We’ve written many times about how CNN’s “fact-checking” division led by Daniel Dale has so little credibility that the Republicans who they contact for comment often will not even bother giving them the time of day. And when they do, epic dunkings of Dale have been known to happen.
And this week, in the midst of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment on 37 felony counts related to alleged Espionage Act violations, their “fact-checking” has been no better, as we saw Monday when on the eve of the 2024 GOP presidential candidate’s Miami court appearance, CNN political correspondent Sara Murray “fact-checked” Trump’s claims that Biden was was involved in targeting him, declaring live on air Trump’s claims weren’t true in part because… President Joe Biden has denied involvement.
For those who missed that moment, watch:
A day later, in the aftermath of Trump’s Bedminster speech – which CNN did not air on grounds it was “dangerous” according to Principled Journalist(TM) Jake Tapper, CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes also “fact-checked” Trump’s allegation that Biden had a hand in the classified documents probe, definitively declaring without evidence that “this was not done through Joe Biden”:
“[Trump said] that Joe Biden was particularly doing this because he was his top rival. Of course, as we know, Donald Trump is not even the Republican nominee and this was not done through Joe Biden.”
Watch:
For starters, someone can be Joe Biden’s “chief rival” without actually be ing the nominee. Considering how Trump is polling and has in fact has gained support in the polls thanks to the indictment, he could credibly be considered Joe Biden’s chief rival for the moment at this point in the 2024 presidential race.
But the bigger issue in Holmes’ comments was how she made it sound like the fact that Biden himself has denied his involvement means it is time to move along nothing to see, etc. On what does she base this? Biden’s denials and literally nothing else.
In reality, that case is not at all closed in my opinion, for reasons I’ll get to in a minute.
Not to be outdone, Dale made a similar proclamation during a back-and-forth exchange with Tapper, stating there is “no indication, no evidence whatsoever” that Biden had a hand in the charges against Trump:
Oh really? As RedState reported back in September, more evidence was revealed that lent credence to the claim that Biden was indeed involved, as my colleague Nick Arama pointed out at the time:
But in fact, as we previously reported, the White House Counsel’s office and Biden had been involved, according to the NARA Archivist Debra Steidel Wall’s letter.
“On April 11, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office–affirming a request from the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum–formally transmitted a request that NARA provide the FBI access to the 15 boxes for its review within seven days, with the possibility that the FBI might request copies of specific documents following its review of the boxes,” Wall wrote.
Wall said:
“The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege,'” Wall wrote. “… I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege.”
Now, the Judge’s [Aileen Cannon’s] order puts an even finer point on the involvement of Joe Biden when talking about the records that Trump had already turned over to NARA.
Further, maybe Dale and his team would earn some credibility if they bothered to actually fact-check the current resident of the Oval Office once in a while – something that Dale has not done in nearly 90 days:
To reiterate a point I’ve made before, Joe Biden’s Justice Department pursued charges against the man who could be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election, and got them. Considering what happened in 2016 to Trump courtesy of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Obama-Biden FBI, and then later with the Biden campaign’s coordination on the squelching of the Hunter Biden laptop emails story in 2020, CNN needs to stop insulting the intelligence of people who are understandably being more than a little bit skeptical of “Well, Joe Biden denied it so that’ll have to do.”
“Trump says so” would never work on CNN, and “Biden says so” shouldn’t, either. Full stop.
Flashback: CNN’s Daniel Dale Sounds the Final Death Knell for Fact-Checking