Tipsheet

What Jake Tapper Said About the Durham Report Is Going to Infuriate His Audience

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  May 15, 2023 9:30 PM

The report on the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation has been released at long last. Katie wrote about how the 300-page report torched the basis for the counterintelligence operation, the credibility of the FBI, and that of disgraced former director James Comey, and pointed to an aura of bias that was the primary motivator for plunging the nation into this circus. The left ate it up as part of their coping mechanism to get over the 2016 election, the greatest political upset in modern American history. 


Liberal America's mindset for years could be encapsulated as such: There's no way we could lose; it had to have been rigged. That inability to grasp that often your side loses in a democratic government led the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the media establishment to go down this rabbit hole, hoping that some solid evidence of collusion would be unearthed. None ever materialized. And now, years after Trump has left office, we learn what a lot of us already knew—it was a hoax: 

"The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” Durham wrote. "Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the (Justice) Department and FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report."

During his lengthy investigation, Durham found the FBI should have never opened the investigations and that they were led by politically motivated actors like former FBI agent Peter Strzok. 

"Neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," the report states. "FBI records prepared by [Peter] Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.” 

And when CNN admits that this report is a nightmare for the FBI and exonerates Donald Trump, you know many people should be embarrassed. That's how Jake Tapper described the report:

"To a degree." Okay, that part was eye-roll-worthy, but Tapper saying exoneration in this context is a win. 

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The FBI has long been the gold standard in law enforcement, whose professionalism and objectivity were once revered in this field. Apoliticism was its only religion, and now it has sold its soul in a Faustian bargain to prevent a man it didn't like from becoming president. That's not its job. The illegal FISA spy warrants signed off during this investigation were also troubling. Yet, no one was ever held accountable for this gross breach of civil liberties where Carter Page bore the brunt of the fallout from the FBI's rogue operations. When the voters chose Trump, the FBI made sure to engage in a destructive campaign of subterfuge. And James Comey, once seen as a principled leader whose leadership of the FBI was beyond reproach, is now forever stained by this politically motivated scheme to derail a presidential candidate. 


House Republicans should deliver a flurry of subpoenas for the hearings that are to come and have Mr. Comey be the first witness. No remote nonsense—drag him to the Hill and grill him. No bathroom, lunch, or dinner breaks. He must stay until everyone asks questions, which should also stretch the mall's length. Then, get Peter Strzok and his girlfriend, Lisa Page, back. Everyone must come back because the jig is up.