President Joe Biden on Friday announced he plans to appoint MSNBC analyst Jeremy Bash to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Bash was previously the chief of staff at the CIA and U.S. Department of Defense during former President Barack Obama’s administration, but has been more recently notable for his claims in 2020 that Hunter Biden’s shocking laptop was Russian disinformation, the New York Post reported.
Though the authenticity of the laptop has since been verified, Bash was among the former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 stating that the laptop had “the classic earmarks of a Russian information,” Fox News reported.
Despite Bash’s involvement with the laptop controversy, in its announcement of his new role, the White House focused on his roles in intelligence, his positions on Capitol Hill and his awards.
“He is the recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Clandestine Service’s Donovan Award, the CIA Director’s Award, and the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal,” the White House announcement stated.
The board “exists exclusively to assist the President by providing the President with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the nation’s intelligence needs,” the announcement stated.
But in covering this new announcement from the White House, other media outlets have highlighted Bash’s role regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop and the “disinformation” letter.
Ahead of the 2020 election between then-President Donald Trump and Biden, more than 50 former intelligence officials claimed they were “deeply suspicious” of Russian trickery being involved in the laptop coming to light.
“There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement,” the letter stated.
Does Jeremy Bash belong in a position of giving Biden advice on intelligence questions?
“Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American citizens should determine the outcome of elections, not foreign governments. All of us agree with the founding fathers’ concern about the damage that foreign interference in our policies can do to our democracy,” the letter added.
The letter provided no new evidence and only cited the signatories’ experience in national security.
“We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” the letter noted.
Bash not only signed that letter but also publicly dismissed the laptop as supposed Russian disinformation on a variety of MSNBC programs.
“This looks like Russian intelligence, this walks like Russian intelligence, this talks like Russian intelligence,” Bash said in October of 2020.
However, later the New York Times and the Washington Post both reported that the emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop were authentic and that he was being investigated for tax fraud.
Yet, despite the Times and Post coming reporting the authenticity of the laptop and showing that Bash and the others were wrong, Bash has still been awarded this position on Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
It is not yet clear whether Bash — the former husband of CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash — will also remain in his role as an analyst and commentator for MSNBC.
MSNBC did not respond to Fox News when asked if Bash will continue at the network.
