{"id":1425532,"date":"2022-04-08T11:14:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T15:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425532"},"modified":"2022-04-08T11:14:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T15:14:53","slug":"pollak-anne-applebaum-pushed-russia-theory-but-wants-to-decide-whats-newsworthy-for-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pollak-anne-applebaum-pushed-russia-theory-but-wants-to-decide-whats-newsworthy-for-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollak: Anne Applebaum Pushed Russia Theory but Wants to Decide What&#039;s Newsworthy for Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpollak-anne-applebaum-pushed-russia-theory-but-wants-to-decide-whats-newsworthy-for-voters%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425532&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Anne Applebaum of the\u00a0<em>Atlantic<\/em>, who developed early conspiracy theories of Russian interference in the 2016 election, told an audience at a University of Chicago \u201cdisinformation\u201d conference this week that Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, which she once dismissed, should be ignored even after it has been authenticated because the president\u2019s son\u2019s business dealings aren\u2019t \u201cinteresting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Freshman Daniel Schmidt asked a simple and straightforward question about Applebaum\u2019s past dismissal of the laptop:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WATCH The Atlantic\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/anneapplebaum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@anneapplebaum<\/a> refuse to answer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealDSchmidt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RealDSchmidt<\/a>&#8216;s\ud83d\udd25\ud83d\udd25 question about Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop during <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UChicago?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@UChicago<\/a>\u2019s \u201cDisinformation and the Erosion of Democracy\u201d conference! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1OgXBBiiI0\">pic.twitter.com\/1OgXBBiiI0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThinkerChicago\/status\/1511839490356228098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Here is what Applebaum <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/10\/smears-against-biden-dont-need-make-any-sense\/616824\/\">wrote<\/a> in the <em>Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0in 2020 when various Hunter Biden email caches began to emerge:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Those who live outside the Fox News bubble and intend to remain there do not, of course, need to learn any of this stuff. Judging by what has been published, the very worst thing that [Matthew] Tyrmand\u2019s email cache could reveal (if it is authentic) is that some unattractive people sought to use Hunter Biden\u2019s surname and connections to get business deals or score a visit to the White House for their clients. But we already know about Hunter Biden\u2019s involvement with unattractive people, and his struggles with addiction; we also know that, under normal circumstances, dozens of people visit the White House every day. On the grand scale of misdeeds committed by politicians and their relatives, this kind of thing barely registers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She likened Hunter Biden\u2019s business dealings to the supposed conflicts of interest involving Trump, his family, and foreign income.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>After the election, Hunter Biden revealed that he was under investigation over his taxes. We have also since learned that a grand jury has been impaneled to consider his finances.<\/p>\n<p>And the\u00a0<em>New York\u00a0<\/em><i>Times<\/i>, CNN, and\u00a0the\u00a0<em>Washington Post<\/em> have also admitted that his laptop is real \u2014 which means that emails showing that Hunter Biden connected then-Vice President Biden to shady foreign tycoons, and suggesting that former Vice President Biden was to receive 10% of a joint venture with a company tied to the Chinese government, are also real.<\/p>\n<p>Other information on the laptop suggest that the elder Biden and his family\u2019s funds were closely intertwined, with Hunter Biden paying for some of his dad\u2019s expenses, and his father bailing him out of trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Yet this is what Applebaum <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/04\/07\/anne-applebaum-doesnt-think-hunter-biden-peddling-foreign-access-to-his-now-president-father-is-interesting\/\">said<\/a> this week at the \u201cdisinformation\u201d conference: \u201cMy problem with Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop is, I think, totally irrelevant. I mean it\u2019s not whether it\u2019s disinformation or I mean I don\u2019t think the \u2013 Hunter Biden\u2019s business relationships have anything to do with who should be president of the United States. So I don\u2019t find it to be interesting. So that would be my problem with it as a major news story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, she \u2014 a member of the elite, insider media establishment \u2014 claims voters do not deserve to know if one of the candidates is compromised by corrupt dealings with a foreign power.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>But she does not believe that.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, she was one of the original writers behind the conspiracy theory that Russia could throw the election to Donald Trump, whom she said was \u201cadvised by several people with Russian links.\u201d She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/global-opinions\/how-russia-could-spark-a-us-electoral-disaster\/2016\/09\/08\/303f8502-75e2-11e6-b786-19d0cb1ed06c_story.html?utm_term=.a08395a6fedb\">wrote<\/a> in the <em>Washington Post<\/em> in\u00a0September 2016 \u2014 months before the actual vote, and well before the rest of the media had seized upon the \u201cRussia collusion\u201d theory \u2014 that there could be a \u201csecret Russian plot to throw a U.S. election through a massive hack of the electoral system.\u201d The hacking could elect Trump \u2014 or, she said, it could be designed to elect Clinton, the better to undermine her presidency.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>She also theorized:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>On or before Election Day, Russian hackers will seek to break into the U.S. voting system. We certainly know that this is possible: Hackers have already targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona, according to The Post, and the FBI has informed Arizona officials that it suspects Russian hacking teams. Possible breaches are being investigated in several other states, and it\u2019s not hard to imagine that many are vulnerable. The U.S. election system is decentralized and in some places frankly amateurish, as we learned in Florida in 2000.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Such statements, made about the 2020 election, are enough to have anyone banned from social media, yet Applebaum was\u00a0suggesting that the Russians could hack American voting systems to change electoral outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Though Russia is thought to have been involved with email hacking in 2016, there was never evidence that Russia hacked voting machines.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>As Breitbart News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/the-media\/2016\/09\/12\/clintons-russia-conspiracy-theory-salvage-election\/\">warned<\/a> of Applebaum\u2019s theory at the time: \u201cThe point of raising such unfalsifiable theories is merely to cast doubt on the election (which Applebaum accuses both Trump and Russia of doing, en route to doing it herself).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is, indeed, what happened, as Democrats and elite journalists used theories of \u201cRussia collusion\u201d to undermine the new administration and its legitimacy, complicating foreign relations and arguably hurting national security.<\/p>\n<p>Even without Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, his foreign business entanglements while his father was vice president were enough to prompt some journalists and State Department officials to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2019\/11\/26\/obama-administration-repeatedly-ducked-questions-on-hunter-biden\/\">ask<\/a> about glaring conflicts of interest in countries such as Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Yet while deeming her own speculations newsworthy, Applebaum argues that voters do not deserve to see actual, hard evidence that one of the candidates may be compromised by family business entanglements abroad, including to companies with close connection to adversarial regimes.<\/p>\n<p>And she is considered an authority on \u201cdisinformation\u201d in democracies.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of <\/em>Breitbart News Sunday<em> on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Neither-Free-nor-Fair-Presidential-ebook\/dp\/B08PNN54BB\">Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election<\/a>. His recent book, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.centerstreet.com\/titles\/joel-b-pollak\/red-november\/9781546099840\/\">RED NOVEMBER<\/a><em>, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at <a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelpollak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@joelpollak<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anne Applebaum of the\u00a0Atlantic, who developed early conspiracy theories of Russian interference in the 2016 election, told an audience at a University of Chicago \u201cdisinformation\u201d conference this week that Hunter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1425532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}