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U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and late-night host Stephen Colbert doubled down on the thoroughly debunked lie that House investigation into Hunter Biden and his business dealings was launched based on “Russian propaganda.”
Colbert pointed to comments from U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-GA) made in favor of renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Despite the fact that intelligence officials have been caught conducting illegal FISA surveillance on members of the Trump campaign, January 6 protesters and GOP staff members, Turner argued that fears over FISA abuse amounts to “Russian propaganda.”
Colbert pounced on the statement during an interview with Ocasio-Cortez on Monday night. “Republican Congressman Mike Turner and Michael McCaul said that Russian propaganda has infected the Republican Party’s base and the Republicans in Congress were repeating Russian propaganda on the House floor. Can I get a witness? Have you seen this?” Colbert asked. “And what do you make of that kind of self-accusation.”
“Yeah, I mean, I think if you turn on any House oversight hearing in the last year, you will see Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and all these folks engaged in wildly propagandistic rhetoric,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.
“And I mean, even let’s just rewind a second. We just went through an impeachment attempt on the president of the United States that that was started with a source that Republicans used that was in communication with Russian intelligence,” she continued, repeating the long-debunked lie. “So you have not just the bottom bench here, you have the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Representative Comer, take at quote-unquote evidence and account from someone who was working with the Russian intelligence and tried to impeach and remove the President of the United States over it,” she continued.
“This is serious.”
In the days following the New York Post’s bombshell report on Hunter Biden’s laptop — which contained emails detailing financial transactions with foreign nationals from China, Ukraine and several other nations — mainstream media outlets and big tech companies worked together to censor the story.
They cited a memo circulated by a number of retired intelligence officials, who claimed that the laptop featured all the “hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
The laptop’s authenticity has since been confirmed, while the letter was the product of former Acting CIA Director Mike Morrell, who twice served in the role under President Obama. Morrell was asked to solicit signatures for the letter through the CIA by a senior Biden ally.
Last April, Morell told the House Judiciary Committee that he was approached by a “senior official” with the Biden campaign and asked if he would be willing to solicit signatures for the letter. Morell, who was considered for the role of CIA director by President Biden, said he organized the letter to “help Vice President Biden … because I wanted him to win the election.”
The former deputy and acting CIA director identified the “senior official” as current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
