The fact that the CIA whistleblower had a “professional tie” to Joe Biden still hasn’t garnered any interest on the network morning and evening newscasts. Three and a half days after it was first reported by The Washington Examiner, ABC, CBS and NBC yawned at the story.
Examiner writers Rob Crilly, Steven Nelson, and David Drucker on Thursday night explained:
The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA whistleblower had a "professional" tie is Joe Biden, according to intelligence officers and former White House officials.
Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only "in the executive branch." The Washington Examiner has established that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National Security Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New York Times reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the newspaper added that he "was detailed to the National Security Council at one point."
Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community's inspector general, told members of Congress that the whistleblower had a "professional tie" to a 2020 Democratic candidate. He had written earlier that while the whistleblower's complaint was credible, he had shown "some indicia of an arguable political bias ... in favor of a rival political candidate."
The Examiner also reported that chief Trump critic Adam Schiff has two aides who worked with the whistleblower at the White House. On Fox and Friends: Saturday, host Ed Henry explained:
Breaking news from The Washington Examiner saying, look at this headline, “Adam Schiff has two aides who worked with the whistleblower at the White House.” Presumably that would have been back in the Obama administration and what they say is Abigail Grace who worked at the NSC until 2018 into the Trump administration was hired in February while Sean Misko, a National Security aide in 2017 joined Schiff's committee staff in August, the same month that the whistleblower submitted his complaint.
The networks haven’t covered that either. It’s not as though there wasn’t time. On Monday, CBS This Morning devoted 4 minutes and 13 seconds to Rachel Ray’s latest cookbook. NBC’s Today offered 5 minutes and 27 seconds to how to make dinner in under 30 minutes. Good Morning America allowed 1 minute and 25 seconds to the online video game Fortnite temporarily shutting down.
A partial transcript is below:
Fox and Friends: Saturday
10/14/19
7:01ED HENRY: Breaking news from The Washington Examiner saying look at this headline, “Adam Schiff has two aides who worked with the whistleblower at the White House.” Presumably that would have been back in the Obama administration and what they say is Abigail Grace who worked at the NSC until 2018 into the Trump administration was hired in February while Sean Misko, a National Security aide in 2017 joined Schiff's committee staff in August, the same month that the whistleblower submitted his complaint.
The whistleblower was a National Security Council official who worked with yes, former vice president Joe Biden back in the Obama administration and had expertise in Ukraine. The Washington examiner" has reported. The plot thickens this morning.
PETE HEGSETH: So they say it was an inside job, huh? These are Obama holdovers who stayed just long enough to see what they could gather on the Trump administration. This is what Trump allies have been alleging in the deep state for a very long time. So, they leave the Trump administration. Go to Adam Schiff’s committee.
