Rep. French Hill (R-AR), the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday morning for a wide-ranging dialogue that ultimately turned to President Donald Trump’s use of the Justice Department to focus on his home foes.
Co-host Aaron Ross Sorkin requested Hill to kick off the dialogue, “Specific question. I don’t know if you saw yesterday that former President Clinton—Hillary Clinton—wrote a letter to Representative Comer about their investigation about Epstein and his efforts to try to get them to testify. And you’ll see the connection in a moment. In the letter, they say, quote, ‘The Justice Department has been used as a weapon at the direction of the president to pursue political opponents.’ Do you believe that to be true?”
Hill responded, “I think the Epstein case is, and the Clintons’ involvement in it, is just another—what I think is a big issue in Congress and around the country. People want these files released, and the Clintons are involved in it because the American people demanded Congress open every single file and have the least amount of redaction so they can find out who was going back and forth with Jeffrey Epstein, convicted pedophile. And, you know, this is transparency that the American people want. I don’t think that’s geared towards the Justice Department engagement there and being used as a weapon at all.”
Joe Kernen, who’s a extra Trump-friendly voice on CNBC, then jumped in asking, “Maybe not in that case. But I think Andrew’s point is, do two wrongs make a right? Should the president be looking for retribution based on the weaponization of the Justice Department under the Biden administration? Or should he say, ‘Yeah, it happened then, but I’m not going to fall privy to the same thing now?’ Because it almost looks like it’s a tit for tat that he’s attempting.”
Hill replied, “Well, fair point, and I’ve always said, look, the best way to have retribution against your opponents is deliver on the promises we make to the American people—that we want to make the cost of living go down, that we want a more competitive system, we want more jobs, more careers, more housing available. And President Trump, when he was campaigning in 2024, and as he got elected, said that is what he was going to do. He said that my biggest retribution is going to be winning on the policy proposals I’ve made in the 2024 campaign. I think that’s the direction we should take.”
Kernen wrapped the interview there, “All right, Mr. Chairman, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks.”
Ross Sorkin then added, “Just worth mentioning on the Comer investigation, the eight people—he subpoenaed eight people. Seven of which he accepted, effectively, affidavits and statements from. But he wanted them there. So he was willing to accept nothing from anybody else except the Clintons.”
Watch the complete clip above by way of CNBC.
The publish ‘Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?’ CNBC’s Joe Kernen Challenges House Republican Over Trump’s Retribution Campaign first appeared on Mediaite.