Posted on 06/27/2024 5:55:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
CNN’s moderators for Thursday’s presidential debate have deep ties to former intelligence officials who signed the now-debunked letter claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” Real Clear Investigations (RCI) reported Wednesday.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied about leaking false information to one of CNN’s moderators, Jake Tapper, about the Trump campaign exchanging information with Russia throughout the election cycle, according to the RCI report.
Tapper, failing to inform the public that the information came from a Clinton campaign-funded dossier, the now discredited Steele dossier, disseminated the information in a January 10, 2017, CNN report co-authored with Carl Bernstein.
Clapper denied leaking the information to Tapper during a July 2017 congressional deposition.
Clapper “flatly denied ‘discuss[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists,” the House Intelligence Committee said, according to RCI.
But, after further pressure from Congress, “Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,” the House Intelligence Committee wrote in a report of his deposition, according to RCI.
Clapper apparently lied again to the public the day after the CNN story aired, issuing a statement expressing “profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press” and denied that the leak came from within the intelligence community. Clapper repeated the same lie to incoming President Donald Trump, according to RCI.
CNN later hired Clapper as a national security analyst, making him Tapper’s co-worker.
Tapper, for his part, won an award for his coverage of the story when he received the Merriam Smith Award for broadcast journalism in 2018 for his reporting on the dossier.
Clapper was also a leading signatory of the infamous “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails,” a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials which casted the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, including evidence of the Bidens’ dealings with Ukrainian and Chinese energy companies, as Russian disinformation.
Another signatory of the letter was Jeremy Bash, the CIA’s chief of staff under Barack Obama from 2009-2011. Bash was married to CNN’s Dana Bash from 1998 to 2007 — the latter will co-moderate Thursday night’s debate with Tapper.
Jeremy Bash was involved in coordinating the effort to craft the Hunter Biden laptop letter, according to RCI.
Former deputy CIA Director Mike Morell testified the purpose of the letter “was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election,” according to an April 2023 House Judiciary Committee press release.
Morrell sent an e-mail out to intelligence officials in October 2020 that said “We want to give the VP a talking point to use in response,” a May 2023 House Judiciary Committee report reveals.
The officials released the statement on October 19, 2020, weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Twitter suspended the account of the New York Post, which broke the Hunter Biden laptop story, and blocked Tweets about the laptop on their platform at the time, based largely on the premise that the story may be “Russian disinformation.”
Despite the assertion from the former intelligence officials that the laptop was disinformation, media outlets like the Daily Caller News Foundation, New York Times, Washington Post and CBS News have verified its contents.
In 2021, NPR issued a correction of a story in which they claimed the laptop had been discredited. “A previous version of this story said U.S. intelligence had discredited the laptop story. U.S. intelligence officials have not made a statement to that effect,” the correction reads. (RELATED: Department Of Justice Acknowledges Hunter Biden Laptop Content Is Legitimate For First Time)
Federal prosecutors used the laptop contents as evidence while trying Hunter Biden on gun charges in June. FBI agent Erika Jensen testified she had seen no evidence the laptop was tampered with. Special counsel David Weiss also said in May the Biden legal team’s defense of questioning the legitimacy of the laptop was a “conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence.”
Aside from Bash’s ties to one of the most prominent figures to sign the debunked letter, CNN’s newsroom also has journalists who parroted the intelligence claims or outright ignored the story.
Tapper made no mention of the laptop story on either of his two CNN shows in October 2020 following the New York Post’s report, according to a Fox News analysis of his show’s transcripts.
He did, however, have on multiple guests who called the laptop story “Russian disinformation” and a “right-wing conspiracy,” according to Fox News.
CNN also hired and promoted Natasha Bertrand, a former Politico reporter who parroted the intelligence letter’s “disinformation” claim, to the role of national security correspondent in February.
Bertrand’s story, titled “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say,” is still live on Politico’s site with no correction.
Why are debates held on CNN? Why are debates always moderated by leftists?
Lincoln and Douglas never had this problem................
FYI
At the very least, this may end the role of the Commission on Presidential Debates.....
Like ‘safe and effective’ only ‘fair and balanced’! NOT. I really hope PDJT stays in check and doesn’t turn this into a sympathy vote for joementia show. Bullying a demented person ain’t a good look.
Doesn’t surprise me. Some years ago I saw a flowchart of democrat politicians and so-called journalists and both of the families. The interaction and entwinement of the two was astounding. Talk about being in bed with each other isn’t a joke in this case.
It’s all corrupt. This debate is nothing but a sham and Trump stepped right into their trap. Do you know why the corrupt POS judge Colombian immigrant judge partially released the gag order on Trump? It’s a freaking setup! A few weeks ago the corrupt moderators would’ve probably asked him about his conviction and Trump could’ve easily brushed it off by saying can’t talk about it. I’ve got a gag order and that would’ve been that the end of it. But now it’s a free for all ..The conviction verdict is now fair game on the debate floor. SEE HOW THIS WORKS? And Trump and he’s team considered the partial release gag order a victory. What a sham by the corrupt system!…SETUP! This is a NO win-win situation for him. Unfortunately, he stepped right into it.
Because Trump knows he can beat senile Biden any time and on any forum even CNN so Trump accepted.
I don’t think people realize Trump’s agenda here. He’s not there to debate Biden...he’s there solely to debate CNN and their bias.
Once this is over...their reputation (whatever remains at this point) is finished, and their value (to be sold) lessens by 50-percent.
I think the true end-game here is that Elon Musk will walk into a meeting room for Warner Brothers-Discovery in a month and puts a number on the table with his bonus money (the 55-billion). Because of public distrust...WB-D ends up selling them.
If there’s a trap, and you know it’s a trap, then it’s no longer a trap.....................
Also, I don’t think CNN realizes Trump is playing a longer game - this “debate” is going to discredit CNN as much as Biden.
Bingo!!!
Wonder if CNN knows Trump is actually setting a trap for THEM? Doubt it. They’re too stupid and ignorant to realize that.
Oh and too arrogant (re CNN).
p
Not watching. Don’t care.
Voting Trump.
If Joe Sh*tbag Bidet melts down on stage I might watch a replay
The network is pronounced SIN, not C.N.N.
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