Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on April 3 claimed that some major media outlets have been “caught in a coverup” regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Johnson’s remarks come shortly after The Washington Post and The New York Times published articles verifying and acknowledging the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop, nearly two years after it was first reported by the New York Post shortly before the 2020 election.
The New York Post’s reporting of the scandal was promptly suppressed by social media sites including Facebook and Twitter, the latter of which also locked the newspaper’s account for more than two weeks, citing the outlet’s alleged publication of “hacked material” as its justification.
In an editorial, titled “The Hunter Biden story is an opportunity for a reckoning,” The Washington Post blamed the reluctance among some media to publish the story on the possibility of it being one of the “unwitting tools of a Russian influence campaign in 2016,” among other things.
The Post’s editorial board also stressed that President Joe Biden himself had not “acted corruptly.”
Johnson told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that the recent admissions by both The New York Times and The Washington Post prove “how complicit the media was” in concealing Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential election.
“I really think what the New York Times and Washington Post stories prove is how complicit they have been and continue to be in the cover-up,” Johnson said. “And, you know, quite honestly, they’re not impartial. They are the defenders of the Democratic Party of the radical left. You know, The Washington Post learned a lot from their coverage of Nixon. When you get caught up in a coverup—and that’s what happened, the media get caught up in a coverup. They are caught with their lies.”
Johnson said that some outlets had participated in “what they call a limited hangout, or in [President Richard] Nixon’s case, a modified limited hangout. You’ve let out just enough information, just enough truth to try to get you by the moment.”
A modified limited hangout is a public relations or propaganda technique in which the individual or official involved releases some information that was previously hidden, albeit still retaining important key facts, in an effort to prevent more important details from being exposed.
According to former CIA official Victor Marchetti, the technique results in the public being “so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further.”
“We can’t allow our intelligence agencies, the Department of Justice, the FBI, or the media to get away with this,” Johnson said. “This is serious business. This is incredible corruption at the highest levels of government and within our media.
“We are all being snookered by them. This has been a—from my standpoint—a massive diversionary operation to, you know, to try to take the American public’s attention away from their wrongdoing, their lies, their cover-ups.”
He said that “now we have actual bank records that verify what we reported” and that Hunter Biden’s “laptop is obviously a treasure-trove of additional corroborating evidence as well.”
According to a recent article from The Washington Post—which hired two security experts to authenticate what is purportedly Hunter Biden’s laptop, documents, and messages on the device—Biden pursued a deal with Chinese Communist Party-linked energy firm CEFC China Energy, and its executives “paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle [James Biden].”
Further emails related to his work for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, of which he was a board member.
President Donald Trump previously claimed that Biden, while still vice president, threatened to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine unless a prosecutor investigating Burisma was ousted.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain told ABC News’ “This Week” on April 3 that Biden believes his son didn’t break the law with regards to his overseas business ties in China, Ukraine, and other countries.
“Of course, the president is confident that his son didn’t break the law,” Klain said.
Biden himself has also stated that his son “did nothing wrong at Burisma.”
Why is this now being hailed as a cover-up??? It was plainly obvious when it first hit the news cycle that it was an illegal activity prior to the POTUS election …. and it did show the dishonest and illegal conduct of the Bidens, including Joe Hidin’ Biden. If the liberal DemocRat propaganda serving news media now seems to “surprised” about it, that is just another sham act by the liberal DemocRat propagandizing segment of the news media that is engaged in self-serving deceit.
“Some” media being involved in a cover-up. Gee, the last time I checked the entire MSM has been actively involved for nearly two years in trying to bury this story.
Let’s just skip forward to how this all ends. The FBI and Department of Justice will continue to slow-walk the whole investigation into Hunter Biden as long as humanly possible. The MSM will continue to say none of Hunter’s actions involved or benefitted his father in any way. The simple fact that NO ONE ON THIS PLANET would give Hunter two cents, much less millions and millions of dollars, without concrete assurances that Joe Biden could deliver on something for them in each case. The people paying all this money to Hunter, on behalf of Joe, are NOT fools. Every meeting between Hunter and these people was no doubt bugged and video tapped and likely with Joe in the room as well. At some point saying all sorts of things that would incriminate him, if they ever became public.
In the end, Hunter will probably be charged with some relatively minor IRS violation and face a small amount of jail time and a potential fine. However, his lawyers, with the willing assistance of the DOJ, will again slow-walk the whole legal process and court proceedings. This will all drag out to sometime in March or April of 2024, when Joe announces he will NOT run for a second term. Thus allowing the Democrat Party to also dump Kamala and go with whomever the hard core leftists want to see on the ticket. Hunter’s trial be delayed and will eventually drag on until after the election. Then no matter who wins the 2024 election, Joe Biden will pardon Hunter before he leaves office. Hunter, Joe and the rest of the Biden crime family sail off into the sunset completely escaping justice.
All of the media that covered up and did not report on the lap top story should have their journalistic license pulled for a year and should have to pay half of their net worth to the treasury. That money should be for the next Federal election.
I agree with some of the other comments. There needs to be very severe penalties to media organizations who were complicit in this criminal cover up. CEOs and those directly involved should be banned from ever working at a media company, ever. Government accomplices in the CIA, FBI etc. should all be fired immediately, jailed, and their pensions revoked. All of these people are in jobs demanding a high level of integrity since they deal directly with the trust of US citizens They have broken and destroyed that trust and as such, the penalties should be extremely severe.
And don’t forget the Hillary Clinton cover-up with our past and current FBI involvement. Highly paid liars and idiots on the government money, which is the taxpayer money. Every single time I see Christopher Wray, I refer to him as one of the shady looking liars and wonder what he’s in the process of hiding. Same thing with Clapper, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Baker, etc. Is there anyone in that department that is not a liar and thief of taxpayer money???
it was done to assist in the voter fraud insurrection of the democrats. start pulling business licenses.
It’s on camera Biden bragging how he withheld a billion dollars from Ukraine unless they fired the prosecutor in charge of investigating Burisma!
(ALL) of the Biden Family are dishonest and corrupt.
I have just two words to say to this:
W..E..L..L.
D..U..H!!
Where are the RICO arrests? Politicians, Bidens, FBI, CIA, and DNC are all in on it.
Why is this now being hailed as a cover-up??? It was plainly obvious when it first hit the news cycle that it was an illegal activity prior to the POTUS election …. and it did show the dishonest and illegal conduct of the Bidens, including Joe Hidin’ Biden. If the liberal DemocRat propaganda serving news media now seems to “surprised” about it, that is just another sham act by the liberal DemocRat propagandizing segment of the news media that is engaged in self-serving deceit.
“Some” media being involved in a cover-up. Gee, the last time I checked the entire MSM has been actively involved for nearly two years in trying to bury this story.
Let’s just skip forward to how this all ends. The FBI and Department of Justice will continue to slow-walk the whole investigation into Hunter Biden as long as humanly possible. The MSM will continue to say none of Hunter’s actions involved or benefitted his father in any way. The simple fact that NO ONE ON THIS PLANET would give Hunter two cents, much less millions and millions of dollars, without concrete assurances that Joe Biden could deliver on something for them in each case. The people paying all this money to Hunter, on behalf of Joe, are NOT fools. Every meeting between Hunter and these people was no doubt bugged and video tapped and likely with Joe in the room as well. At some point saying all sorts of things that would incriminate him, if they ever became public.
In the end, Hunter will probably be charged with some relatively minor IRS violation and face a small amount of jail time and a potential fine. However, his lawyers, with the willing assistance of the DOJ, will again slow-walk the whole legal process and court proceedings. This will all drag out to sometime in March or April of 2024, when Joe announces he will NOT run for a second term. Thus allowing the Democrat Party to also dump Kamala and go with whomever the hard core leftists want to see on the ticket. Hunter’s trial be delayed and will eventually drag on until after the election. Then no matter who wins the 2024 election, Joe Biden will pardon Hunter before he leaves office. Hunter, Joe and the rest of the Biden crime family sail off into the sunset completely escaping justice.
All of the media that covered up and did not report on the lap top story should have their journalistic license pulled for a year and should have to pay half of their net worth to the treasury. That money should be for the next Federal election.
I agree with some of the other comments. There needs to be very severe penalties to media organizations who were complicit in this criminal cover up. CEOs and those directly involved should be banned from ever working at a media company, ever. Government accomplices in the CIA, FBI etc. should all be fired immediately, jailed, and their pensions revoked. All of these people are in jobs demanding a high level of integrity since they deal directly with the trust of US citizens They have broken and destroyed that trust and as such, the penalties should be extremely severe.
And don’t forget the Hillary Clinton cover-up with our past and current FBI involvement. Highly paid liars and idiots on the government money, which is the taxpayer money. Every single time I see Christopher Wray, I refer to him as one of the shady looking liars and wonder what he’s in the process of hiding. Same thing with Clapper, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Baker, etc. Is there anyone in that department that is not a liar and thief of taxpayer money???
it was done to assist in the voter fraud insurrection of the democrats. start pulling business licenses.
It’s on camera Biden bragging how he withheld a billion dollars from Ukraine unless they fired the prosecutor in charge of investigating Burisma!
(ALL) of the Biden Family are dishonest and corrupt.
I have just two words to say to this:
W..E..L..L.
D..U..H!!
Where are the RICO arrests? Politicians, Bidens, FBI, CIA, and DNC are all in on it.