CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s interview with Representative James Comer (R-KY) on Thursday evening, where the latter laid out the evidence against President Biden, garnered a fair bit of attention among the liberal media. Among the shows that misused clips from the interview and misconstrued the information Comer presented was Friday’s CNN This Morning, in which anchor Victor Blackwell accused Comer of having given “no direct evidence” to support his claims, as the headline professed.
Blackwell opened the segment with his claim that Comer’s accusations of Biden’s bribery scheme were unfounded, playing an out-of-context clip from the interview that wasn’t even about the evidence, but Comer complaining about the Justice Department stonewalling his investigation and Biden lawyers intimidating witnesses.
Then, Blackwell introduced CNN national security reporter Zachary Cohen by asking him, “what, if anything, supports these claims from Comer?” As though Comer had not answered this question in the interview already, which he had.
Cohen then began to discuss the memo that Comer had released on Wednesday with his accusation, claiming that though it was “based on bank records that the Committee obtained through subpoena,” it was really a sign “that Republicans on the House Oversight Committee intend to accuse the president of corruption without any direct evidence to support that claim.”
Now, just to be clear, never in the interview did Comer say or imply that there was no evidence for his accusation of Biden. In fact, to the contrary, he essentially listed off several pieces of evidence that he had already collected, and explained why these made him more inclined to search for more evidence that Biden might also have been trying to hide.
Ignoring this part of the interview entirely, Cohen began to talk about how Comer’s position had apparently undergone a “shift” with this memo:
COHEN: Now, that's a shift from what we've seen from the House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, just about a week and a half ago, when he was asked by Sean Hannity on Fox News directly. He goes, “do you have proof that Joe Biden took a bribe?”
Take a look at what Comer said then.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
COMER: I sure hope so. And I—I do believe that there's a lot of smoke. And where there's smoke, there's fire.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
COHEN: So now Comer’s saying, well, we don't need the proof to be able to throw the accusa—ac—accusations out there.
So Cohen was alleging that Comer thought evidence wasn’t necessary to pursue an investigation on someone? It seemed like Comer had already given that evidence, right in the very interview that Cohen was supposedly reporting on.
It’s as though our funny friends at the Babylon Bee were right yet again, when they wrote about how “Democrats Say It’ll Take A Lot More Than Eyewitness Testimony, Bank Records, Audio, Video, Complete Confessions For Them To Believe Biden Did Anything Wrong.”
CNN's misinterpretation of Comer's interview was brought to you by Samsung and Verizon. Contact them via their linked contact information and let them know that this is what they're supporting.
Transcript of the segment below (click Expand):
CNN This Morning
8/10/23
6:30:29 AM ET
VICTOR BLACKWELL: Alright. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer now says that he intends to subpoena members of the Biden family as Republicans ramp up calls for an impeachment inquiry.
In a memo released Wednesday, Comer accuses Biden of a bribery scheme worth $20 million, but when pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper for evidence on claims that Biden financially benefited from his son's foreign business dealings, here's how Comer responded.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
REP. JAMES COMER [R-KY]: This is what we're investigating. And it's difficult, Jake. It's very difficult. The—the Biden attorneys are obstructing, they're intimidating witnesses, the DOJ will not cooperate with us, the FBI will not cooperate with us, the IRS will not cooperate with us.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
BLACKWELL: CNN's Zachary Cohen is with us now from Washington. So, what, if anything, supports these claims from Comer?
ZACHARY COHEN: Yeah, good morning, Victor and Poppy. Look, this memo’s based on bank records that the Committee obtained through subpoena, and they targeted individuals who they know were doing business with Hunter Biden.
But what it really shows is that Republicans on the House Oversight Committee intend to accuse the president of corruption without any direct evidence to support that claim.
Now, that's a shift from what we've seen from the House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, just about a week and a half ago, when he was asked by Sean Hannity on Fox News directly. He goes, “do you have proof that Joe Biden took a bribe?”
Take a look at what Comer said then.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
COMER: I sure hope so. And I—I do believe that there's a lot of smoke. And where there's smoke, there's fire.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
COHEN: So now Comer’s saying, well, we don't need the proof to be able to throw the accusa—ac—accusations out there.
And, of course, this comes as Republicans are pushing the pot—im—po—potential impeachment of the president too, based on these allegations.
So, Republicans moving forward without really having shown the goods to back up the claims that they're putting out in public.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, and Manu Raju reporting the Republicans privately are saying that impeachment inquiry is a forgone conclusion.
POPPY HARLOW: Yeah.
BLACKWELL: We'll see if they'll get there in the fall.
Zachary Cohen, thank you.
