Are you a former member of a U.S. intelligence organization and have expertise in the telltale signs of what makes a Russian disinformation campaign? You are? That’s great —please sign this statement that will convince a majority of Americans that one of the biggest political scandals in decades is a lie.
And so, Former Director of National ]Intelligence James Clapper and more than 50 additional intelligence community members signed off on the now infamous Hunter Biden Laptop Letter —a move that, according to recent surveys, may have swayed the election in Joe Biden’s favor.
But now Clapper and Co. are trying to pin the blame elsewhere —namely, Politico, which he said “deliberately distorted” the letter, tanking the credibility of 50+ stuffed shirts in the process.
“There was message distortion,” Clapper said in an interview with the Washington Post. “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.”
Fair enough, Mr. Clapper —let’s jump to paragraph five of your letter.
“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.”
Okay, but how about those next two sentences…
“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.”
“There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.”
So you’re saying you didn’t really know but decided to, essentially, render a verdict regardless of your doubts —knowing full well that the mainstream media would have a field day with it and protect their boy Hunter Biden.
Politico had a little something to say about Clapper’s attempt to pass the buck.
“The article fairly and accurately reported on—and summarized—the intelligence officials’ letter,” an outlet spokesman told the Washington Post. “More specifically, the headline is a fair summary of their allegations, the subhead offers additional context, and the first paragraph of the article hyperlinks to the letter itself, allowing readers to draw their own conclusion.”
It’s possible, very conceivable in fact, that both Clapper and Politico never intended the American public to dig much beyond the headline.
And it’s too bad we didn’t. According to The New York Post, “a 2022 poll found that four out of five Americans who followed the Hunter Biden laptop story believe that “truthful” reporting on it would have changed the election result.
