🇺🇸 Helping Hunter

Plus, Fed Chair Jerome Powell was pranked into a chat with fake President Zelensky...

May 01, 2023

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📈 Friday, April 28, President Biden Job Approval: Approve 50, Disapprove 49 (Rasmussen Reports)

📉 Thursday, April 27, Democratic Presidential Nomination 2024: Biden 70, Kennedy 21, Williamson 8 (Emerson)

🐎 Thursday, April 27, General Election: Trump vs. Biden: Trump 41, Biden 43 (Emerson)

🐎 Thursday, April 27, General Election: DeSantis vs. Biden: DeSantis 37, Biden 43 (Emerson)

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Left: Joe Manchin Is Having a Hard Time Jim Newell, Slate

Left: Is Trump Inevitable? Jonathan Martin, Politico

Right: One Important Way Biden and Trump Are Exactly the Same Byron York, Washington Examiner

Right: How Fauci Helped Teacher Unions Ruin Kids' Lives Mary Katharine Ham, New York Post

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Suspect Still At Large, Second Evacuation Convoy in Sudan, Super Mario Bros. Smashes $1B

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World: Second US-led convoy evacuates private American citizens from Sudan conflict (CNN)

Business: US banking titan JP Morgan to snap up most of First Republic (The Guardian)

US: Army identifies 3 soldiers killed in Alaska helicopter crash (AP)

US: GOP Senator Claims Blinken Lied Under Oath About Hunter Biden Contacts (Daily Wire)

US: Biden aims darts at Fox News, Donald Trump at correspondents' dinner (Reuters)

World: Massive fire at Crimea oil reserve was opening blast of Ukraine's 'full-scale offensive' on Russia (NY Post)

Hollywood: ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally (Variety)

POLITICS

Helping Hunter

Last Wednesday, attorneys for Hunter Biden met with Department of Justice prosecutors to discuss criminal charges that may be filed against the son of President Joe Biden. Hunter Biden has been under investigation since 2018 by the office of US Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, a Trump appointee.

Reporting from The Left: Biden campaign behind attacks on Hunter laptop story, CIA ex-official testified Joseph Clark, Washington Times

From The Flag: Former CIA director Michael Morell testified an open letter he published in 2020 — signed by 50 intelligence officials and suggesting Russian involvement "the Hunter Biden email issue" — was written after speaking to Anthony Blinken, a member of the Biden campaign at the time and now the Secretary of State. This has led some to believe a larger conspiracy is at play. Here's what both sides are saying.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Republicans Relying on Dubious Claims

  • Senator Ron Johnson is resorting to convoluted theories attempting to show the laptop situation played a significant role in the 2020 election's outcome.

  • Representative Jim Jordan and company allege the Biden campaign got former intelligence officials to help suppress the story.

  • Hunter Biden is becoming a more visible presence — just as President Biden prepares for reelection and probes of Hunter heat up.

Ron Johnson takes Hunter Biden-laptop-whataboutism to new heights Philip Bump, The Washington Post: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) can be relied upon for impassioned commentary on whatever fever is gripping the American right at any given moment — commentary that frequently spurs quick corrections in objective news coverage. Johnson has been on the excited-but-wrong side of identifying those responsible for the Capitol riot, coronavirus vaccines and voter fraud, among other things. On Sunday, Johnson repeated this pattern. Speaking to radio host (and sometimes political candidate) John Catsimatidis, the senator declared that one particular response to the October 2020 stories about a purported laptop belonging to Joe Biden’s son Hunter was more electorally influential than any foreign interference. This assertion is ridiculous. It is also revealing. At issue is a letter signed by several dozen past and current members of the intelligence community. It asserted that the release of the laptop — in practice, a collection of files held on an external hard drive — bore the fingerprints of a Russian intelligence operation."

House GOP’s latest Hunter Biden laptop theory is less than meets the eye Aaron Blake, The Washington Post: "In a new letter, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) reveal details of a recent interview with former acting CIA director Michael Morell. At issue is an Oct. 19, 2020, statement from 51 former intelligence officials that Morell spearheaded. The statement suggested that the laptop story, published in the New York Post, might be part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Morell said in his testimony that he had spoken with Biden campaign senior adviser (and now secretary of state) Antony Blinken about the Hunter Biden laptop story two days earlier, on Oct. 17, and he agreed that conversation “triggered” his intent to write the statement. Morell also said Blinken that day shared with him a USA Today story about the FBI investigating whether the story was tied to a Russian disinformation campaign."

One more opinion piece from the Left: Hunter Biden takes on higher profile amid investigations Viser & Pager, The Washington Post

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

This Was a Coordinated Effort To Help Biden

  • There's mounting evidence President Biden's campaign spread disinformation about Hunter’s laptop.

  • The Biden campaign used Michael Morell to arrange 50 former intelligence officials to discredit reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop.

  • Secretary Anthony Blinken is only the beginning of the Russian-disinformation hoax, and there are more key players in this situation.

Joe Biden and the 51 Spies of 2020 Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal: "Why is public trust in American institutions, including the press, in free fall? One reason is the revelation last week that the Biden for President campaign helped to organize the open letter that spread disinformation about Hunter Biden’s famous laptop computer on Oct. 19, 2020. I t turns out the Biden campaign was behind the letter. Mr. Morell told Congress under oath that he received a phone call from Antony Blinken on Oct. 17, 2020—three days after the Post published emails from Hunter’s laptop. Mr. Blinken was then a senior adviser to the campaign and is now secretary of State. … According to a letter the House committees sent to Mr. Blinken last week, Mr. Morell said the call was ‘couched as simply gathering Morell’s reaction to the Post story,’ yet it ‘set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.’ … Mr. Morell acknowledged he had two goals with the statement: to ‘share our concern with the American people,’ and to ‘help Vice President Biden; ‘win the election.’"

Ex-CIA chief spills on how he got spies to write false Hunter Biden laptop letter to ‘help Biden’ Miranda Devine, The New York Post: "Joe Biden’s presidential campaign prompted former acting CIA Director Mike Morell to “help Biden” by organizing 50 colleagues to sign a letter in October 2020 falsely claiming that damning emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop published by The Post were Russian disinformation. In private sworn testimony, Morell told the House Judiciary Committee that Antony Blinken, now secretary of state, was the senior campaign official who reached out to him “on or before” Oct. 17, 2020, three days after The Post published an email from the laptop suggesting Hunter had introduced his Ukrainian business partner to his father, then-Vice President Biden. … The letter was used by candidate Joe Biden during the Oct. 22 debate against President Donald Trump to deflect accusations about his involvement in his family’s international influence-peddling operation, which had garnered millions of dollars from China and Ukraine while he was vice president."

One more opinion piece from the Right: The Russia Hoax Orbiting Hunter Biden’s Laptop Is So Much Bigger Than Blinken Margot Cleveland, The Federalist

FLAG THIS

It Might Mean Something — But Maybe Not Impeachment

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey found 40% of US voters believe the investigation of Hunter Biden is likely to lead Congress to impeach President Biden, including 18% who say it’s Very Likely.

But over half of respondents — or 55% — don’t think Congress is likely to impeach the president over the Hunter Biden probe, including 29% who say it’s not at all likely.

Should President Biden be impeached over the Hunter Biden laptop situation?

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Empire State Building Dedicated, Why Does My Cat Wake Up So Early, Fewer Grasshoppers

Left: A worker bolts beams during construction. Right: During construction in October 1930; the USS Los Angeles, ZMC-2 and a J-class blimp seen overhead

On May 1, 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in DC, someone else flicked the switches in New York.

Today I Learned that nearly the entire student body of Ole Miss joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War — and suffered a 100% casualty rate.

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