Hunter Biden scandal hurting Biden with Latinos: Garza
The Libre Initiative president Daniel Garza says Hispanic voters are turned off by the Hunter Biden scandal.
MSNBC largely ignored NBC News' own report verifying the Hunter Biden laptop after the network previously dismissed it as Russian disinformation.
NBC News became the latest legacy media organization to offer delayed legitimacy to the growing scandal plaguing President Biden's son.
The Peacock network published a story Thursday headlined, "Analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive shows he, his firm took in about $11 million from 2013 to 2018, spent it fast," citing documents showing the fortune he made while working for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, as well as through his business ties to a Chinese energy company. It also aired a package about the story Wednesday on "NBC Nightly News," its flagship evening program.
The report also highlighted some of Hunter Biden's expenditures showing he "spent more than $200,000 per month from October 2017 through February 2018 on luxury hotel rooms, Porsche payments, dental work and cash withdrawals."
"NBC News obtained a copy of Biden’s laptop hard drive from a representative of Rudy Giuliani and examined Biden’s business dealings from 2013 to 2018 based on the information available on the hard drive and the scope of the documents released by the Senate," the report stated.
NBC News reported on May 19 that an analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive raised national security questions. ((Randy Holmes via Getty Images))
NBC News offered on-air reporting of Hunter Biden during Wednesday's "NBC Nightly News" and Thursday's "Today," but it barely got any coverage on its 24-hour sister network.
The report was only mentioned on one show, MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," clocking in at just three minutes and 40 seconds. Mitchell's noon audience had 616,000 viewers and only 55,000 in the key 25-54 age demo.
None of MSNBC's most-watched shows in primetime, hosted by Chris Hayes, Lawrence O'Donnell as well as Medhi Hasan, who had been filling in on "MSNBC Prime" this week after the 9 p.m. ET timeslot was left vacant by Rachel Maddow Tuesday through Friday.
MSNBC did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
TODAY -- Pictured: Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 -- (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
MSNBC, known for its unabashed liberal commentary, infamously blasted the New York Post's reporting about Hunter Biden's laptop in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election.
Right out of the gate, "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough declared the story "false" and later declared the story was "so obviously" Russian disinformation, asking, "Why are we spreading the lies here?"
Co-host Mika Brzezinski cited multiple reports about intelligence agencies investigating Giuliani's dealings with "alleged Russian agents," as well as whether emails from Hunter Biden's laptop are "linked to a foreign intel operation."
"Morning Joe" blasted Trump for calling on then-Attorney General William Barr to launch an investigation into the Bidens, with NBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade insisting there's "no there there" for the DOJ to investigate. McQuade suggested Trump was using the Bidens to deflect from his own legal troubles. But unbeknownst to the public at the time, DOJ had already launched a years-long investigation into Hunter Biden's finances.
"Morning Joe" co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
MSNBC anchor Katy Tur mocked the Post's story, saying it "dropped like a bomb," but to "wither under scrutiny, not really dropping like a bomb." NBC News national security correspondent Ken Dilanian called it a "fishy story" despite acknowledging that various emails and images that came from the laptop looked "legitimate."
"We have no idea, and neither does the New York Post, whether any of it was doctored or forged or faked. And that’s why the mainstream news media has declined to really touch the story because it just lacks credibility," Dilanian told Tur. "We now know that Russian disinformation... is as dangerous to our democracy as anything exposed in these emails."
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"Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace was more confident in dismissing Hunter Biden's laptop, telling viewers, "We shouldn't look at it as anything other than a Russian disinformation operation."
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle attacked those who were covering the Hunter Biden controversy, referring to it as a "so-called story" with "unverified claims."
"We are now four days away from the election and the truth is more important than ever," Ruhle told her viewers. "The truth is that we're in the middle of a pandemic. The truth is that millions of Americans are out of work. The truth is we have to listen to science. And in these final days, instead of debating crowd size or unverified claims or conspiracy theories, we should be talking about policy, values and ideas."