‘That’s Outrageous!’: Fox’s Juan Williams Shuts Down Bill Hemmer, Katie Pavlich Over Release of John Ratcliffe’s Declassified Intelligence Documents
Fox News’ Juan Williams got in a heated clash with Bill Hemmer, Katie Pavlich, and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) over recently declassified intelligence documents that were released by the director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe released several declassified intelligence documents on Tuesday, including one that features handwritten notes from former CIA Director John Brennan, which alleged that Hillary Clinton was provoking a Donald Trump scandal to distract from her email scandal.
John Brennan recently pushed back on the allegations that claimed he attempted to undermine Trump during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper –calling Ratcliffe “anything but an intelligence professional.”
After Pavlich briefed the Fox panel on the current scandal and called on Joe Biden to address it, Hemmer claimed the documents show “the previous administration had dirty hands on this.”
“That’s outrageous!” Williams exclaimed. “You should not say that. There is no proof anybody has any dirty hands.”
Williams then speculated that these documents are just getting released now because Trump is currently trailing Biden in the latest polls and is distracted by his positive coronavirus diagnosis.
“This is typical Donald Trump,” he added. “The bipartisan senate intelligence committee put out a report signed by the majority, the Republican majority, that said very clearly in 2016, the Russians interfered in our election to the benefit of Donald Trump. They wanted Donald Trump to win. There is no question about this. Is Donald Trump going to run again in 2016? Is going back in time? That’s what this is about. This has nothing to do with the 2020 election.”
Williams also pointed out that Ratcliffe has no background in intelligence — calling him out for solely serving the political purposes of the president in order to distract American voters.
“Let’s go ahead and see it and we’ll make up our own minds,” Hemmer replied before Chaffetz jumped in to point out Brennan’s own notes were leaked.
Chaffetz and Williams then began to talk over each other regarding the responsibility of a CIA director and their relationship with the president.
“To suggest that Ratcliffe doesn’t have the wherewithal or the background,” Chaffetz snapped. “He sat in on the intelligence committee, he was a U.S. attorney prosecuting terrorism cases in the Bush administration. He is highly qualified to do it.”
Pavlich jumped in to claim that the incident points to an even larger story regarding the abuse of power that occurred in the FBI, listing several scandals throughout the past four years.
Again, Williams said that they are not all connected and blamed Ratcliffe for releasing the documents to distract from the current administration.
Hemmer pushed back slightly, noting how long Pavlich’s list was, but Williams stood his ground.
Watch above, via Fox News.
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