Comedian and popular podcast host Andrew Schulz distanced himself further from President Donald Trump on Tuesday, this time over the Trump administration’s failure to release files related to convicted child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
“Maybe there’s hope, maybe there’s an opportunity that things can change,” he said of why New Yorkers voted for democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
“I think that’s probably what a lot of us thought with the Epstein files with Trump,” Schulz told guest Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, “Flagrant.”
Schulz, who voted for Trump and previously interviewed him on his podcast, blasted the president last week for “doing the exact opposite” of campaign promises that included ending wars, stopping spending and releasing the Epstein files.
The White House responded to Schulz’s criticism in a statement to Fox News last week, stating that the comedian “knows life is far better in President Trump’s America than it would have been under a weak and incompetent President [Kamala] Harris.”
Schulz replied by railing against the White House in an Instagram post, asking, “are you going to cover up a global pedophile blackmail ring or not?”
“We know Kamala would have covered it up. Joe and her had the Epstein file during his term. They choose to cover it up,” Schulz wrote. “We thought you guys would expose it because…. you said you would expose it.”
On Tuesday, the podcaster made it clear in a profanity-filled rant on his podcast that he has no allegiance to Democrats or Republicans.
“I’m in neither one of your fucking cults, OK? If you want me to be in your cults, you can go fuck off,” Schulz said. “I’m not in the Dem cult. I’m not in the Republican cult. I’m a free American, I’ll make my own fucking decisions and I’ll say whatever the fuck I want about whatever president is in power.”
The podcaster later noted that despite his disappointment with Trump, he doesn’t “regret” voting for him. He argued Trump has pulled the Democratic Party to the center and that Democrats are “starting to take up the issues” that Trump “was the one campaigning on,” including the release of the Epstein files.
Schulz praised Khanna for pushing Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the files.
“Now you see so much of the Democratic Party that’s echoing a lot of the sentiments that are usually on the right,” Schulz said, calling the Epstein file controversy “a right-wing thing that now the right wing is trying to sweep under the rug.”
Khanna said he didn’t see the Epstein files as a “partisan issue,” but rather “an issue of trust.”
“It’s a pretty simple thing, and to me, it’s whose side are you on?” the Democrat said. “Are you going to be on the side of the rich and powerful basically getting their own justice, or are you going to be on the side of people who were participating in this being exposed?”
Schulz makes his comments starting at the 3:30 mark in the video below. Hear Khanna’s remarks at the 1:05:30 mark.