Hunter Biden’s laptop is so mainstream now that even the 50 former intel officials who falsely suggested that it was Russian disinformation are now backing away from that claim and blaming the media.
The Washington Post fact check by Glenn Kessler seems belated, but I suppose better late than never, and the fact check grudgingly exonerates the ex-intel officials, while laying the blame on Biden, as if the latter wasn’t just taking the bait that had been laid out by the “experts”.
And it features our old pal Jimmy Clapper trying to disavow the infamous letter.
“There was message distortion,” former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. told The Fact Checker in a telephone interview. “All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation. Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five.”
Paragraph 5 does state, “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
That paragraph is undermined by virtually every other which leads the reader by the nose to the idea that it’s Russian disinformation and other paragraphs that outright assert it.
Like this one.
“Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well.”
The letter claimed that the Hunter Biden laptop not only “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and, in italics, emphasizes that, “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”
This is well beyond raising a yellow flag. And Politico wasn’t distorting anything. Furthermore, if Clapper thought so, he had ample time to correct the record when the story first came out.
But Clapper disagreed. “To me, it’s a difference without a distinction. It could have been bad information, false information,” he said. “But we had no evidence, no inside baseball that it was. The intent of the letter was that this could be Russian disinformation — emphasis on could. It’s a very important nuance … a distinction that people are always ignoring.”
Clapper could be a pedophile. It’s a very important nuance. Could! Wasn’t this the routine that lefties used to run with Glenn Beck? And now they’re betting a lot on it.
But where’s the ‘could’ in “our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue”?
Jeff Bargholz says
James Clapper? More like Crapper. I’d like to punch that guy.
Christopher Riddle says
Uh,Huh??????????????????Me First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeff Bargholz says
He’s all yours! Just don’t get caught.
Algorithmic Analyst says
He’s a Muslim, I think.
Jeff Bargholz says
That wouldn’t surprise me. I know for sure John Brennan is, and he’s an even worse scumbag than Crapper. That’s hard to do, by the way.
What makes you suspect him?
Algorithmic Analyst says
Maybe I got him mixed up with John B. He was in Saudi and such though for awhile. I tried to look it up on the internet but couldn’t find evidence either way.
Jeff Bargholz says
His political record backcks that that up,, too.
Jeff Bargholz says
Aw,the internet. You know how unreliable it is.
Algorithmic Analyst says
Yeah, all the time I was searching, I was thinking “this looks whitewashed”.
Buddy the Cat says
I always thought the phrase was “a distinction without a difference”. not the other way around. Did he get those words messed up too?
Jeff Bargholz says
i coined that phrase and now everybody uses it. I guess I should be proud.
Algorithmic Analyst says
“a difference without a distinction”
lol, that’s pretty funny when you think about it. I missed that when first reading the article 🙂
SP Smith says
Any real operations can be classified as ‘having all the earmarks of Russian misinformation’. That’s what misinformation is designed to do.
Ugly Sid says
So, honesty, as opposed to dishonesty, is achieved by coming clean after being deadbang caught lying?
At least he’s not pretending he has honor to defend. That might result in a duel.
Courage simply cannot be his undoing. Like honor his courage inventory runs at zero.
Deceit,on the other hand, runeth over.
Christopher Riddle says
Uh,Huh??????????????????
David Smith says
Not much of a spy if he thinks any country has the capability of putting together a PC with emails of content confirmed by the originator in some cases, hundreds of dodgy pictures and all the other info that makes up a personal PC.
I bet he didn’t even look at it.
roberta says
Anyone so ugly should probably never be put in charge of anything important. It seems these creepy looking misfits
are ugly on the outside, because they are ugly on the inside.
The lizard that is in charge of immigration. Is another one.