When Mockery Replaces Justice: Scott Jennings and the Art of Epstein Minimization (1/20/26)

Scott Jennings’ remark that people shouldn’t get their “knickers twisted” over Jeffrey Epstein was a textbook example of elite minimization dressed up as pundit smugness. By framing outrage over Epstein as emotional overreaction, Jennings reduced an industrial-scale sex-trafficking operation—one protected by wealth, power, and institutional failure—into a nuisance topic people should simply move past. His comment treated Epstein not as the epicenter of a still-unresolved criminal network, but as an inconvenient media obsession that distracts from more “serious” political discourse. In doing so, Jennings implicitly scolded the public for caring too much about unanswered questions, uncharged accomplices, and a justice system that visibly bent itself into knots to protect powerful people.


What made the comment especially galling was its timing and tone. Jennings wasn’t speaking from ignorance; he was speaking from comfort—the comfort of someone untouched by the consequences of elite impunity. Telling people not to get upset about Epstein functions as narrative control, whether intentional or not: it pressures the public to accept silence, forget victims, and normalize the idea that some crimes are simply too awkward to fully confront. It echoed a broader media instinct to downplay Epstein precisely because sustained scrutiny threatens institutions, donors, and political figures across party lines. In that sense, Jennings’ flippant phrasing wasn’t just dismissive—it was revealing, a small but telling glimpse into how casually the ruling class expects the public to swallow unfinished justice and move on.


to contact me:

[e-mail]



source:

CNN’s MAGA pundit Scott Jennings says people shouldn’t ‘get our knickers in a twist’ over Epstein’s crimes | The Independent