Alexander Smirnov, the ex-FBI informant, was arrested last week after being charged with two counts alleging that he lied to the FBI. Smirnov was fed lies from Russian intelligence to smear the President and his family. This story is a hot mess, from the way Republicans quickly embraced it to the way the media covered it. The only thing missing from it were facts. As Jessica Tarlov said, Republicans will pay for it. The way this story fell apart after Republicans gullible constituents bought into it will cost them at the ballot box.
"The Senate themselves, including Senate Republicans, have not found Tony Bobulinski to be credible," Tarlov said. "So he gives a great cable news interview; I understand it's very compelling for people who want to believe that Joe Biden is actually Gotti."'
She noted that the people who "do have credibility, like Devin Archer, for instance, have completely blown a hole through that argument. He's talked about the phone calls, he's talked about the money Peter Schwerin handled the books, and if you want to talk about loans, we'll see if there was documentation."
She may have meant *Eric Schwerin.
Tarlov talked about how we're now discussing the difference between sawdust and cocaine, and Hunter Biden's loan for a car that he paid back will be reported on repeatedly. She noted how this has been a waste of taxpayers' dollars.
“This is the path that they’ve chosen to take, and honestly I’m surprised that they have this high of a threshold for humiliation,” Tarlov added later. “Every witness they have called has decimated their argument.”
Via Josh Marshall:
The real issue, as I note above, is the reporters, editorialists and commentators, who vouched for and credited this whole edifice of lies and bullshit. Yes, they guffawed when James Comer came forward yet again with more revelations that never quite panned out. But they didn't give up hope. They were always waiting for the next revelation. Comer and his Republican colleagues hadn't provided "hard evidence" yet but there sure was a lot of smoke.
This entire thing has been based on Russian plants and intelligence operations from the start. Every bit of it. It's been obvious. And yet, well … they're all dupes. Somehow almost a decade after this whole thing started we're shocked to see, wow, Weiss's office was being led around by another cat's paw of the Russian intelligence services. We're shocked. But why are we shocked? Every last person among the serious people of the nation's capital and the sprawling thing called elite received opinion has egg on their face. And it's not even clear they fully realize it yet.
What a waste, but it's become a pattern with Republicans who prefer chaos over governing. Has anyone done a wellness check on Jim Jordan or James Comer? I'm concerned about them. We're nothing if not caring here at CrooksAndLiars.
