House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy acknowledged that he would push for congressional hearings if ABC News doesn’t respond to his inquiry into their decision against running a story about a Jeffrey Epstein accuser years ago.
McCarthy wrote a letter to ABC News president James Goldston on Sunday demanding answers to questions surrounding the hot mic moment in which ABC News reporter Amy Robach was caught disparaging her own network for not giving her interview with Virginia Roberts Giuffre the green light in 2015. Robach, in what she later called a “private moment of frustration,” claimed that she “had it all” but suggested ABC News was hesitant to publish her story because it implicated Prince Andrew, and the network was worried about losing access to the British royal family.
The California Republican stated that he’d push for congressional hearings if the network does not comply with his requests in an interview with Megyn Kelly late Monday night.
“I think as a legislator and as somebody that serves in Congress, I knowing this human trafficking is a bipartisan issue, I think we should have hearings on it because we’re talking about lives. We’re talking about young women. We’re talking about people who do not have a voice,” McCarthy stated. “On this letter, we had the ranking member Doug Collins from [the Judiciary Committee and] we also had the ranking member of [the] Foreign Affairs [Committee] because this is a worldwide problem.
“All these committees could having hearings on this. We can raise the issue, and again, I’m not accusing ABC of anything. I actually want to work with them. I just think these questions have to be asked,” he added.
Robach’s hot mic moment was uncovered earlier this month when Project Veritas released the video. Ashley Bianco, the employee who recorded the video in August around the time of Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death, was no longer employed at ABC News when it was released. She was fired from her position at CBS News, however, days after it surfaced. McCarthy also said that she should get her job back.
Robach had interviewed Giuffre back in 2015 about her experiences with Epstein and Andrew. She has accused Epstein of sexual assault, trafficking, and several other felony offenses that took place in the early 2000s and has accused the prince of raping her on three different occasions.
Andrew addressed those allegations in a sit-down interview with BBC, which aired over the weekend. The royal claimed he doesn’t remember ever meeting her and also rebutted her claim that he was profusely sweating when they met in a club, insisting he has a disorder stemming from a battlefield injury that left him incapable of sweating. He also provided an alibi for one of the dates on which Giuffre alleged he raped her, saying he was at a pizza restaurant with his children.
Later in McCarthy’s interview, he reaffirmed his support for hearings should ABC News opt not to comply, and he also mentioned the possibility of NBC facing questions for their handling of Ronan Farrow’s reporting on disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
UPDATE: CBS News declined the Washington Examiner‘s request to comment on McCarthy’s comments about Bianco.
