NBC Rediscovers Hunter’s ‘Much Talked About’ Laptop, Tout ‘Aggressive’ Attacks on Critics

February 2nd, 2023 12:41 PM

On Thursday morning, NBC’s Today rediscovered Hunter Biden’s “much talked about laptop” (which in and of itself is comical for a liberal outlet to assert) in order to trumpet Hunter’s “aggressive new legal strategy” to force his father’s Justice Department and allies in Delaware law enforcement to open criminal investigations of those that shared and promoted its contents, which resulted in “a series of salacious and frankly damaging media stories”.

 

 

The one minute and 45 seconds of coverage were tacked onto a segment that began with the latest in President Joe Biden’s documents scandal. Co-host Craig Melvin made the pivot alongside chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker:  

And Kristen while I have you on, I want to ask you about something else here, another Biden in the spotlight this morning. Hunter Biden. And it’s involving his much talked about laptop once again. What’s the latest with that?

“Much talked about laptop”? According to a Nexis search, NBC’s Today and evening counterpart NBC Nightly News only covered Hunter Biden’s life of corruption 16 times in 2022 (eight times on Today, seven on NBC Nightly News) with only six of those hits mentioning the laptop. 

This was despite the fact that NBC itself confirmed it was real on May 18 (after The New York Times did so on March 16 and The Washington Post followed on March 30).

As for Welker, she boasted NBC was “tracking what appears to be an aggressive new legal strategy” by Hunter in “trying to go on offense as House Republicans are preparing investigations into him and his business dealings.”

Warning that such probes could begin “as soon as next week,” Welker countered that Hunter’s “lawyers writing a letter to the DOJ and Delaware attorney general asking them to criminally investigate some of former President Trump’s allies — you know these names Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon —  for what they allege is trafficking in stolen information, including data possibly from his laptop and an effort to weaponize the contents from that laptop against President Biden.”

Fact-check: Pants on fire, Kristen. As the Free Beacon’s Andrew Kerr explained, “Hunter Biden authorized John Paul Mac Isaac to access his laptop data. Then he failed to retrieve the laptop. At that point it became abandoned property. & free game.”

Kerr also tweeted a screencap of the invoice from Mac Isaac’s repair shop that included an agreement he would retrieve the laptop once work was completed which, as we know, never happened.

In other words, it’s no different than someone dropping off their suits and never picking them up from the dry cleaners.

Having chosen not to fact-check Hunter, Welker continued with a more comical line that “you may remember” the laptop “was at the center of a series of salacious and frankly damaging media stories about the President’s son, a lot of them before the 2020 election, including alleged emails related to his business dealings overseas.”

As we’ve reported constantly at NewsBusters, NBC’s flagship shows haven’t touched them. For examples of “salacious” tales from 2022, see Geoffrey Dickens’s work from April 25, June 8 and 28, July 12 and 28, August 30, and October 5 and 13.

Welker further beclowned NBC with a classic lament of the liberal media, which was that “Republicans have really tried to seize on this.”

Adding that the President “has denied knowledge of his son’s business dealings,” Welker reminded viewers that Hunter’s currently facing a “federal criminal probe focused on taxes and other issues” and had the decency to run portions of comments received from Bannon and Giuliani, including Bannon’s zinger to NBC that he “thought Biden told us it was all Russian disinformation.”

To see NewsBusters's full coverage of Hunter Biden, click here.

NBC acknowledging the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell in order to defend him from blowback was brought to thanks to the backing of advertisers such as Citi and Google. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.

To see the relevant transcript from February 2, click “expand.”

NBC’s Today
February 2, 2023
7:13 a.m. Eastern

CRAIG MELVIN: And Kristen while I have you on, I want to ask you about something else here, another Biden in the spotlight this morning. Hunter Biden. And it’s involving his much talked about laptop once again. What’s the latest with that?

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Hunter Biden Asks for Criminal Probe]

KRISTEN WELKER: Yeah, that’s right. Well we are tracking what appears to be an aggressive new legal strategy. Hunter Biden trying to go on offense as House Republicans are preparing investigations into him and his business dealings. We could see that as soon as next week. Hunter Biden’s lawyers writing a letter to the DOJ and Delaware attorney general asking them to criminally investigate some of former President Trump’s allies — you know these names Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon —  for what they allege is trafficking in stolen information, including data possibly from his laptop and an effort to weaponize the contents from that laptop against President Biden. Now the laptop you may remember was at the center of a series of salacious and frankly damaging media stories about the President’s son, a lot of them before the 2020 election, including alleged emails related to his business dealings overseas. And Republicans have really tried to seize on this, alleging Hunter Biden has tried to profit off his father’s political career. For his part, President Biden has denied knowledge of his son’s business dealings.  Now a representative for Giuliani — we reached out to him — told NBC news, “Raising concerns now indicates just how devastating the texts and videos from Hunter’s laptop truly are. A really defiant Steve Bannon said, “I thought Biden told us it was all Russian disinformation.” We did reach out to the Justice Department as well, Craig. They have not responded to our request for comment. And Hunter Biden has previously denied wrongdoing here. It’s also worth reminding everyone, Hunter Biden also faces an ongoing federal criminal probe focused on taxes and other issues, Craig. 

MELVIN: Chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker for us. Kristen, thank you.