When the Senate agreed to delay the vote on Kash Patel per Democrats’ request, Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight” warned us that the extra time would be used to launch a smear campaign against President Trump’s nominee for FBI director.
And that’s exactly what happened.
“Now we get a report from the Washington Post that claims that Patel was paid $25,000 by a Russian filmmaker with ties to the Kremlin,” says Jill.
Guest J. Michael Waller, senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, breaks down what’s going on.
According to Waller, “all these crack journalists at the Washington Post” found was information that was “already disclosed to the Senate Judiciary Committee and to the Justice Department Ethics.”
Making it a “big scandal” is as “typical” as an “October surprise before an election,” he says.
“It’s okay if the Russians give $80 million to the Clintons, right? That’s fine, but we’re going to talk about a $25,000 thing for a little TV series?” adds Peterson.
While Waller knows that the vote will be close, this “breaking” news about Kash Patel isn’t likely to sway the vote, given that it’s actually not breaking at all.
“The fact is this information was already raised. … Concerns were either handled in person with the senators or during Kash’s hearings,” he reiterates.
Further, the “Russian” filmmaker Patel was involved with has a much more complicated background than the media is portraying.
“He’s a Ukrainian citizen who’s a dual national of Russia who became a naturalized American, so he’s an American of Russian and Ukrainian background and citizenship,” but, of course, “this is not really revealed in the headlines that we’re reading,” says Waller.
To hear more, watch the clip above.
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Blaze news tonight, Blazetv, Blaze media, Jill savage, Matthew peterson, J michael waller, Kash patel, Fbi, Washington post, Smear campaign
