Clearly, Sean Hannity was hoping Vice President J.D. Vance would have some memeable defense for the Trump administration’s ongoing cover-up of the Epstein files. What he got was memeable alright, but for a whole ‘nother reason.

Hannity tried to raise the matter gently during his interview with Vance. “I’ve had a lot of callers, maybe they’re mad, I don’t know,” Hannity said. But believe me, he knows they’re mad. Then he came out with it. “Some people are still mad over the Epstein files,” he said.

Vance’s response was a stunner.

“Donald Trump threw that idiot out of his club what 25, 30 years ago, and wanted nothing to do with him,” Vance began. “And when you look at the Epstein files, which were released, we've got millions and millions of documents that have been out there. Sean, what is the one obvious thing? One, Donald Trump didn't just throw him out of his club. He turned Jeffrey Epstein into the local police for being a creep.”

Reality check: Trump did not turn Epstein into the police. However, Trump’s 2006 phone call to then-Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, telling him that Epstein's sex crimes were well known in New York and Palm Beach, contradicts his claim not to have known about them.

Nobody should be surprised that Hannity let the lie go uncorrected.

Vance continued, uninterrupted. “Almost more importantly, what did Epstein say about Donald Trump? There was probably no person in the world that Jeffrey Epstein hated more than Donald Trump, which is a great character reference, right? When bad people think that they don't like you, that's, that's actually a very, very good thing.”

Hannity remained off camera. But maybe for the first time ever, I wish I could have seen his face.