Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” network senior political contributor Brit Hume downplayed the impact of former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testimony before a Senate panel earlier in the day on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Hume argued that both Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper changed very much with their testimony with both the Russian involvement issue and the unmasking of Americans in raw intelligence, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“[C]lapper was asked today if he still stood by his conclusion given toward the end of the Obama administration before he left based on work that had been done by all the intelligence agencies that there was no evidence of collusion,” Hume said. “He said he stood by that.
“Sally Yates was — said she couldn’t say because it was classified,” he continued. “There’s an awful lot that both witnesses couldn’t say because it was classified which tells us nothing. And she repeatedly said don’t infer anything from the fact that I can’t talk about it. That doesn’t mean the answer is yes, doesn’t mean the answer is no. So, it didn’t really move the ball very much. Embarrassing obviously to him so close to this guy who looks like he exercised very bad judgment — I’m talking about Flynn. But it didn’t advance the ball very much on the unmasking, and it didn’t advance the ball very much on — and it didn’t advance the ball at all on collusion between Russia and the Trump team.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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