The moment the story about Hunter Biden's laptop broke, the Democrats knew what their defense would be: Russian disinformation!  They spoke in one voice.  Facts were irrelevant.  Adam Schiff, especially, had "intel."  With that assertion, they have stifled reports about the laptop in both mainstream and social media.  On Monday, however, the director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, stated unequivocally that there is no evidence that the laptop is the product of Russian disinformation.  When it comes to Hunter's bad behavior, what you're learning is all real.

When news about Hunter Biden's laptop broke, it was actually impressive how the entire political and media world worked in lockstep.  Even though the Biden camp has not denied the veracity of documents found on the hard drive, and one spokesperson has even admitted their authenticity, the talking heads and politicians have their story, and they're sticking to it.  (Otherwise, how can they justify supporting the Tech Titans' decision to impose a blackout on this news?)

Appearing on CNN, Adam Schiff knew precisely what to say to Wolf Blitzer:

Well, we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That's been clear for well over a year now that they've been pushing this false narrative about the vice president and his son.

And, you know, the idea that the president, that the White House Counsel and others were made aware that Giuliani was being used by Russian intelligence and using Russian intelligence in the sense of meeting with an agent of the Kremlin and pushing out this Kremlin false narrative, the idea that they were knowing and still on the floor of the Senate during the impeachment trial, pushing this Kremlin narrative is pretty breathtaking.

But I guess at this point, we can't be shocked by anything this administration does, no matter how craven. But, clearly, the origins of this whole smear are from the Kremlin, and the president is only too happy to have Kremlin help and try to amplify it.

Later in the interview, Schiff stated that Trump consistently works with the Kremlin, and, indeed, "The Intelligence Community has made that abundantly clear."  Still later, though, Schiff griped, "We haven't gotten much from the intelligence community very recently[.]"  As you'll see, there's a reason for that.

Schiff was not the only one throwing the Kremlin and Russia around.  Drew Holden put together a whole thread.  Here are some highlights:

But right behind them was @nytimes, who ran a similarly incredulous story, and whose chief political reporter @maggieNYT doubled down on the Russian disinformation angle. pic.twitter.com/oks2Knzuvi

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 19, 2020

And of course their top talent got involved in the act. Here’s @MSNBC’s leading Russian conspiracy theorist, @maddow. pic.twitter.com/Mj4EA8Xfje

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 19, 2020

There were plenty of others.

I wonder if we’ll get a follow up from @PBS / @NewsHour about the DNI shooting this reporting down? pic.twitter.com/wBnY3o3mnx

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 19, 2020

You can read the whole sorry thread here.

Other, more astute observers noticed the spin and had nothing but disdain:

Can't quite recall a media propaganda campaign this blatant and shameful as journalists unifying to call a story "Russian disinformation" even though 1) there's no evidence Russia was involved and, more importantly, 2) nobody - nobody - denies the published emails are authentic. https://t.co/dT3EdwPvjf

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 19, 2020

The real kicker was the fact that the John Ratcliffe, director of National Intelligence, the one who is ultimately responsible for figuring out whether the U.S. is the victim of Russian disinformation, was unequivocal: there is no evidence whatsoever that Russia was involved in any way with Hunter Biden's hard drive:

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe blasts Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff for leveraging a political narrative.

"Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign." pic.twitter.com/49SSjhfQuN

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 19, 2020

It remains to be seen whether the media, lying Adam Schiff, or the Tech Titans acknowledge Ratcliffe's words.  In the past four years, they have untethered themselves from reality.  In their desperation to push Biden over the finish line, it's actually possible to believe they will ignore entirely anything that challenges their propaganda.

Image: John Ratcliffe.  Twitter screen grab.