Joe Concha slams CNN's Brian Stelter, Anne Applebaum over controversial Hunter Biden remarks
The Fox News contributor joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss CNN host Brian Stelter failing to ask The Atlantic journalist Anne Applebaum about her controversial Hunter Biden comments and Elon Musk's involvement in Twitter.
The Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum insisted the ongoing Hunter Biden laptop saga didn’t interest her because she didn't see how his "business relationships have anything to do with who should be president," but the liberal writer had no issues with the importance of Donald Trump Jr.’s affairs.
"My problem with Hunter Biden’s laptop is, I think, totally irrelevant. I mean, it’s not whether it’s disinformation," Applebaum said during a "Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy" conference this past week at the University of Chicago, when she was asked about the media's refusal to cover the laptop story when it first broke in 2020.
BRIAN STELTER FAILS TO ASK THE ATLANTIC JOURNALIST ABOUT THEIR CONTROVERSIAL HUNTER BIDEN COMMENTS
Atlantic journalist Anne Applebaum isn’t interested in Hunter Biden’s business relationships, but was engrossed in Donald Trump Jr.’s.
"I mean, I didn’t think Hunter Biden’s business relationships have anything to do with who should be president of the United States. So, I don’t find it to be interesting," she continued. "I mean, that would be my problem with that as a major news story."
Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop revealed shady overseas business dealings, along with a cache of damning emails and photos, but it was either ignored or censored by much of the mainstream media. The story also peripherally concerned then-candidate Joe Biden and the possibility that his son was selling access to the future president.
While the liberal writer declared the Hunter Biden saga fails to interest her, she was more-than-willing to discuss the previous president’s son.
In a July 2017 Washington Post column headlined, "This law might explain why a Russian lawyer wanted to meet with Trump," Applebaum alluded to Trump Jr. and Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya having a secret pact to help Russians combat sanctions imposed by the Magnitsky Act. Veselnitskaya and Trump Jr., who were both part of the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, both denied an arrangement, but Applebaum felt it was interesting enough to imply the president’s son was being dishonest.
"Right now, both Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr. are denying that they did any such deal, although that is hardly surprising. Both Veselnitskaya and the Kremlin are also denying that they have anything to do with each other, and it is important to note that this is perfectly plausible: Like the American state, the Russian state is not monolithic," Applebaum wrote.
"As I’ve said, much is not proved. But do note this: President Trump really did seek to lift sanctions within days of the inauguration. His team really has sought to block Congress from passing a law reinforcing the sanctions," Applebaum continued. "He and his secretary of state really have issued conflicting accounts of whether sanctions were discussed with Putin in Hamburg. Does he feel he owes somebody a favor? And if so — why?"
Anne Applebaum doesn’t think Hunter Biden’s laptop is relevant. (Handout/DNCC via Getty Images)
Applebaum continued to find Trump Jr. interesting enough to cover later in July 2017 when she penned a follow-up column headlined, "The ugly way Trump’s rise and Putin’s are connected," that continued to focus on the Trump Tower meeting. The liberal columnist was peeved that Russian money "enriched Trump and his family."
She cited a 2008 quote by Donald Trump Jr., when he said "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," during a conversation that occurred years before his father entered the 2016 election.
In 2019, after the Robert Mueller report was released that found insufficient proof of so-called collusion between Trump and the Kremlin in 2016, Applebaum declared herself "vindicated" along with everyone else who wrote about "the weird connections between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government." She cited Trump Jr.'s prior remarks about Russian money "pouring in" to family-owned businesses.
It’s unclear why Applebaum feels Hunter Biden’s "business relationships have anything to do with who should be president of the United States," but she used Donald Trump Jr.’s business relationships as the impetus to imply wrongdoing.
Applebaum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Meanwhile, CNN’s Brian Stelter had Applebaum on his Sunday program that claims to examine the media industry but decided not to ask her about the hypocrisy. He didn’t ask her at all about her comments that Hunter Biden’s laptop was uninteresting.
Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
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