We just learned that a sitting vice president, formerly part of the Biden-Harris ticket, now leading the Harris-Walz ticket, received as-yet-undisclosed Trump campaign material hacked by Iran and sent to directly the Democrat campaign in June. No big deal? Wrong – big deal, for three reasons.
First, once you get something, read it, and understand what it is, you cannot unread it, or draw no conclusions from it. No matter how much they protest that it means nothing, they still get it.
Subsidiary questions: Why are we only learning about this now, in September? What exactly did the Iranians pass to the Biden-Harris campaign? No one will say. Did it change Harris’ approach?
Some will say, “Who cares,” “Hey, she did not ask for it,” or “It makes no difference.” Is that so? Imagine Richard Nixon had said, after learning a clandestine operative broke into Democrat headquarters at the Watergate, that he was just chagrined, sorry, and would not use what got found?
Would that let him off the hook, end the inquiry, and all tidy? Doubt it. When Trump, in 2016, noted Clinton destroyed 30,000 potentially criminal emails, and jestingly said he would welcome them from anyone, including Russia, he was skewered. Harris just got Trump material – no conversation?
Second, think about the timing, and the import of that Trump campaign material ending up in the Biden-Harris camp. When did Biden drop out, or get forced out by pro-Harris Democrats? Mid-July.
When was the Republican convention? Mid-July. What do we know about the material? Little, but part was tied to Trump picking JD Vance as VP. Significant? How fast did Democrats jump on Vance?
What else do we know about timing? Two Biden emissaries met indirectly with Iranian officials in May, Brett McGurk and Abram Paley. What did they discuss? No telling, unclear.
McGurk worked for multiple administrations and is a credible lawyer and negotiator on the Biden-Harris NSC, in the White House. He never served in the military and is not without controversy.
When Trump withdrew forces from Syria, McGurk resigned, writing: Trump “is not a Commander-in-Chief… makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation… blusters and then leaves our allies exposed…” Ironic views for a Biden-Harris NSC member after the Afghanistan debacle.
If McGurk is anti-Trump, he is also a former media analyst for NBC and MSNBC. While no links to McGurk, the media did, according to the FBI, reportedly get copies of Trump material hacked by Iran.
What about Paley? Tied to negotiations with Iran that produced that highly expensive prisoner purchase (six billion dollars) a year ago, Paley worked for the US envoy to Iran under FBI investigation for mishandling classified data and … is a former Mideast advisor to Kamilla Harris.
So, did anything untoward happen in May that might have produced that hack in June, delivery of Trump campaign material to Biden-Harris, about which Harris now says she knew nothing? Maybe not, but the two Biden-Harris officials dealing with Iran are anti-Trump and close to Harris.
Third, even if nothing suggests an interest by Harris in Iran’s bad behavior or links between her campaign and Iran’s hacking of Trump’s campaign, her people are viewed as very friendly to Iran. She is viewed as far more likely to appease than confront Iran, which is why Iran wants her to win.
Is that good for Americans? You tell me. What should average voters think of all this, Biden-Harris’s closeness to Iran, and hostility to Israel? Just this: Harris, like Biden, is ready to appease. She is weak. Iran knows it. Iran hacked Trump to help Harris and shared their hack with Biden-Harris and the media.
How does that make you feel? It should make most feel highly uncomfortable. By all indications, Iran is trying to help the Harris campaign win, and whether they have or not, that is their intent. Whatever Iran wants, most Americans should not, because Iran is no friend of America.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
