In a major interview yesterday, Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden continued to spread the debunked conspiracy theory that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal is part of a “Russian disinformation” scheme to derail his third and final run for the White House.
Speaking to 60 Minutes’ Norah O’Donnell last night, Biden offered no evidence for the claim, and O’Donnell didn’t challenge him.
Last week, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe firmly stated his agencies have no evidence to support the ridiculous conspiracy theory, which plays into the idea that President Trump is a Russian stooge who “colluded” with the country to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
On Saturday, Biden also shut down a reporter in Scranton, Pennsylvania, who asked about the laptop, which contained e-mails connecting the former president to Hunter Biden’s business deals in Ukraine and China.
With just nine days until the election, the candidate hopes to shut down discussion of the scandals, which point to ill-gotten gains through influence-peddling.
Russian “Disinformation”
O’Donnell didn’t examine the topic in detail, of course, and tossed Biden a belt-high slow ball. Indeed, her question wasn’t so much a question as a leading statement with which Biden would obviously agree:
“Do you believe the recent leak of material allegedly from Hunter’s computer is part of a Russian disinformation campaign?” she asked.
Replied Biden:
From what I’ve read and know the intelligence community warned the president that Giuliani was being fed disinformation from the Russians. And we also know that Putin is trying very hard to spread disinformation about Joe Biden. And so when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani — the president, together — it’s just what it is. It’s a smear campaign because he has nothing he wants to talk about. What is he running on? What is he running on?
But O’Donnell didn’t push Biden further, or ask him about the statement from DNI Ratcliffe.
As Ratcliffe told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo last week, the principal individual pushing the debunked conspiracy idea is hate-Trump leftist Representative Adam Schiff. Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, staged a bogus impeachment of Trump with false charges of “collusion” and soliciting “foreign interference” in the 2020 election.
“Let me be clear,” Ratcliffe said of claims the Hunter Biden laptop and e-mails are Russian disinformation.
“The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff, or any member of Congress, that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign.
“It’s simply not true.”
The FBI has not disputed Ratcliffe’s statement.
Big Brush Off
On Saturday, Biden brushed off a reporter’s question about it in Pennsylvania.
When Andy Mehalshick of WYOU in Scranton asked him about it, Biden offered his pat response. Nothing to see here, Biden said, move along.
“Mr. Biden, if I can, questions and controversy continue today about Hunter Biden, your son.”
Answered the former vice president:
There is no controversy about my son. That’s all a lie. It’s a flat lie because the president has nothing to run on. If you notice, while the American people are talking about what’s happening to their families, he has no plan. In the debate, he has no plan. Everything from the Wall Street Journal, every other major news outlet has said what he’s saying is simply not true about my son. It’s classic Trump, classic Trump.
Biden has not denied the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden or that the e-mails are genuine.
The Laptop, the E-mails
The trouble began for Biden senior when the New York Post published e-mails that showed he lied when he said he knew nothing of son Hunter’s fantastically lucrative, overseas business ventures.
An e-mail from a top Burisma hand thanks Hunter Biden for arranging a meeting with his father. Joe Biden’s campaign handlers have conceded the former vice president might have met the Burisma exec.
Other e-mails exposed Hunter Biden’s business arrangements in China and that he split his income 50-50 with Joe Biden, while still more unconnected to the laptop detail the role of Hunter Biden’s business partners in arranging a White House tour for “China Inc.”
Wall Street Deep-Stater Jeff Zients, Biden’s transition co-chair, hosted that meeting. Biden also met with the group.
Finally, just before last week’s presidential debate, one of Hunter Biden’s former business partners surfaced to say he met with Joe Biden to discuss his son’s business with China and that Biden senior had an equity stake in a deal. E-mails from Tony Bobulinski do not show that Joe Biden was involved in a deal with China. But they do show that Joe Biden lied when he said he knew nothing about his son’s foreign business ventures.
One America News confirmed that the laptop contained photos of underage girls.
H/T Breitbart
