During their Thursday evening newscast, CBS stepped into the breach to defend the Biden campaign from the bombshell New York Post reports documenting alleged corruption from the Biden family (an element of which has since been confirmed by Fox News). Then, during Sunday’s Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan peppered former National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers with a request to comment on what she admitted was “speculation” Russia had stolen Hunter Biden’s emails to dump.
Leading up to her admission that what she was peddling about the Biden scandal was baseless, Brennan primped the pump by asking Rogers to discuss Russian efforts to sway the 2020 election with misinformation and even manipulation of vote counts:
I want to get to your old line of work and your expertise on the intelligence front because we know U.S. intelligence says, right now, Russia is basically trying to manipulate the public, spread disinformation about the election specifically to hurt the Democratic candidate and some Kremlin-linked actors trying to boost the President. Can Russia, at this point, actually change the outcome of the election by altering votes? Do they have that capability?
After Rogers shot down her suggestion that Russia would be manipulating vote totals for Trump, he noted that Russia was still trying to manipulate voters’ emotions via social media to drive people apart. Brennan saw the opportunity and pounced.
“To that point, you know, there has been a lot of speculation that this week some of the information about Joe Biden's son, Hunter, that has circulated in tabloid, The New York Post, may be the result of a hack and dump operation,” she declared. Meanwhile, CBS was among the first to push that “speculation” while the Biden campaign had not refuted the validity of the information.
Adding: “This is speculation at this point. That it could have come from Russian military hacking of a Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden served. Do you see any justification for that speculation at this point?” But, Brennan’s hypothesis made no sense.
According to the Post report, the information on the computer in question contained a “12-minute video that appears to show Hunter, who’s admitted struggling with addiction problems, smoking crack while engaged in a sex act with an unidentified woman, as well as numerous other sexually explicit images.”
Why would the Ukrainian energy company Burisma have that video and those images, as Brennan suggested was taken from them? That's not to mention the emails confirmed by Fox News pertaining to Hunter's involvement with a Chinese firm.
For Rogers’ part, he didn’t know much about the case and didn’t like her speculation. “Again, my view would be let's let it play out, let’s investigate it, let's get some factual evidence, let’s get the Metadata, and let's see if this is accurate or not. I’m just not in a position to speculate. I’m not a fan of speculation,” he said as his host began to speak over him.
Brennan tried to salvage the CBS talking point by comparing the alleged Biden corruption to the Clinton campaign email scandal of 2016:
Well, it’s being compared to the hack and dump operation that happened, as you know, back in 2016. A lot of Democrats alleging that it is that. So, when you say you see Russia doing a disinformation and access -- spreading disinformation, is that the kind of thing you're talking about?
She ended the interview by asking about what signs to look for on Election Day to see if the election was compromised by Russia.
Brennan’s admitted baseless speculation was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Google and Walmart. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS’s Face the Nation
October 18, 2020
10:51:13 a.m. Eastern(…)
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to get to your old line of work and your expertise on the intelligence front because we know U.S. intelligence says, right now, Russia is basically trying to manipulate the public, spread disinformation about the election specifically to hurt the Democratic candidate and some Kremlin-linked actors trying to boost the President. Can Russia, at this point, actually change the outcome of the election by altering votes? Do they have that capability?
ADM. MIKE ROGERS: Do they have capability? Yes. Is it likely? No. And we haven't seen anything to date that would suggest that we're certainly seeing in cyber the same level of activity that we saw back in 2016.
I would say, where I think the Russians are doubling down is a little less on cyber activity directed directly against voting infrastructure, think about voter registration, the actual machines we use to cast ballots, the computer systems we use to tablet voting ballots, I don't think you're seeing that same level of activity.
Rather, I think what you're watching the Russians do is really double down on the idea of using disinformation, via social media and other paths, to attempt to continue to polarize our nation to incite violence, to incite hatred, and to attempt to pull us apart.
BRENNAN: So -- To that point, you know, there has been a lot of speculation that this week some of the information about Joe Biden's son, Hunter, that has circulated in tabloid, The New York Post, may be the result of a hack and dump operation. This is speculation at this point. That it could have come from Russian military hacking of a Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden served. Do you see any justification for that speculation at this point?
ROGERS: Margaret, I don’t know the specifics of this case. Again, my view would be let's let it play out, let’s investigate it, let's get some factual evidence, let’s get the Metadata, and let's see if this is accurate or not. I’m just not in a position to speculate. I’m not a fan of speculation.
BRENNAN: Well, it’s being compared to the hack and dump operation that happened, as you know, back in 2016. A lot of Democrats alleging that it is that. So, when you say you see Russia doing a disinformation and access -- spreading disinformation, is that the kind of thing you're talking about?
ROGERS: That could be an element. So, when you look at disinformation campaigns, you see the Russians using false identities. So, you might think you're talking to a fellow American from the Midwest when actually you're talking to a Russian troll in St. Petersburg.
So, using false identity, using false information. Attempting to manipulate images, the use of videos that are distorted to create an impression that is not based in fact. To try to energize individuals’ emotions, their prejudices, their viewpoints to galvanized them to work against, if you will, an outcome that brings up together.
BRENNAN: Very quickly. What is the thing to watch on election night to know if our elections are secure or not?
ROGERS: So, if you saw an effort on the part of a foreign entity to attachment to manipulate or deny our election processes is, the things I would be looking for are, number one, do you see widespread. I'm not just talking about one or two places. But if you see widespread challenges associated with voter registration rolls.
BRENNAN: Okay.
ROGERS: People show up, they give their license, and it doesn't match.
BRENNAN: We will watch that.
(…)
