Tucker Carlson and Miranda Devine should apologize for promoting their baseless smears about Hunter Biden getting classified information but we know they won’t even show even that shred of decency or integrity.
Last week, I wrote about how Tucker Carlson seized on New York Post reporter Miranda Devine’s completely-speculative “theory” that Hunter Biden must have gotten classified information from his father because the wording of one of the emails allegedly on his appropriated laptop could not have been written on his own. Carlson promoted Devine’s BS even as he acknowledged he had no idea if it was true. Nor did he lift a finger to find out:
CARLSON: [Devine] found a remarkable e-mail, an e-mail the Justice Department has never shown to the public, despite the fact its agents have had it for years.
And the document that Miranda Devine found indicates that Hunter Biden had classified information in his possession. Almost certainly that came from his father, then the Vice President, and that he used that information to make piles of money for the Biden family while working at a fake job in Ukraine. That's what it shows.
So, if there's an actual scandal at the core of this classified documents story, here it is.
…
There's no question that Hunter Biden used classified materials to assemble this e-mail.
Carlson followed up with an appearance by the inaptly named Devine for more baseless speculation presented as fact:
DEVINE: You know, [the email] reads like an official document, even it reads like a classified document. There is information in there that's not readily available. He sounds very knowledgeable and very breezy about it.
Well, it turns out the information in the email was readily available. The Washington Post did the job Carlson and Devine didn’t – probably because they didn’t want to spoil their smears with the truth.
Hunter Biden has had a checkered life, marked by substance-abuse problems. But he is also a graduate of Georgetown University and Yale Law School. One can presume he acquired some research skills at those institutions. He was also well-connected, with contacts he could draw on for information. In the email he refers to possibly hiring a firm to provide information “that’s not available through a Google search and some phone calls” — suggesting that that is what he relied on for writing the email.
In his screed, Carlson cited the following material from Hunter Biden’s email as “evidence” he had access to classified information (Note: he referred to Russia as "RU" and Ukraine as "Uk"): 1. "The strategic values to create a land bridge for RU to Crimea;” 2. "That won't directly affect Burisma holdings, but it will limit future Uk exploration and utilization of offshore opportunities in particular;” 3. “It will also further destabilize the Uk nationally and for whatever government is in power and the US will respond with even stronger sanctions. Those sanctions will threaten the tenuous support of the EU, which does not have the political will to incur steep energy price increases;” and 4. “The US will respond with even stronger sanctions.”
Carlson added, “Now, keep in mind, if you're wondering, is this plausible? Keep in mind, when he wrote this e-mail, Hunter Biden was an active drug addict. … How did Hunter Biden know that? Oh, come on. Come on.”
Actually, Tuckums, Hunter Biden could have easily known it all without even a peep at classified information.
The Washington Post found the readily-available sources Carlson couldn’t be bothered to look for. The email in question was dated April 13, 2014, a month before Hunter Biden was named to the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, the Post notes:
- That information was found in various articles in The Washington Post (April 5, 2014), The Guardian (March 14, 2014) and Reuters (April 8, 2014).
- The Atlantic on April 8, 2014, discussed problems with offshore energy opportunities given that “infrastructure and investment now rests in Russian hands.”
- and 4. On April 8, 2014, Associated Press reported that then-Secretary of State John Kerry threatened Russia with tougher sanctions and told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “‘What we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an international boundary.”
The Post further notes that Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz also amplified and gave credence to Devine’s baseless conspiracy theory.
I doubt either of them will retract and apologize either.
Like Carlson, Devine is also paid by a Murdoch-controlled company to promote her destabilizing, disinforming, divisive poison.
You can watch the fact check in a Washington Post video below. Underneath you can see the Murdoch-funded swill put forth by Carlson and Devine, both from the January 24, 2023 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
