Anyone tuning into former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) interview with former White House press secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Monday night would be forgiven for thinking they were watching a clip from 2016. Pelosi said she believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has something” on former President Donald Trump and that it likely involves money. Sounds familiar, right?
After establishing that Trump “brought disgrace to the White House” and that “we must be sure that he does not step one foot into the White House” again, Pelosi asked, “What does he [Putin] have on Donald Trump that he has to constantly be catering to Putin? Telling Putin to go into these countries, NATO countries.”
“What do you think Putin has on him?” Psaki asked. “I mean, it sure seems like something, as you’ve said a few times, given that he refuses to criticize him, that he seems to be a fanboy of him. Are you worried at all?”
“I don’t know what he has on him, but I think it’s probably financial,” Pelosi replied. “Either something financial he has him on or something on the come. Something that he expects to get.”
Of course, Pelosi doesn’t believe a word of what she said. Trump’s potential ties to the Kremlin, financial or otherwise, were debunked by special counsel Robert Mueller’s exhaustive 22-month-long investigation which ended in March 2019. She is merely laying the groundwork for the Democrats’ plan to defeat Trump in November.
Lo and behold, the loyal foot soldiers in the legacy media are already repeating Pelosi’s words. The marching orders from the Democratic National Committee or the Biden campaign or whatever entity it is that determines party messaging has gone out.
It is now clear that resurrecting the narrative that Trump is an agent of Russia will be an integral part of the Democrats’ 2024 strategy. And they are using it to discredit the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his family’s foreign influence-peddling business.
Specifically, they are exploiting last week’s arrest of FBI confidential human source (CHS) Alexander Smirnov to exonerate Biden. You may recall last June when Republicans revealed an FBI FD-1023 report in which a CHS alleged that Biden and his son Hunter each accepted $5 million bribes from a top-ranking official at Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, in exchange for policy decisions.
Apparently, Smirnov, who had worked with the FBI for nearly a decade and was believed to be highly credible, had been lying. He is also reported to have “ties to Russian intelligence” and told officials the bribery story originated with Russian intelligence officials.
Although this story is but one piece of the treasure trove of evidence the GOP has collected over the past year, Democrats are using Smirnov’s arrest and his alleged Russia connections to debunk the entire impeachment inquiry. In a Monday op-ed published by CNN, former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut claimed that Smirnov is the Republicans’ “key witness” and that his allegations constitute the “heart” of their investigation. Aftergut concluded that his indictment “pushes [the] GOP impeachment probe of Biden off the edge.”
Another CNN op-ed offered readers “[a] step-by-step guide to how one debunked story fueled Republicans’ Biden impeachment effort.” For readers wondering what to read next, here’s another headline: “Ex-FBI informant told investigators he got Hunter Biden dirt from Russian intelligence officials.”
The New York Times called Smirnov the “centerpiece” of the impeachment inquiry against Biden, emphasized his connection to Russian intelligence, and characterized his arrest as a “stinging setback” for the GOP.
In a statement to CNN, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said, “For months we have warned that Republicans have built their conspiracies about Hunter and his family on lies told by people with political agendas, not facts.” He added that, “We were right and the air is out of their balloon. This is just another instance of Chairmen Comer and Jordan peddling falsehoods based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.”
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told CNN, “To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI’s FD-1023. It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings.”
It’s obvious where Democrats are going with this. Just as 51 former intelligence community leaders signed a letter in October 2020 claiming the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story had “all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign,” they will tell voters the entire premise of the impeachment inquiry is based on Russian disinformation.
Never mind that Biden was referred to as “the big guy” who was slated to receive 10% of the potential profits from a joint venture between members of his family and Chinese energy giant CEFC in an email found on his son’s laptop, or that one of his son’s former business partners, Tony Bobulinski, has gone on the record to say he is 1,000% “the big guy.” Never mind that Comer has pieced together the money trails from Chinese and Romanian nationals to nine members of the Biden family, including a grandchild, and that the funds were transferred via a network of up to 20 shell corporations set up by Hunter Biden and his associates.
The Democratic Party is morally bankrupt. They no longer even try to win elections based on the issues. Instead, they put their efforts into disinformation campaigns – propaganda – intended to mislead the public. Will voters fall for it again?
A previous version of this article appeared in the Washington Examiner.
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