Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) repeatedly claimed Tuesday that convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein was President Donald Trump's "best friend," despite anchor Chris Hayes's attempts to correct her.
On MSNBC's All In, Waters told Hayes that Trump has been "disrespecting all of us" and "should have been impeached," adding that Trump was a "con artist" who has a history of disrespecting women.
"One of his best friends, who supposedly committed suicide in prison, was a pedophile," she said in reference to Epstein. "And he knew it because he even said he knew that he liked young girls."
Trump spoke favorably of Epstein in a 2002 profile in New York magazine. Trump later disavowed Epstein, saying the two had a falling out years ago, which was before the Florida case that resulted in Epstein's conviction and registration as a sex offender.
After Waters said Trump and Epstein were best friends, Hayes interjected to point out the lack of evidence for such a claim.
"I don't know if it's been established that he was a best friend with Mr. Epstein, just to be clear," Hayes said.
"I beg your pardon?" Waters responded.
"I'm just saying in the matter of Jeffrey Epstein you're referring to, I don't know it's been established he was the president's best friend or that he knew specifically that he was preying on underage women," Hayes said.
Waters continued to insist to the contrary, saying Epstein's connections to former President Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew were a distraction.
"Oh, but he [Trump] was, he was," she said. "He was one of his friends. And we've let him off the hook on that. We're talking about Clinton and Prince Edward [sic] and everybody else. All of them need to be called to respond to this, including the president of the United States. Yes, that was his friend. Let him deny it."
Hayes then conceded that Epstein and Trump "were definitely friends" before ending the interview.
Trump acknowledged in July that he had once been friends with Epstein, but had cut ties with him years before his sexual misconduct came to light.
"Well I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him," Trump said in July, according to Business Insider. "He was a fixture of Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago, I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn't a fan."