Director of National Intelligence nominee James Clapper testifies during the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on his nomination on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

A little Saturday discomfort for you.

James Clapper, who is a paid shill over at CNN now, was brought on to his own network by Anderson Cooper to comment on an investigation he’s the target off. If you think that probably doesn’t match up with journalistic ethics, you are probably right. But this is the same network that brought on Andrew McCabe the same day to talk about this topic without even disclosing he’s suing the DOJ and is also a target. So ethics aren’t much of a thing over there.

Cooper starts to toss softballs at Clapper and he becomes visibly shaken, saying he doesn’t understand why he’s under investigation. For context, Clapper had only found out about the criminal investigation 20 minutes prior to this hit.

Remember everyone, Jim Comey’s story under oath is that Clapper knew nothing about the investigation because he didn’t brief the Director of National Intelligence until the morning Dan Coats came into office 🤭 — Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) October 25, 2019

The eyes are darting, he’s stumbling over his words. “Uh, uh, uh” can be heard multiple times. This is a guy who’s not comfortable in his own skin right now. I can imagine I wouldn’t feel too chipper commenting on national TV about the DOJ investigating me as well.

Let me point a few things out.

One, the idea that this investigation is politically timed is nonsense. Clapper makes that assertion and Cooper offers zero push back because of course he doesn’t. The reality is that the Durham investigation started long before impeachment fever 2019. And the escalation to a criminal investigation follows the finishing of a years in the making IG report, not the impeachment inquiry. If anything, the timing of the whistle-blower and Schiff’s circus seem far more politically timed than the investigations that predate it.

Two, Clapper knows exactly why he’s under investigation. He has always been suspected of leaking the classified briefing given to Donald Trump on the Steele dossier to CNN. I wrote an entire piece several months ago about Jake Tapper’s denials not adding up on the matter. There are some serious questions and inconsistencies there. There’s also the fact that Clapper probably lied about his knowledge of the investigation. The idea that he didn’t even know it existed prior to Trump taking office doesn’t begin to pass the smell test. We have texts from Peter Stzok and Lisa Page saying that everything was being run from the White House. Clapper was the ODNI in that administration. He knew.

CNN continues to be a joke by employing Clapper as an unbiased analyst, but that’s not surprise to anyone. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying seeing these guys squirm a bit now that the shoe is on the other foot.

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