The words "Hunter Biden" surfaced on Jake Tapper's CNN show on Tuesday...but only to condemn Donald Trump for the apparently horrific act of asking war criminal Vladimir Putin for details on the wife of Moscow's mayor giving $3.5 million given to a company Hunter Biden co-founded.
Tapper's guest was CNN Senior Legal Analyst Preet Bharara, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York through Barack Obama's two terms. He refused to resign when Donald Trump asked him to resign. He's a partisan Democrat, and he sounded like one on CNN today.
Tapper began by objecting to Trump in an interview asking Putin, "a clear adversary of the United States, for help to get damaging information on President Biden and his son Hunter." Trump said "I think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it."
The CNN anchor explained there was a 2020 Senate report that explained Elena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's mayor, "gave $3.5 million a decade ago to a company that Hunter Biden says he has no affiliation with." That's not quite right. In 2009, Hunter Biden co-founded a firm called Rosemont Seneca Partners. The Baturina millions were sent in 2014 to an offshoot called Rosemont Seneca Thornton for a "consultancy."
Journalists never imagine that Trump's asking leaders abroad for information on Hunter Biden (in part) because CNN and the rest of the media seem more interested in burying it than investigating it. They aggressively "fact checked" this donation in 2020 to cast aspersions on the Senate report.
But this was all Tapper wanted to say on the matter. He wanted to shame Trump. "Here is Trump asking an adversary of the United States, fully engaged in attack on an ally right now, Ukraine, to give information to damage the president of the United States and his son. This is exactly what he was impeached but not convicted for."
Bharara then took Tapper's cue. "I think of it as what any reasonable person would make of it. It’s a person that acts crazy sometimes, who’s trying to deflect attention away from himself because there's a lot of attention, as you mentioned, seven hours 37 minutes of logs that are missing. The 1/6 committee doing a great job, you know, beginning to prove and make the case that he was involved at a more significant way than was previously known. "
It's fascinating that Team CNN is obsessing over something the Democrats insist is missing, but they dismiss a huge payout that is on the record.
Tapper concluded by mocking Senator Susan Collins (not by name): "I remember a Republican senator saying after the first impeachment where he did something similar like this, except he was president, he learned his lesson. He learned the lesson, yes! He learned he can get away with it, he can do this all the time."
Tapper's lecturing on Trump asking dictators about Hunter Biden was supported in part by ADT Security Services.
Transcript below:
JAKE TAPPER: Trump recently sat for an interview where he’s asking Putin, a clear adversary of the United States, for help to get damaging information on president Biden and his son Hunter. Take a listen.
TRUMP: Why did the mayor of Moscow's wife give the Bidens, both of them, $3.5 million. That's a lot of money. She gave them $3.5 million. So now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer.
TAPPER: Just to be clear what President Trump is talking about there, there’s a 2020 Senate report that disclosed that a Russian oligarch and then wife of Moscow’s mayor gave $3.5 million a decade ago to a company that Hunter Biden says he has no affiliation with. But more broadly, what do you make of this? Here is Trump asking an adversary of the United States, fully engaged in attack on an ally right now, Ukraine, to give information to damage the president of the United States and his son. This is exactly what he was impeached but not convicted for.
PREET BHARARA: I think of it as what any reasonable person would make of it. It’s a person that acts crazy sometimes, who’s trying to deflect attention away from himself because there's a lot of attention, as you mentioned, seven hours 37 minutes of logs that are missing. The 1/6 committee doing a great job, you know, beginning to prove and make the case that he was involved at a more significant way than was previously known. You have a judge in the last couple days who in a parallel proceeding made the point there's evidence that Donald Trump and others conspired to violate criminal law, meaning that certain documents have to be released on the crime fraud exception. This is what he does. The fact that he's doing it now, with a country that’s at war with Ukraine, of an ally, and indiscriminately bombing and killing innocent people and children is, I think, something is a new level.
TAPPER: I remember a Republican senator saying after the first impeachment where he did something similar like this, except he was president, he learned his lesson. He learned the lesson, yes! He learned he can get away with it, he can do this all the time. Preet Bharara, thank you very much.
