There was a whole lot of fishiness in Ed Butowsky’s CNN appearance last night. But nothing was as fishy as his refusal to say what prompted him to approach the grieving Seth Rich family and suggest they hire a private investigator in a case that has now resulted in a lawsuit alleging that Fox News and the White House colluded to promote fake news about Rich’s murder.
As I’ve previously explained, Butowsky is the GOP operative who served as something of a go-between the Rich family, Fox News and the White House over a Fox News report about Rich’s death. Private investigator Rod Wheeler, also a Fox News contributor, has sued Butowsky and Fox claiming he was deliberately misquoted in a now-retracted article he says was designed to suggest it was Rich, not Russia (as the intelligence community has concluded), behind a leak of embarrassing DNC emails last summer, during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Butowsky dodged and deflected throughout the 22:37 interview. He also ridiculously claimed he was just joking when he told Wheeler that the White House was pushing him to do “whatever we’ve got to do” to get out the Fox News report last May, while Trump was under a lot of scrutiny about his relationship with Russia.
But Butowsky flat-out refused to tell CNN’s Chris Cuomo what may have been the most important question about his role, which was why this GOP operative approached the family of a DNC staffer with an offer to help them in the first place.
CUOMO: You went to the Rich family. They were in grieving. They were hurting. They had the worst kind of scenario, they lost a loved one and they didn’t know what happened. And you went to them with this story about what happened to their son.
[…]
How’d you get to them? … I want to know why you would go to this family with this type of stuff
BUTOWSKY: I’m going to tell you exactly what happened. I heard something. Someone told me something about Seth Rich. I don’t know the Rich family…
When Cuomo noted that Butowsky had just promised to explain everything, Butowsky said, “Alright, how about this? I’m going to tell you everything except that. How’s that?”
Cuomo did not back down. “I think we should know who told you,” he pressed, “‘Cause they must have been damned credible.”
An excellent NPR report by David Folkenflik includes a recording of Butowsky on a conservative radio program recounting his offer to the Rich family to pay for a private detective, just to “help these people out,” with enthusiasm. But on CNN last night, Butowsky suggested annoyance that the Rich family took him up on his offer:
BUTOWSKY: I said, “Why don’t you hire a private detective?” And they said, “We would love to, we can’t afford one.” And you know what, Chris? You don’t know me but a lot of people out there do. You know what I said? I said, “I’ll pay for it.” Now, I’m not a rich guy. I’m not some rich donor. I don’t know why you guys keep saying that, OK? ‘Cause I’m not rich at all. But I said to these people, “You know what? I’d be happy to pay for it.” I thought, as most people would say, “No, thank you. We don’t know you.” They said yes! And I said, “Oh.” I had no idea how much a private detective costs.
Cuomo closed the interview shortly thereafter. But referring to Butowsky’s earlier promise to “come up there tomorrow” and provide written proof of his claims, Cuomo now said, “I’m looking forward to you giving me all the backing for everything that you said.”
We’ll see if that ever happens.
Meanwhile watch this train wreck of an interview below, from CNN’s August 1, 2017 Don Lemon Tonight.
The GOPer’s version of an acceptable anonymous source.
Make no mistake: IOKIYAR !!!