Alan Ritchson unloaded on President Donald Trump over the Epstein files, and the White House fired back by dragging Democrats into the mess.
The “Reacher” star turned a “Happy Sad Confused” podcast appearance into a profanity-laced demand for the release of files connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting Trump was protecting powerful names and insisting he would get the documents out “in two seconds.”
Abigail Jackson answered for the White House in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, rejecting Ritchson’s accusation and casting Trump as the president who had done the most on the issue.
“Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein. And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him,” Jackson told the outlet.
Jackson also tried to turn the Epstein question back on Democrats.
“Meanwhile, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender,” she continued.
Ritchson had already warned that people view him as “a loose cannon,” a label he rejected before telling host Josh Horowitz that other people should be speaking with the same force.
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“And I’m not. I’m just saying the s–t that everybody should say if they give a s–t about humanity,” Ritchson told Horowitz.
“And why am I the exception to the rule, b—h? Everybody else speak up. You are all feeling the same thing, you idiots. Like get loud and stop cowtowing to the wrong people. Stop bowing down to people that have power. You got power, too, man, the power in numbers.”
The actor brought up a past visit to “Armchair Expert,” the podcast hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, where he said Shepard urged him to “let go of that stuff.”
“I’m like, ‘Let go?’ I was like, ‘Everybody else should have it. Everybody else should feel like I feel,’” Ritchson remarked.
When Horowitz observed that “the world is on fire,” Ritchson went straight to Epstein.
“Like [be] mad about the way things are and the abuses that are happening,” Ritchson commented. “The Epstein files? The f—ing Epstein files? Goddammit, where are they? It’s a f—ing law, b—h, show it. You f—ing pedophiles.”
Even Ritchson’s concern about swearing as a Christian did not soften the rant. He said people might question how a Christian could say “f–k,” then argued that the Epstein issue was exactly the sort of thing that should make someone want to use the word.
“This is my f—ing politics, dude,” Ritchson told Horowitz, who cackled. “I would f—ing railroad these f—ers. I would get those Epstein files out in two seconds. F—ing move out of the way. Like, get out of there. I don’t care what room they’re in. B—h, move.”
“Give me the f—ing manila envelope. I will get you the Epstein files,” he claimed. “Don’t you want to see what’s in there, so that we can hold people accountable? These f—ing rapists! We’re just cool with it?”
The tirade then turned toward an unnamed politician with nuclear authority, which clearly indicated he was referring to Trump.
“That b—h has the keys to the nuclear,” Ritchson said. “He’s, like, all up into 13-year-olds. Like, dude, what? Go to jail. Go to jail.”
Ritchson knew the comments were the kind his publicist would hate. Before the explosive rant, he joked that she was likely “biting her nails” and said he lacked the gene that makes some actors “afraid to speak their mind.”
Asked how he thinks about politics, Ritchson pointed to people he believes have been forgotten.
“I care deeply about the outliers, the maligned people who have very difficult lives, people who are forgotten and overlooked and unwanted and unloved,” Ritchson continued.
“Like I care deeply about making the world more fair and free for those people. And a lot of politicians have lost the plot.”
He also connected that anger to work he has been doing with an ADHD coach.
“I live with a lot of contempt at the way things are because I see unfairness and injustice everywhere and I’m frustrated by it,” Ritchson noted. “In working with this coach, I’ve learned that that’s a thing that I really want to manage and that informs my politics. That is where it is for me.”
His faith, he suggested, made him more suspicious of religious-sounding politics that divides people.
“People who think they’re doing God’s work while they’re creating monsters, telling themselves this story that there are monsters among us that should be kept apart and separate. That ain’t it, dude,” Ritchson remarked.
“There ain’t no true religion in the world that would support that idea. So you got to be introspective and check yourself and make sure whose talking points you’re listening to. If you start to hate others or separate yourself or create division like, red flags.”
The actor has not completely ruled out politics himself. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who acted with him in the holiday film “The Man with the Bag” and previously served as California governor, has pushed the idea.
“There’s going to come a time where maybe I feel like I’m either well resourced enough or visible enough to really make an impact in many people’s lives,” Ritchson stated.
“I care deeply about the outliers, the maligned people who have very difficult lives, people who are forgotten and overlooked and unwanted and unloved. I care deeply about making the world more fair and free for those people.”
The Epstein fight has another track in Congress, where Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is asking whether Epstein acted as an unregistered foreign agent and tried to leverage his relationship with Trump.
Raskin said Epstein “acted aggressively on behalf of multiple foreign governments” but “never registered as a foreign agent.”
The Maryland Democrat also wants the Justice Department to say whether Epstein was ever investigated under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and why not if the answer is no.
The deadline for records tied to Epstein’s connections with 19 countries is 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 3.