OPINION:
The 2020 presidential election has been essentially settled, with Joe Biden positioned to unseat Donald Trump as commander in chief. Central to the apparent Biden victory was the solid backing of the U.S. intelligence community. As the smoke clears from the lengthy battle for the White House, it is evident the professional seers have traded their blue-ribbon credentials of patriots for the grimy ones of propagandists. Americans in the future should expect a straighter story from Mother Goose.
Members of the Electoral College gathered in their home states on Monday and, following their constitutional mandate, voted for president in accordance with their citizens’ collective choice. When the ballots are opened on Jan. 6 and the expected count of 306-232 is certified for Mr. Biden, only an unforeseeable surprise could block the pathway to his Jan. 20 inauguration as the nation’s 46th president.
Ironically, it was just such a sudden intervention that kept the Democrats’ struggling champion from falling by the wayside prior to Election Day. The pivotal play arrived in the form of an Oct. 19 open letter signed by more than 50 former senior intelligence officials. Their words discounted the veracity of emails, purported to belong to Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, providing a window into allegations of Biden family corruption.
The uncovering of crucial messages, related to the younger Biden’s activities during his board membership of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the letter read. Signed by such intelligence bigwigs as former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper, and former CIA Directors Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta and John Brennan, the letter gave a green light to major media backing the Biden campaign to ignore New York Post stories reporting on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China.
The chief spooks produced evidence of Russian disinformation in amounts equal to claims some made during the previous four years that Mr. Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russkies to win the 2016 election: zero. Some “intelligence.”
Consumers of Biden-brand news never knew what they were never told and blithely punched the big “D” for the Democratic Party on Election Day. Learning of Biden family mischief too late, 17% of Biden voters said they would have abandoned his candidacy had they learned the facts earlier, according to a post-election poll conducted for the Media Research Center.
Nor did voters learn that the Justice Department has been investigating Hunter’s misdeed for the past two years. It’s better to be lucky than good, they say. Best of all is to be protected from illegal media leaks.
It would be a stretch to say the spymasters’ joint missive alone silenced suspicions of Biden mischief — Big Media and Big Tech joined the effort to keep the truth from Americans. Only the hopelessly naive — and possibly Joe Biden, who benefited from the deceit — should henceforth harken to intel fairy tales.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.