.”
Questions about the Biden administration’s failure to release the Epstein files are no longer coming solely from Republicans or conservative media. Even prominent voices on the left have publicly criticized former Attorney General Merrick Garland over the issue.
Former MSNBC host Joy Reid recently questioned Garland’s record during an appearance on The Breakfast Club, expressing frustration over what she described as years of inaction. “I don’t understand why he escapes the smoke,” Reid said. “Even the Epstein files thing. I’m like, wait a minute.”
Reid contrasted Garland’s tenure with faster-moving investigations in other cases, arguing that four years should have been more than enough time to act. “Merrick Garland was there for four years. What were you doing?” she asked. “The Epstein files. Merrick, what were you doing? For four years?”
“He might as well not have been there,” Reid added, underscoring growing impatience even among Democrats who once defended the administration’s handling of the Justice Department.
As pressure mounts for transparency, Harris’s late-night appearance did little to quiet lingering questions. Instead, her rambling response has renewed criticism that the Biden administration, despite repeated promises of openness, failed to deliver answers on one of the most disturbing scandals in recent memory.
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