Appearing on Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sounded off on what he characterized as a “disinformation campaign on behalf of Joe Biden,” saying:
“The New York Post broke that story, but I was the one that verified it. I was the one that said, no, despite what a lot of former intelligence officials are saying and Democratic officials like Adam Schiff are saying, it’s not Russian disinformation.
“And, unfortunately, what we’ve seen and some of what’s now been talked about in the Twitter files is that there was a suppression, essentially a disinformation campaign on behalf of Joe Biden that involved many people, and as a result, some of that information was suppressed from the American voters, even though, as you correctly point out, Jason, that, as the voice of the intelligence people — or as the voice of the intelligence community, I said that this was not Russian disinformation and yet, there was a suppression of that truth and amplification of a lie that it was Russian disinformation.”
Ratcliffe’s reminder on what he said about the Hunter Biden laptop at the time was sparked by the recent Twitter Files revelations, with journalists like Matt Taibbi exposing that the FBI used its power and influence over Twitter to shut down the Hunter Biden story when the New York Post broke it in the fall of 2020, turning what could have been a last minute surprise in Trump’s favor into yet another story clouded by competing claims and the spectre of Russian involvement.
It was on Fox News Channel that DNI Ratcliffe defended the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop and emails, rebutting Adam Schiff’s claim it was Russian disinformation by saying:
And, unfortunately, in this case, it is Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who, as you pointed out, said on Friday the intelligence community believes that Hunter Biden’s laptop and the emails on it are part of some Russian disinformation campaign. Let me be clear: The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. We have shared no intelligence with chairman Adam Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign.
Continuing, he said “And this is exactly what I said I would stop when I became the director of National Intelligence, and that’s people using the intelligence community to leverage some political narrative. And in this case, apparently, chairman Schiff wants anything against his preferred political candidate to be deemed as “not real” and as using the intelligence community or attempting to use the intelligence community to say there’s nothing to see here. Don’t drag the intelligence community into this. Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign, and I think it’s clear that the American people know that.“
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