Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
Since news broke over the weekend that businessman Carter Page is suing the FBI and Justice Department for $75 million over the improper targeting him during the Russia collusion investigation, the liberal media have shown no interest in the story alleging abuse of power against the former Donald Trump campaign economic advisor. By contrast, Fox News Channel have covered the story several times, and even interviewed Page on Fox & Friends Sunday.
The suit names prominent figures involved in the Russia collusion investigation, including former FBI director James Comey, former deputy director Andrew McCabe and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. McCabe and Lisa Page notably are legal analysts for CNN and MSNBC, respectively.
At 9:32 a.m. Sunday, Pete Hegseth recalled that Carter Page authored the book Abuse and Power, based on the experience, as the Fox & Friends Sunday co-host set up a five-minute interview: "Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page filing a $75 million lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI over what he calls unlawful surveillance as part of the special counsel's investigation into alleged Russian collusion." Page began by recalling some of the alleged wrongdoing:
It's been a very long battle over four years since this illegal spying was happening -- started during the Obama-Biden administration, and it continued for over a year. And after so many crimes have already been uncovered -- by actually an Obama appointee, Mr. Horowitz -- last December, this is -- it's just a clear, very clear-cut case, that justice needs to be restore restored.
Hegseth then used recent clips of Comey and McCabe from congressional testimony suggesting that the surveillance of Carter Page should not have happened:
HEGSETH: So you've named the DOJ, FBI, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, even FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith -- who pleaded guilty, by the way, to falsifying e-mail. There's a lot of people, including from this clip from Comey and McCabe who in retrospect now have changed their tune. Take a listen to what they said recently.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC) (dated September 30): Knowing then what you know now about all of the things that we've come to find, would you have still signed the warrant application against Carter Page?
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: No, I would want a much more complete understanding of what we were (audio gap) --
SENATOR GRAHAM: Thank you very much.
SENATOR GRAHAM (dated November 10): If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application in June of 2017 against Carter page?
ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY FBI DIRECTOR: No, sir.
Page went on to declare that he hopes to learn more about how his case was handled through the lawsuit. On Monday morning, the weekday edition of Fox & Friends replayed a clip from the Sunday interview.
Fox & Friends Sunday was sponsored in part by Transitions. Let them know you appreciate them supporting Fox's efforts to keep voters informed on such critical issues.
Below is a transcript of the November 29 Fox & Friends Sunday:
PETE HEGSETH: Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page filing a $75 million lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI over what he calls unlawful surveillance as part of the special counsel's investigation into alleged Russian collusion. Carter Page joins us now he's also the author of Abuse and Power: How an Innocent American Was Framed in an Attempted Coup Against the President. Carter Page, thank you so much for being here this morning. I should remind our viewers as well you went to the naval academy -- you were an intel lieutenant -- so thank you for your service to our country as well. You filed this lawsuit -- what do you hope to come from it?
Fox News Channel
Fox & Friends
November 29, 2020
9:32 a.m. Eastern
PETE HEGSETH: Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page filing a $75 million lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI over what he calls unlawful surveillance as part of the special counsel's investigation into alleged Russian collusion. Carter Page joins us now he's also the author of Abuse and Power: How an Innocent American Was Framed in an Attempted Coup Against the President. Carter Page, thank you so much for being here this morning. I should remind our viewers as well you went to the naval academy -- you were an intel lieutenant -- so thank you for your service to our country as well. You filed this lawsuit -- what do you hope to come from it?
CARTER PAGE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISOR: Well, I'm hoping for real justice, Pete. It's been a very long battle over four years since this illegal spying was happening -- started during the Obama-Biden administration, and it continued for over a year. And after so many crimes have already been uncovered -- by actually an Obama appointee, Mr. Horowitz -- last December, this is -- it's just a clear, very clear-cut case, that justice needs to be restore restored.
HEGSETH: Absolutely. So you've named the DOJ, FBI, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, even FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith -- who pleaded guilty, by the way, to falsifying e-mail. There's a lot of people, including from this clip from Comey and McCabe who in retrospect now have changed their tune. Take a listen to what they said recently.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC) (dated September 30): Knowing then what you know now about all of the things that we've come to find, would you have still signed the warrant application against Carter Page?
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: No, I would want a much more complete understanding of what we were (audio gap) --
SENATOR GRAHAM: Thank you very much.
SENATOR GRAHAM (dated November 10): If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application in June of 2017 against Carter page?
ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY FBI DIRECTOR: No, sir.
HEGSETH: So they've already admitted under oath that they were wrong. What is their defense?
(...)
HEGSETH: Fightback.law to support Carter Page's efforts. Real quick in closing, you were the victim of being spied on for political purposes by administration DOJ and FBI. Do you believe the safeguards are in place to prevent that from happening to someone else in the future?
PAGE: I think the commentary by Chairman Graham and so many members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the need for serious reforms, We really don't have the full truth yet, Pete, and unfortunately, as we were just discussing, it's going to be a long road ahead, so I think there's a lot more than needs to be done for sure. Pete.
(...)
On Fox & Friends Saturday, the show devoted a segment to the liberal media ignoring Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden's, questionable business dealings that are currently under federal investigation. After a succession of clips of various media personalities from October denying that there was a Biden scandal, New York Post columnist Sohrab Ahmari was allowed on as a guest to call out the fact that liberal journalists ignored his reporting and instead covered for their preferred presidential candidate.
At 8:17 a.m. Eastern, the segment was introduced using clips from Fox News from mid-October informing their viewers of the scandal, interspersed with clips from some of the liberal networks denying that there was a scandal and rationalizing why they were not covering it.
Toward the end of the montage, clips of CNN host Jake Tapper were used to illustrate how the network eventually flipped from denial to admission that a Biden scandal existed:
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (dated October 22): -- charges so heinous I'm not even going to say them.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANNOUNCER (dated December 9): This is CNN's breaking news.
TAPPER, CNN HOST (dated December 9): President-elect Joe Biden's son, Hunter, announced that the U.S. attorney in Delaware has notified his lawyer that the U.S. attorney has investigated Hunter Biden's taxes.
Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy then began the segment by asking Ahmari if liberal reporters that he knew were ashamed of their behavior, leading him to call them out:
The short answer is no. I mean, look, when we go to, you know, journalism classes or even what high school kids do, you're always told your job is to be curious about everything -- to not trust anyone in power and to be an independent thinker. That is not what happened when we put forward this story based on emails the authenticity of which neither Hunter nor Joe Biden has yet to dispute.
He further recalled the dominant media's suppression of the story:
What they did was they all circled the wagon. They all read from the same song sheet -- "disinformation, Fox News, New York Post Murdock world slime machine," so so on and so forth, without actually asking, "Hey, is it true? Let me pick up the phone. Let me ask investigators. Let me do all the things." It wasn't any of that -- it was all acting in defense of one candidate two weeks before an election.
And then they got -- they mobilized their friends in the big tech world to actually suppress the story so a significant chunk of America that gets its news from Facebook and Twitter only didn't actually learn about it in the lead up to the election. And so they did a disservice not only to the country but to what this profession, our shared profession, is supposed to stand for.
Ahmari then insightfully pointed out the double standard in how the liberal media would have treated a similar story if it involved members of President Donald Trump's family, and made a point of singling out the taxpayer-funded NPR's behavior:
Let's put the reverse scenario, right? Let's say this was emails involving Don Jr. Does anyone doubt that it would lead the New York Times 20,000-word magazine in the New York Times magazine, 10,000-word essay in the New Yorker blasted on MSNBC. Does anyone doubt that? So it's just so blatantly one-sided. The most infuriating case -- I have to mention this one -- is the news manager for NPR, Terry Samuel, said, you know, "We won't cover this because we know this is not a real story, and we only like to not waste our viewers' times with false stories." That's really infuriating because you and I can't get a refund when NPR -- the taxpayer funded outfit -- doesn't do its job.
Fox & Friends Saturday was sponsored in part by Shutterstock. Let them know you appreciate them supporting Fox's efforts to keep voters informed on such critical issues.
Transcript follows:
Fox News Channel
Fox & Friends Saturday
December 12, 2020
8:17 a.m. Eastern
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL (dated October 14): There's another huge story, and it starts right here at the New York Post: These are not opinions -- these are facts. These are emails that is going to explode."
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR (from Project Veritas undercover audio, dated October 14): Obviously. we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS (dated October 15): Our town hall with Joe Biden starts right now.
JEDEDIAH BILA, FOX NEWS HOST: (audio): George didn't even ask him about Hunter Biden.
CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA) (appearing on CNN's The Situation Room, dated October 16): The whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.
YOCHAI BENKLER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY (appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources, dated October 18): The same propaganda pipeline is there.
TIFFANY CROSS, MSNBC HOST (dated October 18): It's the, you know, "but her emails" again, and it's kind of ridiculous.
STEVE DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL (dated October 22): The cover of the New York Post has a story about a statement from Hunter Biden's business partner.
TONY BOBULINSKI, FORMER BIDEN ASSOCIATE (standing at a podium in Nashville): I have heard Joe Biden say that he's never discussed business with Hunter. That is false.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (from debate, facing Joe Biden, dated October 22): I don't make money from China -- you do. I don't make money from Ukraine -- you do.
JEFF ZUCKER, CNN PRESIDENT (from Project Veritas undercover audio, dated October 23): Rabbit hole of Hunter Biden, which I don't think anybody outside of that world understood last night.
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST (dated October 22): If you didn't follow it closely, you probably don't quite understand what the hit is.
STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS (dated October 22); Most of those charges unverified.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (dated October 22): -- charges so heinous I'm not even going to say them.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANNOUNCER (dated December 9): This is CNN's breaking news.
TAPPER, CNN HOST (dated December 9): President-elect Joe Biden's son, Hunter, announced that the U.S. attorney in Delaware has notified his lawyer that the U.S. attorney has investigated Hunter Biden's taxes.
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, FOX NEWS HOST: Other media outlets finally giving attention to the Hunter Biden controversy now that he is under federal investigation. It comes after they repeatedly dismissed the New York Post reporting and after the election. New York Post editor -- opinion editor and columnist Sohrab Ahmari calls the suppression disgraceful. He joins us now. Thanks for joining us, Sohrab. I guess my question is really simple, and I know you're connected to the media world and know so many other reporters. Is there any shame in this? Any sense of embarrassment by the media and those who suppressed it -- refused to cover this story?
SOHRAB AHMARI, NEW YORK POST OPINION EDITOR: Thanks for having me. The short answer is no. I mean, look, when we go to, you know, journalism classes or even what high school kids do, you're always told your job is to be curious about everything -- to not trust anyone in power and to be an independent thinker. That is not what happened when we put forward this story based on emails the authenticity of which neither Hunter nor Joe Biden has yet to dispute.
What they did was they all circled the wagon. They all read from the same song sheet -- "disinformation, Fox News, New York Post Murdock world slime machine," so so on and so forth, without actually asking, "Hey, is it true? Let me pick up the phone. Let me ask investigators. Let me do all the things." It wasn't any of that -- it was all acting in defense of one candidate two weeks before an election. And then they got -- they mobilized their friends in the big tech world to actually suppress the story so a significant chunk of America that gets its news from Facebook and Twitter only didn't actually learn about it in the lead up to the election. And so they did a disservice not only to the country but to what this profession, our shared profession, is supposed to stand for.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Absolutely, I mean, I've been calling it all morning, you know, "election interference" because I think we even just saw a poll recently that said that, you know, 10 percent of the people who voted for Joe Biden said they wouldn't have voted for him if they had known about this story. I mean, what do you say about that?
AHMARI: I mean, it's shameful. I would just say, let's put the reverse scenario, right? Let's say this was emails involving Don Jr. Does anyone doubt that it would lead the New York Times 20,000-word magazine in the New York Times magazine, 10,000-word essay in the New Yorker blasted on MSNBC. Does anyone doubt that? So it's just so blatantly one-sided. The most infuriating case -- I have to mention this one -- is the news manager for NPR, Terry Samuel, said, you know, "We won't cover this because we know this is not a real story, and we only like to not waste our viewers' times with false stories." That's really infuriating because you and I can't get a refund when NPR -- the taxpayer funded outfit -- doesn't do its job.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Absolutely. Well, thanks so much. I hope that the New York Post feels vindicated, and hopefully more readers are coming to you because of your authenticity and truth-telling during this scandal. Thanks so much -- really appreciate it.
(...)
>> In addition to this being the 20th anniversary of your concession, you have an op-ed in the New York Times this morning marking the five-year anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. President-elect Biden has pledged to make climate change a priority in his administration, beginning with rejoining the Paris agreement. Beyond that, though, as somebody who has been warning about environmental peril for decades now, what is the number one thing you would like to see from President Biden in his first 100 days that would suggest to you he is as serious about confronting climate change as you want him to be, as the world needs him to be?
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: I think he is and he has made the protection of the climate balance a centerpiece of his economic plan, as he should, because multiple studies show that the best way to create the tens of millions of new jobs we need to recover from the ravages of the pandemic, particularly the economic ravage of the pandemic, is to invest in this sustainability revolution and renewable energy and batteries in electric.
And it's worth pausing for a moment, Jake, to look at the connections between this pandemic and the climate crisis. Number one, the pandemic has shown us the dangers of ignoring grave warnings from the leading scientists and experts like Bill Gates who has been warning about such a pandemic for so long, when we get warnings from the leading virologists and epidemiologists, "This thing is coming -- we should prepare for it." The same is true of the climate crisis. Secondly, the climate crisis has
made the ravaged the pandemic worse because the air pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels makes people far more vulnerable to the pandemic.
The third connection is that we are seeing today, with the first distribution of these vaccines, that the scientific revolution is still accelerating in its power, and that also is true where the solutions to the climate [ inaudible ]. 90 percent of all new electricity integration will come from solar and will end in renewables. We are seeing a dramatic advance with nation after nation of announcing just in the last few months, major new commitments that quickly phase out the global warming pollution that is causing this crisis. The crisis is getting worse farce than we are deploying solutions but with -- to restore it to its traditional post-World War II position of leader in the community six nations, President-elect Biden can really rally the world to make more rapid progress in solving the