OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden has made another bizarre pick to serve in his administration.
Fox News reported Monday that Biden named Jeremy Bash, an MSNBC analyst, to his Intelligence Advisory Board, though Bash was one of more than 50 other U.S. intelligence community figures to sign a letter ahead of the 2020 election saying they believed astonishing revelations gleaned from Hunter Biden’s now-infamous laptop bore the “hallmarks” of a Russia disinformation campaign.
The laptop’s contents, however, have long since been verified as genuine, and they paint a picture of debauchery and shady business dealings that also implicate the president.
“It contains photos of Hunter Biden naked and smoking crack, unseemly discussions about his family, and sexual activities, and references to the role of the ‘Big Guy’ in corrupt dealings with foreign entities. The ‘Big Guy’ has been named by former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski as Joe Biden,” The Daily Wire clarified.
The letter Bash signed along with the other then-current and former intelligence community officials was cited by multiple news outlets at the time, though there was no evidence to substantiate any suggestion or claim Russia had planted the contents.
Ok so disinformation is only ok when the Left does ithttps://t.co/KqXdJ8badd
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 30, 2022
Biden just gave MSNBC's Jeremy Bash a top national security post despite his falsely claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop was "Russian disinformation." This follows the appointment of Jake Sullivan, a critical player in spreading the false Alfa Bank story.https://t.co/zm4zomUx9a
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 29, 2022
Fox News adds:
Bash, who is a former Central Intelligence Agency chief of staff in addition to his role as an MSNBC pundit, signed the October 2020 letter that attempted to downplay the scandal before Election Day.
“Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American citizens should determine the outcome of elections, not foreign governments,” noted the letter signed by Bash and the others. “All of us agree with the founding fathers’ concern about the damage that foreign interference in our politics can do to our democracy.
“It is for all these reasons that we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the letter added.
The others noted in their letter that they did “not know if the emails… are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement.” However, they also said they were “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
Following the release of the letter, it spread throughout the media landscape quickly as well as then-Democratic president nominee Joe Biden’s campaign, being cited at one time by his first press secretary, Jen Psaki, as well as the candidate himself. All used the letter to discredit the laptop’s contents.
Bash personally attempted to discredit the information during several appearances on various MSNBC programs, Fox News added.
“The White House press release notes Bash served as chief of staff at the CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense, in both roles for Secretary Leon Panetta — who also signed the letter falsely suggesting the laptop was bogus,” Fox News added.
On Friday, HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher noted to guests including far-left actor and producer Rob Reiner and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) that the majority of major media outlets ignored or downplayed the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, likely to help Joe Biden, he opined.
“Is it okay to have a conspiracy to get rid of Trump?” Maher asked.
“Now look, let’s not pussyfoot around this; he was selling the influence of his father, Joe Biden. I mean, most political sons do, but let’s not pretend at least that was going on… so Hunter Biden’s laptop was buried by the press. Even the head of Twitter Jack Dorsey said that was a mistake,” Maher continued.
“It’s a little bit of a thorny question because once you go down this road- this is sort of where we are in this country, the other side is so evil, anything is justified in preventing them from taking office. Is it?” he said.
Reiner responded by appearing to avoid the question.
“You know what’s not justified? Using armed violence to try to kill people in the Capitol. That’s not justified,” the actor said, though there have been no reports of any Jan. 6 rioters entering the building with firearms.
“They buried the Hunter Biden story before the election because they were, like, ‘We can’t risk having the election thrown to Trump. We’ll tell them after the election,’” Maher replied, as Reiner questioned whether the media actually did that.
“And we know for a fact that that’s what they did?” the actor said.
“Of course! You don’t follow this?” Maher fired back.
“I don’t know that they did,” the actor argued.
“I know because you only watch MSNBC,” the host said.
