Ric Grenell to Newsmax: 'Infuriating' How Dems, Media Manipulated '20 Election

Democrats, complicit former intelligence analysts and their friends in the media effectively used disinformation to sway the 2020 presidential election in Joe Biden's favor, an "infuriated" former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell alleged on Newsmax.

"It's infuriating to see people manipulate intelligence for political gain and then have all of the newsrooms in Washington, D.C., completely ignore it," Grenell told Friday's "Spicer & Co.," pointing to the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020 — mainstream media outlets are beginning to acknowledge the laptop's existence after earlier skepticism about the narrative.

"This is what happens in Third World countries, Sean," Grenell added to host Sean Spicer. "This is when propagandists protect the ruling party. We have a huge crisis, and there's a big collective yawn in all of Washington, D.C."

Grenell stopped short of suggesting that former President Donald Trump would have won the election if the Hunter Biden laptop story hadn't been dismissed in some media outlets.

"Joe Biden would not have been able to get nearly as many votes as he did," Grenell said. "There's no possible way people would have voted for him knowing that he was compromised. I don't think there's any other way to say it, and I don't say that cavalierly.

''I really believe that when you look at these emails, it's clear Hunter Biden is out soliciting international business with really nefarious means."

Grenell took particular aim at then-Politico reporter Natasha Bertrand for a 2020 story built upon what he called a "phony" letter from 50 former intelligence analysts, instead of reporting on the New York Post's claims of Biden corruption with Ukraine, Russia and China.

"I can tell you unequivocally that there wasn't a single piece of raw intelligence," Grenell, then the acting DNI, said of the intelligence analysts. "They were not briefed. None of these 50 people were briefed on anything to do with that laptop. They made it up.

"They manipulated intelligence for political gain, and we talk a lot about not weaponizing government and how certain people have manipulated intelligence, but from the beginning I have been saying these 50 former intelligence officials who signed this letter, they manipulated their responsibility and intelligence."

Grenell called on a Republican-led Congress — should the GOP retake control in the midterm elections — to aggressively investigate the matter.

"They should be hauled in front of the Senate as soon as the Republicans take over, and they should have to answer why they did this," Grenell continued. "What was the information that they had? Where they said, 'Don't look at Hunter Biden's laptop' three weeks before the election."

He continued: "The FBI has had this laptop, for what, more than two years or almost two years. It's really outrageous when you think about our government, our intelligence agencies our law enforcement agencies, knowing that this laptop is real and allowing individuals like this computer store small-business owner to be harassed and run out of town.

"Why didn't they protect him? Why didn't they say, 'This guy didn't make this story up; this is not Russian disinformation.' We have a real problem in Washington when the journalists are not that interested in finding the truth."

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