March 1, 2024

Fox News anchor Jacqui Heinrich seemed taken aback when contributor Miranda Devine suggested that "hard evidence" isn't needed in the Hunter Biden investigation that's being used to try to impeach President Joe Biden. Republicans suffered a setback when a key witness, ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, was arrested. However, Devine desperately tried to claim that that key witness wasn't a key witness. Republicans said he was a key witness, though.

"What I didn't hear from James Comer was any claim that they have something new that would clinch their case," Heinrich said. "Did you?"

"Well, I mean, Hunter says that he was high or drunk, and he sent that WhatsApp message to the wrong person," Devine said. "I mean, there were dozens of WhatsApp messages, and he got the $5 million as he'd asked for a few days later. So that doesn't wash."

"I mean, I think that you know, people asking for the smoking gun from James Comer are just being unrealistic or being deliberately -- trying to discredit his inquiry because, of course, you're not going a find a check made out by Zlochevsky or Vladimir Putin or somebody in Ukraine to Joe Biden," she continued. "That's not how these things work."

"You know, there's just so much evidence," she said while not presenting any evidence. "It's kind of ridiculous to hear the Democrats keep this mantra up of "There is no evidence." But unfortunately, that gets carried in a lot of the media as well."

"Well, is it unreasonable to expect hard evidence, a smoking gun when you're bringing an impeachment?" Heinrich asked. "I mean, I think that's what even Comer has said he is hoping to find."

"You wrote a headline, an article for "The New York Post," and you take issue with some of the reporting around the FBI informant who was -- who has now had his credibility questioned," the Fox anchor continued. "Your headline says "FBI informant's flawed rap won't help Hunter Biden in the impeachment probe of the family business." This FBI informant, he has been criticized, obviously, his testimony has been criticized and called into question because he's now facing charges over lying."

"Basically, folks have been saying that without this, you don't really have the basis for the inquiry because you recall, Democrats threatened to -- excuse me, Republicans threatened to hold the FBI director in contempt to get ahold of the 1023 form in which the allegations were made, but you seem to think that it doesn't matter that he is facing these charges and that this is actually a set-up against him," she said. "Is that right?"

"Yeah, of course, it doesn't matter," Devine said. "This is -- this person is described by Democrats dishonestly as a key witness for the impeachment inquiry. He wasn't any kind of witness at all. Jim Comer and Chuck Grassley --"

"The FBI Director, they threatened to hold the FBI director in contempt to get ahold of this, though," Heinrich said. "Wouldn't that make him a key witness?"

"No, of course, they -- yes, they did that because they wanted to get the FD-1023 report that he'd filed, which made these bribery allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden, and which had been buried by David Weiss and the FBI," Devine insisted. "It had never been investigated. And that's what Chuck Grassley wanted to be done because he'd been told by an FBI whistleblower that it existed."

"I think there's a lot more to come for that story, but it doesn't have any impact on the impeachment inquiry because he wasn't a witness," she continued. "He wasn't involved. He was just -- all they could do was publicize what he said, but it's now being manipulated by the Democrats into some kind of new Russia hoax that Jamie Raskin is trying to say discredits the entire impeachment inquiry. That ignores the mountains of evidence. You said before there wasn't any hard evidence-- "

"James Comer will have to certainly produce evidence that is outside of the claims made by this informant in order to convince the public," Heinrich shot back.

"He has," Devine falsely said. "That's what I'm trying to tell you."

Devine then claimed that Comer has "produced mountains" of evidence.

"Miranda, we're out of time," Heimrich said. "I appreciate you being here."

"Jacqui, he's produced mountains, and you're ignoring it," Devine added.

Devine seems to be going by feelings instead of facts. How does that saying go, 'Facts don't care about your feelings.'

Media Matters

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