CNN’s Jake Tapper To The New York Post: Bow To Twitter Censorship And Delete Your Tweet
Tapper reportedly spoke with a Twitter executive about the decision, but merely shrugged at Twitter's excuse for the blatant censorship.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was confronted about the Hunter Biden email controversy over the weekend, and the former vice president responded by once again snapping at the reporter who questioned him.
Biden was first questioned about the growing controversy by CBS News campaign reporter Bo Erickson just days after it began. At the time, Biden responded by calling the story a "smear campaign" before scolding Erickson for questioning him.
"I knew you'd ask it. I have no response, it's another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask," Biden said.
During a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a reporter attempted to ask Biden about the story — but Biden cut off the reporter, lashing out before the reporter could even finish his question.
"There is no controversy about my son," Biden claimed. "It's all a lie. It's a flat lie because the president has nothing else to run on. If you noticed, while the American people are talking about what's happening to their families, he has no plan, and at the debate, he has no plan. Everything from the Wall Street Journal, every other major news outlet has said what he's saying is simply not true about my son."
"But it's classic Trump, classic Trump," Biden continued. "Because he doesn't want to talk about how manufacturing has gone into recession, how our economy's in a hole, how we're approaching a bleak winter. It's estimated 200,000 more people will die of COVID if we don't act more rapidly in terms of dealing with rational basis of social distancing, wearing masks, etc."
"And what's he do? He's going around the country holding these great spreaders of more virus," Biden added. "So, he has nothing to say. Think about it: What is his plan for the next four years, except more of the same? Failure."
Interviewer: "Questions and controversy continue today about Hunter Biden, your son-"Biden: "There is no controve… https://t.co/ZDHa1td8Us— Andrew Solender (@Andrew Solender)1603583075.0
Despite calling the stories a "lie," neither Biden nor his campaign have pushed back against the material facts asserted in the Hunter Biden email stories.
Meanwhile, Democrats maintain the stories are part of a Russian propaganda campaign meant to disrupt the election. However, top intelligence officials have rebuffed such claims.
In fact, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe revealed last Monday that there is no evidence to support Democrats' claims.
"Let me be clear, the intelligence community doesn't believe that, because there's no intelligence that supports that, and we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden's laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign — it's simply not true," Ratcliffe said.
As TheBlaze reported, the Justice Department and FBI concur with Ratcliffe's assessment: The Hunter Biden stories are not Russian propaganda.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden unequivocally denied that his son Hunter Biden made money from a foreign business deal involving China during Thursday evening's final presidential debate.
As President Donald Trump went on the offensive bringing up allegations that the former vice president knew about his son Hunter's foreign business deals despite his multiple claims to the contrary, Biden forcefully claimed he has never received money from any foreign source.
"I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life," Biden said.
Joe Biden: “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life." https://t.co/JleCd5PGtP— NBC News (@NBC News)1603417632.0
Responding to a question from moderator NBC News' Kristen Welker on whether Hunter Biden's involvement with Chinese and Ukrainian energy companies was "unethical," Biden deflected and pointed the question back on Trump.
"Nothing was unethical," Biden answered. "With regard to Ukraine, we had this whole question about whether or not, because he was on the board I later learned of Burisma, a company, that somehow I had done something wrong. Yet every single solitary person when he was going through [Trump's] impeachment testifying under oath who worked for him said I did my job impeccably. I carried out U.S. policy. Not one single, solitary thing was out of line.
"The guy who got in trouble in Ukraine was this guy trying to bribe the Ukrainian government to say something negative about me, which they would not do and did not do because it never, ever, ever happened," Biden said, referring to Trump.
Joe Biden on Hunter Biden's work: "Nothing was unethical." #Debates2020 https://t.co/JbKTeU6f6n— The Hill (@The Hill)1603417476.0
Biden accused Trump of being the one benefiting from foreign governments, citing a recent report from The New York Times that Trump had a bank account opened in China.
Trump kept up the attack, however, noting that Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma while Joe Biden served as vice president despite having little experience in that field.
"He's the vice president of the United States and his son, his brother and his other brother are getting rich. They're like a vacuum cleaner," Trump said.
Questions abound over allegations that Biden's family leveraged his position as vice president to make financially beneficial business deals with foreign entities. Emails purportedly retrieved from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden indicate that the Biden family pursued "lasting and lucrative" deals with a Chinese energy company that had ties to the communist Chinese government.
The existence of the laptop was first reported by The New York Post, which cited former Trump campaign adviser Steve Bannon and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani as the sources for its story.
At the debate, Biden criticized Giuliani, saying "he's being used as a Russian pawn" and accusing the content of this laptop of being Russian disinformation.
Leaving no room to backtrack, Biden explicitly denied that his son made money from a business deal with Chinese associates.
"My son has not made money in terms of, this thing about, what are you talking about, China," Biden said.
Earlier Thursday, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, held a news conference accusing Joe Biden of falsely stating that he had no knowledge of Hunter's business deals and of being directly involved in those foreign business dealings.
Bobulinski claims that the email reported by the New York Post is "genuine" and that he has "emails, Whats App chats, agreements, documents, and other evidence" to support his claims, evidence that he has turned over to the FBI. He is also working with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee in their investigation of Hunter Biden's foreign business activities.
If Bobulinski's side of the story is true, it means Joe Biden lied to the American people at the debate.The government's top law enforcement agencies agree that explosive stories related to Hunter Biden and a laptop computer hard drive that allegedly belonged to him are not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
One week ago, controversy exploded after the New York Post published its first story related to that hard drive. The story claimed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden met with a top executive from Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company where Biden's son, Hunter Biden, once worked.
Previously, Joe Biden had stated that he never discussed his son's overseas business dealings.
Immediately, top Democrats and the media began to construct a narrative: The explosive stories are Russian propaganda designed to sink Biden's presidential campaign.
But Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe threw cold water on that theory.
"Let me be clear, the intelligence community doesn't believe that, because there's no intelligence that supports that, and 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 — it's simply not true," Ratcliffe said Monday.
The Department of Justice and FBI reportedly agree with Ratcliffe's assessment.
"FBI & DOJ concur w/ Ratcliffe that Hunter Biden's laptop & the emails in question weren't part of a Russian disinformation campaign," Fox News producer Sean Langille reported Tuesday.
The FBI also reportedly confirmed that it does, indeed, have possession of the laptop computer from where the hard drive originated, as the Post originally reported, according to Langille.
#BREAKING: A senior federal law enforcement official tells @JakeBGibson1) FBI & DOJ concur w/ Ratcliffe that Hunte… https://t.co/sPNQMRXIWg— Sean Langille (@Sean Langille)1603231342.0
The Washington Examiner separately confirmed Langille's reporting.
Additionally, Langille reported that a federal law enforcement official told Fox News host Martha MacCallum that the emails contained on the hard drive are "authentic," adding that federal law enforcement "may have not been looked at right away when it was received."
MORE: @marthamaccallum is told by a Federal Law Enforcement Official that the emails are “authentic.”And that the… https://t.co/E6HXUzcMWW— Sean Langille (@Sean Langille)1603233077.0
"The IC and DOJ are in lock-step on this: there is absolutely zero evidence or intel that the laptop or the information contained therein is a Russian op. Schiff and the former officials making unfounded statements or signing their names to open letters are proving themselves to be the gang who couldn't shoot straight," a senior intelligence official told the Examiner.
Last week, Joe Biden said the stories are part of a "smear campaign."
However, neither the Biden campaign nor Hunter Biden have denied a single material fact from any of the Post's stories or any report related to the hard drive, which suggests, of course, that the stories are true.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has refused to answer additional questions about the hard drive. On Monday, his campaign called a lid until Thursday's debate.
Hunter Biden's Email Scandal Just Got A LOT Bigger | The Glenn Beck Program