Rep. Jasmine Crockett got pushback from CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins — and a warning from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin — when she threw maximum effort into damage control on Wednesday, doubling down on comments she’d made earlier in the day.
Crockett, on the House floor, had made an attempt to tie a number of Republicans — from former Utah Senator Mitt Romney to Zeldin, among others — to the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but her gamble went sideways when it turned out she was talking about the wrong Jeffrey Epstein.
Collins cornered Crockett on the subject on Wednesday evening, noting that after she’d claimed “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein” had donated to numerous Republican campaigns, Zeldin had informed her that those donations were made by Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, whose only connection to the disgraced financier was an unfortunate coincidence with regard to his name. Crockett, when confronted, doubled down — and prompted Zeldin to fire off a warning in response.
WATCH:
Rep. Jasmine Crockett responds to Lee Zeldin saying he never took donations from that Jeffrey Epstein — but instead a physician who is also named Jeffrey Epstein — following her comments on the floor. pic.twitter.com/ReN4IbTW6K
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 20, 2025
Collins showed video of Crockett, on the House floor, saying that her team had uncovered donations from “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein” to “Mitt Romney, the NRCC, Lee Zeldin, George Bush, WinRed, McCain-Palin, Rick Lazio …”
“Yes, Crockett, a physician named Dr. Jeffrey Epstein (who is a totally different person than the other Jeffrey Epstein) donated to a prior campaign of mine,” Zeldin had replied at the time.
When prompted to respond, Crockett said, “Listen, I never said that it was that Jeffrey Epstein. Just so that people understand, when you make a donation, your picture is not there.”
She then blamed her mistake on Republicans, claiming they had not given her enough time to prepare, so she threw out that accusation to teach them a lesson about the dangers of making accusations without doing proper research first.
“And because they decided to spring this on us in real time, I wanted the Republicans to think about what could potentially happen because I knew that they didn’t even try to go through the FEC. So my team, what they did is they Googled,” she said. “And that is specifically why I said, ‘a’ Jeffrey Epstein. Unlike Republicans, I at least don’t go out and just tell lies. Because it was not the same one, that’s fine. But when Lee Zeldin had something to say, all he had to say was it was a different Jeffrey Epstein. He admitted that he did receive donations from a Jeffrey Epstein. So at least I wasn’t trying to mislead people.”
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Crockett went on to suggest that the Jeffrey Epstein in question could still potentially be the convicted pedophile: “Now, have I dug in to find out who this doctor is? I have not. So I will trust and take what he says, that it wasn’t that Jeffrey Epstein, but I was not attempting to mislead anybody. I literally had maybe 20 minutes before I had to do that debate.”
Collins appeared taken aback by Crockett’s argument, noting, “Yeah, but people might see that and say, well, you’re trying to make it sound like he took money from a literal sex offender.”
“But I literally did not know,” Crockett protested, adding, “Within 20 minutes, you could not find that out, not from just doing a quick search on FEC. So, number one, I made sure that I was clear that it was a Jeffrey Epstein, but I never said that it specifically that Jeffrey Epstein because I knew that we would need more time to really dig in.”
Zeldin fired back again, saying, “When you find yourself in a hole, it’s best to stop digging.”
He said that in addition to public FEC documents stating that the donor to his campaign was a physician, it was worth noting that the donations she was referring to had been made after the convicted pedophile had died by apparent suicide in a New York jail cell.
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