Some might argue intelligence and MSNBC don’t usually go together, but over the weekend the White House announced President Biden will be tapping Jeremy Bash, an MSNBC national security analyst, former CIA chief of staff, and the first husband of CNN’s Dana Bash, to join his Intelligence Advisory Board. It’s another example of the revolving door between the federal government and the media.
During Monday’s Special Report on the Fox News Channel, White House correspondent Peter Doocy pointed out that Bash’s analytical skills and discernment were not that sharp; noting Bash and other liberal former intelligence officials wrongly claimed the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation:
Jeremy Bash – a former CIA chief-of-staff who worked for then-Director Leon Panetta and has since gone on to work at MSNBC as an analyst, who also signed on to that letter we covered many times with other Intel officials claiming that stories about Hunter Biden's laptop have all the, quote, “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” – is going to be the newest member of the President's intelligence advisory board.
“It's worth pointing out that after that letter was signed by Bash and others, Hunter Biden himself came out to say saying he doesn't know if that laptop, infamously dropped off at repair shop in Delaware, was his or not,” Doocy added.
NewsBusters also has a litany of other examples of Bash operating in less than good faith and proving himself to just be a peddler of hate against the right.
In October of 2019, during the blowup over then-President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Bash invented fake quotes from Trump:
[T]his was part of a carefully orchestrated effort by a number of key administration officials to present an ultimatum to the Ukrainians: ‘You’ve got to get involved in the 2020 election, help Trump win reelection, and if not, then you’re not gonna get the benefit of American support, including military support.’
(…)
Well, imagine, Savannah [Guthrie], if a president of the United States said to China, ‘Hey, you can invade your neighbors,’ or said to North Korea, ‘You can build nuclear weapons, if you do me a favor though.’
He was also a part of a group of NBC hacks who decried Trump for taking a victory lap after he ordered the elimination of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He recognized the importance of the move but cast doubt on if it really meant anything. “President Trump made a decision that really took the foot off the neck of ISIS by taking the ground forces that was containing them, the Kurds, and abandoning them,” he chided.
More concerning, this hiring comes during a time when Biden is seemingly trying to stoke national hatred against Republicans by calling them “semi-fascist.” Also in 2019, Bash suggested the right was giving up opposition to authoritarianism:
[T]hey're also departing from their history. Ronald Reagan spoke of peace through strength, and even I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were tough on Russia, tough on the Soviet Union, the Reagan build-up in defense was really to counter the Soviet menace as it was described, and here we have Republicans who are ostensibly tough on national security and they’re lining up behind the Commander in Chief who denigrates our military, denigrates our law enforcement, denigrates our intelligence, and sends love letters to Kim Jong-un, and embraces Vladimir Putin.
The White House continues to drink from the poison that is the liberal media and it’s shaping up to form a government that’s ostensibly targeting the right-wing of American society.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
August 29, 2022
6:03:04 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Peter, the President is adding to the intelligence advisory board.
PETER DOOCY: Yes. Jeremy Bash – a former CIA chief-of-staff who worked for then-Director Leon Panetta and has since gone on to work at MSNBC as an analyst, who also signed on to that letter we covered many times with other Intel officials claiming that stories about Hunter Biden's laptop have all the, quote, “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” – is going to be the newest member of the President's intelligence advisory board.
It's worth pointing out that after that letter was signed by Bash and others, Hunter Biden himself came out to say saying he doesn't know if that laptop, infamously dropped off at repair shop in Delaware, was his or not. Bret.
BAIER: Okay. We will continue to follow that story. Peter Doocy, live on the North Lawn. Peter, thanks.
