Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had a short reply when he was asked by Fox News if he regrets signing the intelligence officials’ letter in 2020 that labeled the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation.

Clapper, along with 50 other former senior intelligence officials, signed the letter in October 2020 — just weeks before the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden — saying the New York Post story that exposed emails from Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Since that letter, Hunter Biden’s laptop has been confirmed as authentic by multiple media outlets and the Department of Justice. The laptop was also confirmed as real during Hunter’s ongoing gun trial earlier this week when the prosecution shared images from the laptop and Hunter’s iCloud account that showed him nude and holding crack pipes.

When Clapper was asked if he regretted adding his name to the intelligence officials’ letter, he simply replied, “No,” Fox News reported. He also refused to publicly remove his name from the letter.

Hunter’s laptop contained evidence that the first son introduced the commander-in-chief to a Ukrainian businessman less than a year before then-Vice President Joe Biden pressured Ukrainian government officials to fire a prosecutor investigating the businessman’s company. Hunter had been hired to the board of a Ukrainian energy firm a year before Joe Biden’s meeting with the Ukrainian businessman.

Clapper, and dozens of other former intelligence officials, wrote of the Hunter Biden laptop story, “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

The letter was covered in a report by POLITICO that was published on October 19, 2020, and Biden referred to the letter in a debate with Trump three days later when Hunter’s laptop and foreign business dealings were brought up. Biden went on to win the 2020 election just two weeks later, but it would be another three years before the “Russian disinformation” claims put forth by the former intelligence officials were debunked by the DOJ.

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Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings — along with his father’s alleged involvement in them when he was vice president — have been the center of a months-long impeachment inquiry led by House Republicans.

Earlier this week, House Republicans referred Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden, for criminal prosecution for allegedly lying while testifying as part of the corruption-focused impeachment inquiry into the president.

Ashe Schow contributed to this report.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) explained his transformation this week from being on the far-Left of the Democrat Party to becoming a center-left Democrat who has much more moderate views than many of his colleagues.

Fetterman made the remarks during a Friday appearance on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” show on HBO while Maher was reflecting on how Fetterman has changed ever since he had his stroke.

“When I see you, especially the last couple of years, you speak so freely. You speak like what politicians who I get on this show who aren’t in politics anymore, the ones who are out of office when they can be honest, and that’s the way you speak now and it’s a beautiful thing,” Maher said. “You speak for a lot of Democrats that are afraid to say a lot of that stuff.”

Maher then asked Fetterman if his near-death experience from his stroke played a role in his political shift.

“Absolutely. There’s a line from the first ‘Batman,’ Joker’s like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It’s very liberating,'” Fetterman responded. “It’s freeing in a way. And I just think after beating all of that, I just really [want to] be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there’s any kind of blowback.”

Fetterman said that progressive-wing of the Democrat Party left him, not the other way around.

“After what happened on October 7, I really knew that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart and there would not be any kind of way how the Democrats are going to be able to reply to that kind of response,” he said. “And I really decided early on that I believe that was gonna be the right side with Israel throughout all of that. … Democrats would continue to peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel on that.”

Fetterman also mocked far-Left activists: “And even in Philadelphia, the Queers for Palestine blocked the Pride Parade in Philadelphia, and I never saw that on the Bingo card.”

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WATCH:

John Fetterman describes how October 7th was the moment he abandoned the label ‘progressive’:
Bill Maher: “You said ‘I’m not a progressive, I’m a democrat.’ What does that mean?”
JF: “I didn’t leave the label, it left me. After it happened on October 7th I really knew that… pic.twitter.com/iHx5GkJK2T

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) June 8, 2024