. WATCH: Chris Cuomo Rapidly Debunks Four Ukraine Conspiracy Theories Pushed by GOP During Trump Impeachment - News Times

WATCH: Chris Cuomo Rapidly Debunks Four Ukraine Conspiracy Theories Pushed by GOP During Trump Impeachment

By News Here - 19:28

CNN’s Chris Cuomo ran through a laundry list of conspiracy theories that Congressional Republicans — and their right-wing media counterparts — have pushed during the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, rapidly debunking their false claims point by point.

In his “Facts First” segment on Wednesday night’s show, Cuomo dismantled four major phony narratives that Trump’s defenders have used to try to excuse or justify the president’s alleged misconduct with respect to Ukraine. These conspiracy theories involve a) a non-existent DNC server and the data security firm CrowdStrike, b) baseless claims about corruption by Joe and Hunter Biden, c) a false, “Black Ledger” of political dirt, and d) the Ukraine ties of former DNC consultant Alexander Chalupa.

“Republicans used the public impeachment hearings for two purposes, one to push conspiracy theories, two, rail about how the president wasn’t represented,” Cuomo said at the start of the segment. “The president had a team of representatives in the form of these 10 congressmen, but now we’re hearing the White House may not send a lawyer to next week’s [Judiciary] hearing, even though he’s been given basically two bites at the apple. Why would he when he’s got people like these guys, who have made it their mission to cover, confuse, and conflate? Congress is doing the work for him when they’re supposed to be looking at him. Now the main stick they’re swinging: four conspiracy theories, which have all been debunked.”

Conspiracy Theory #1: A DNC server, hidden in Ukraine by CrowdStrike, a company owned by a Ukrainian, would show that that country, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

“The president brought this up, the notion is demonstrably false,” Cuomo explained. “Every intel chief there is saying the same thing: It wasn’t Ukraine. Ditto for an investigation by Senate Republicans: It wasn’t Ukraine. [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller spent 30 pages detailing how Russia did it. So who says Ukraine? Trump allies and [Vladimir Putin].”

“The server, where’s the server?” Cuomo added in mock outrage. “There never was a server. The DNC used a cloud-based system. CloudStrike is based in California. One of the co-founders was born in Russia, not Ukraine, and he moved to the U.S. as a teen-ager.”

Conspiracy Theory #2: Vice President Joe Biden got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to protect his son from being investigated for corruption.

“What Hunter Biden did, you can argue it was wrong, but he was never the subject of a criminal investigation,” Cuomo pointed. “VP [Biden], along with the governments of most Western nations and an overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian parliament all wanted the prosecutor out. Why? Because he wasn’t investigating enough corruption.”

Conspiracy Theory #3: Ukrainian officials leaked a “Black Ledger” of false, damaging information about Manafort to hurt Trump’s 2016 election prospects.

“Strike one, Manafort behind bars right now exactly for the kind of work detailed in that ledger,” Cuomo pointed out. “Strike two, Republicans keep saying ‘Ukrainians don’t believe it was real!’ Where’s the evidence it was forged? We haven’t seen it. Strike three, Russia did far worse to help Trump and he’s never had any problem with anything they’ve done, not even when standing on the world stage.”

Conspiracy Theory #4: Former DNC consultant Alexander Chalupa allegedly worked with Ukrainians to smear Manafort and Trump.

“The timeline is he problem for Trump here. She started looking into Manafort on her own before Trump even announced his run. Trump can’t have a problem with that, right, because he’s OK with what Rudy [Giuliani]’s doing,” Cuomo explained. “While she may have later tried to get info on him from Ukraine, nobody at the DNC seemed to care. As for the validity, ultimately, she was right. Manafort’s activities were criminal.”

“These are four separate theories,” Cuomo noted. “But the president’s supporters are counting on you not to be able to tell them apart or not being able to keep track of who worked for which Ukrainian president and when. What’s the goal? Distraction, Confusion. To create doubt. That’s the problem. That’s why we have to check it. When it comes to something as serious as removing a president, clarity is key. So those are the facts.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.



from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2OseRUw

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