Chris Wallace: I want to know about Biden's petition to unmask
Chris Wallace and Brian Kilmeade discuss the number of Obama officials who petitioned to unmask Michael Flynn
"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace said Thursday that he wants to know why former Vice President Joe Biden “was trying to unmask” the identity of Michael Flynn during the presidential transition period.
Wallace reacted on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” to a list of names being made public, which revealed that top Obama administration officials, including Biden, purportedly requested to "unmask" the identity of Flynn -- whose calls with the former Russian ambassador during the presidential transition were picked up in surveillance and later leaked.
“I separate Joe Biden from all of these people,” Wallace told Kilmeade, adding that since Biden is running for president, “anything he does is fair game in terms of inquiry.”
The list was declassified in recent days by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and then sent to GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, who made the documents public.
The unmasking concerns events between the November 2016 election and Inauguration Day 2017.
Unmasking occurs after U.S. citizens' conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community. The U.S. citizens' identities are supposed to be protected if their participation is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected. However, officials can determine the U.S. citizens' names through a process that is supposed to safeguard their rights.
READ: DOJ MOTION TO DISMISS FLYNN CASE
The list revealed that then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power made unmasking requests seven times between Nov. 30, 2016 and Jan. 11, 2017. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made three requests from Dec. 2, 2016 through Jan. 7, 2017; and that former CIA Director John Brennan made two requests, one on Dec. 14 and one on Dec. 15, 2016. Former FBI Director James Comey also made a request on Dec. 15, 2016. On Jan. 5, 2017, then-Chief of Staff Denis McDonough made one request, and on Jan. 12, 2017, Biden made one request.
“Are you disturbed about the number of people who petitioned and got the ability to unmask Michael Flynn?” Kilmeade asked Wallace.
“First of all, if they weren’t unmasking Flynn, what they’re unmasking is that there’s an intelligence report or there’s surveillance of a phone call and it says 'American number one.' If they knew who it was, they wouldn’t be unmasking,” Wallace responded.
“They don’t know who it is so they say, ‘Hey who is that American number one who is in your intel report?’ And it turns out it’s Flynn.”
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Wallace then went on to say that he separates Biden from the rest of the group.
“I do want to know why Joe Biden was trying to unmask, was unmasking 'American number one,' who turned out to be Michael Flynn, on January 12, eight days before the inauguration,” Wallace said. “That I wonder about and I want to know about that.”
Wallace said he also wants to know why they were unmasking Flynn's name even before his call with the Russian ambassador.
"If you're going to be transparent about who unmasked, what did they want to unmask? What was the intel report that they wanted to see? I want to know what they were concerned about," he said, with Kilmeade agreeing that such information must also come out.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and David Spunt contributed to this report.
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