In an interview last night with Fox's Bret Baier, former CIA Director Leon Panetta humiliated himself as he defended the letter that he and 50 other so-called 'intelligence officials' signed suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
Even more unsettling were his comments that he believes it could still be Russian disinformation.
“That letter was used in the debate, I haven’t asked you this but do you have regrets about that now looking back, knowing what you know now?” Baier asked.
Panetta explained that he was “extremely concerned about Russian interference” in the run up to the 2020 Presidential Election between then-former-Vice President Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump.
He claimed that intelligence agencies discovered that “Russia had continued to push disinformation across the board.”
He said that he wanted to “alert the public” about the “disinformation efforts” to influence the election.
“And frankly, I haven’t seen any evidence from any intelligence agency that that was not the case,” Panetta said.
“You don’t think that it was real?” Baier asked.
“I think that disinformation is involved here. I think Russian disinformation is part of what we’re seeing everywhere,” Panetta responded.
“I don’t trust the Russians, and that’s exactly why I was concerned that the public not trust the Russians either.”
And finally, Baier asked if Panetta had any regrets over how he handled the story.
“No, I don’t have any regrets about not trusting the Russians,” Panetta said.
As Jonathan Turley pointed out,Panetta simply refused to acknowledge:
(1) American intelligence quickly debunked the claim and said that there was no evidence of Russian disinformation behind the laptop,
(2) the emails contained in the laptop were quickly authenticated by the other parties,
(3) the FBI authenticated the laptop,
(4) Hunter Biden has since sued over the use of his laptop, and
(5) the media has independently authenticated the laptop.
This was the man in charge of our CIA.
As a reminder, it has also been shown that the Biden campaign and associates coordinated the letter.
Watch the lying liar lie below...
Here's the clip of Leon Panetta telling Bret Baier he has no regrets about the MIS-information that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian disinformation operation. He wouldn't get this question on the lefty networks. pic.twitter.com/rHRDRsaS4H
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) October 13, 2023
We give the last word back to Turley who summarized the former spook's self-immolation perfectly: "Panetta has become the personification of the economic theory of path dependence. No matter how much countervailing evidence is presented to Panetta, he still refuses to accept the authenticity of the laptop."
However, in order to admit to these facts, Panetta would have had to admit that he was a willing or unwitting dupe of the campaign. It is easier to simply continue to claim that this could all be the invention of the Russians.
Yet, as Turley exclaims, Panetta is still sought for his advice on other intelligence matters as he continues to repeat disproven claims because the truth is simply too costly on a personal level to acknowledge.
What do we call false claims that are repeated despite being repeatedly debunked and disproven? Oh, yea, disinformation.
