During Sunday’s Face the Nation, Moderator John Dickerson became the first member of the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) to crack the broadcast TV blackout of the Hillary Clinton-Uranium scandal. But his mention of the story came five days after The Hill first exposed how the FBI was investigating Russian bribery of public officials to purchase the radioactive substance. And segment brought their total coverage time of the scandal to a whopping 69 seconds.
Dickerson brought up the Clinton-Uranium scandal during an interview with Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford. After prefacing that the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Lankford sits on, could choose to review the FBI’s findings or investigate the accusations themselves, he asked the Senator:
You're looking into the Russian influence in the election, there have been reports this week about Russian efforts to try to influence the Obama administration and try to influence perhaps Hillary Clinton through donations to the Clinton Foundation with respect to the purchase of uranium. Is that something that the intelligence committee should look at, that you're interested in looking at?
Senator Lankford was quite candid in his response to Dickerson, explaining: “So, we have the report that we have now, but that is an unsettled issue that something that the FBI has pursued for now a decade to try to determine what influence was done.”
“As you know there are several Russians that have been arrested for this, or have been charged on these crimes of trying to be able to influence the purchase of -- in the deal on uranium with the Obama administration through the Clinton Foundation,” he added.
The Senator was adamant about the scandal being “unanswered” and described it as “unfinished business,” but noted that it may not be his committee handling it. “But that is unfinished business, quite frankly the Judiciary Committee will probably be the lead investigative team on that one from the Senate,” he said. “But we still wait to see the final reports from the FBI on it to be able to get the actual details on that one as well.”
Since both ABC and NBC failed to report the Uranium bribery plot and the Clintons’ connections on Sunday (as well as during the previous five days), it was surprising to see Dickerson be the one to bring it up and not a guest. It will be interesting to see if it was the start of a tread or just an outlier.
Transcript below:
CBS
Face the Nation
October 22, 2017
10:39:34 AM Eastern(…)
JOHN DICKERSON: Now let me ask you another question about potential business on the Intelligence Committee that you're on. You're looking into the Russian influence in the election, there have been reports this week about Russian efforts to try to influence the Obama administration and try to influence perhaps Hillary Clinton through donations to the Clinton Foundation with respect to the purchase of uranium. Is that something that the Intelligence Committee should look at, that you're interested in looking at?
SENATOR JAMES LANKFORD: So, we have the report that we have now, but that is an unsettled issue that something that the FBI has pursued for now a decade to try to determine what influence was done. As you know there are several Russians that have been arrested for this or have been charged on these crimes of trying to be able to influence the purchase of -- in the deal on uranium with the Obama administration through the Clinton Foundation.
There are unanswered questions that should be answered, it may not necessarily be by this investigation but we like to be able to close it down. But that is unfinished business, quite frankly the judiciary committee will probably be the lead investigative team on that one from the Senate. But we still wait to see the final reports from the FBI on it to be able to get the actual details on that one as well.
(…)
