‘It Wasn’t True’: Bret Baier Grills Guest Over Past Suggestion That Hunter Biden Laptop Story Was Russian Disinformation

Fox News anchor Bret Baier grilled a guest who signed on to a letter published by Politico ahead of the 2020 election suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story was a Russian disinformation operation.

Shortly before that election, the New York Post published a story about a computer reportedly belonging to the son of Joe Biden – then a presidential candidate. The Post reported the laptop was dropped off at a computer repair shop, but was never picked up. Subsequently, then-President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani obtained a copy of the hard drive, which contained documents related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the U.S. and abroad. It also featured numerous videos and photos of him doing drugs.

The story was widely dismissed or ignored by major media outlets, and in some cases was de-prioritized and even censored by social media algorithms. Joe Biden went on to win the election.

On Tuesday’s edition of Special Report on Fox News, Baier pressed one of the signatories to the letter in Politico, former CIA officer David Priess.

Baier quoted an excerpt from the letter.

“We write to say that the arrival on the U.S. political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the letter stated.

“Why did you sign onto that?” Baier asked.

“Because of what it says,” Priess replied. “It has all of the classic earmarks of one of these operations. You’ll note elsewhere in the letter – if you read it – that it also says we don’t know if this is a Russian operation at all. That has been dramatically changed in the retelling of the story.”

Baier retorted by pointing out that the story turned about to be legitimate.

“The New York Times found that these are authenticated,” he stated before citing other sources that deemed the story credible.

The host played a clip of Joe Biden citing the letter in the first presidential debate to claim the story was a hoax.

Baier asked for Priess’ response.

“I’ll let President Biden speak for himself,” Priess said. “He’s capable of doing that. What I’ll do is say is that it has all the classic earmarks of a Russian campaign in the way it was disseminated and propagated through media.”

“Do you regret signing on to the letter?” Baier asked.

“Absolutely not,” came the reply. “Because those words are still true.”

“It had the classic earmarks, but it wasn’t true,” Baier shot back, adding that the “nuance” appeared lost on Joe Biden.

“It’s not my fault if people don’t look up definitions,” Priess said.

Watch above via Fox News.