8/12/26: Hunter Biden On Tucker Show, USS Lincoln Morale Collapse, Israel Attacks In Gaza

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2:25Emily Jashinsky:Well, Hunter Biden stopped by Tucker Carlson's show this week to make a new case about where potentially his infamous laptop came from. It's... Parts of the story sound legitimate, other parts of it less legitimate. We'll have a little fact check. But first, take a listen here to this origin story or this new version of the origin story of the Hunter Biden laptop. Then the official story comes out about how the laptop was left, you left a couple of laptops in a laptop repair store in Greenville, Delaware, which I'm a town I'm very familiar with. So, and the guy was blind. Then I interviewed the guy who seemed to totally believe the story, John McIsaac.

3:05I mean, he seemed to be telling the truth, but the story did not make sense. Meanwhile, I'm getting, we get approached by Israelis connected to Benjamin Netanyahu. like I know that, who are shopping this stuff to me at Fox News. And I'm like, I don't think that that part of the story, the laptop is real. I thought that from day one, but the way that it entered the bloodstream of the American media was not real. So I just want to ask you point blank, did you drop off laptops? No. And this is the thing that I've said over and over again. I have literally zero recollection or memory of ever dropping off a laptop at John paul mcisaac's no the answer is no and john paul mc isaac so john paul mcisaac who's legally blind yes who on the day when the laptop became public sat in outside of his shop and gave an interview and flat out says that he doesn't remember seeing me he couldn't identify me and also that his security cameras that he has don't have any footage from that time.

4:12And so regardless though, regardless of anything, just this, the laptop, according to Lev Parnas, under oath in his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, was being sought by Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine all the way back in 2018. And so Rudy Giuliani is working with a guy named Andrei Derkash, who was an MP in Ukraine and a known Russian GRU agent. So Rudy goes over there and basically takes his dossier and receives information that Hunter Biden's hard drive, not laptop, is for sale. and the person that they can go to is this other Ukrainian-Russian oligarch who is living in Austria. That's what Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were doing getting on the plane before they were arrested.

5:09So how did this - Before John Paul MacIsaac was ever a twinkle in anybody's eye. I believe that. The story, that was always the weak part of the story. Like he drops off laptops and forgets them. So even John Paul MacIsaac, okay, There is no such thing as a laptop. The laptop that he eventually turns over a year later, 18 months later to the FBI. The thing that he that is distributed and disseminated that John Paul McIsaac claims that he got off of a device was a hard drive. And that hard drive had a limited amount of information, a limited amount of like gigabytes. I don't know the difference between a gigabyte and whatever.

5:52And that goes into the hands. He somehow can't find anybody. You can't throw a stone in Trolley Square without hitting someone that knows me personally. Right. And he knows that. He's lived there his whole life. Instead, what he finds through this guy, Applebaum, is Rudy Giuliani's lawyer, Bob Costello. who turns over this hard drive. The hard drive becomes the platform.

6:26Emily Jashinsky:So a couple of things. Just first of all, that laptop was presented as evidence in trial, and they traced the serial number. So I'm reading from the New York Post here, which originally broke the story. The actual laptop was presented as evidence at then First Son's 2024 illegal gun possession trial. FBI Special Agent Erica Jenton testified that the MacBook Pro 13 serial number on the back belonged to then-President Joe Biden's son as he sat in the courtroom. So Hunter Biden is being careful. Notice the language when he says, I do not recall. This is his story consistently. I've watched literally every major podcast interview that he's done.

7:05Emily Jashinsky:He has said consistently he doesn't recall dropping off the laptop at John Paul McIsaac's repair shop in Delaware. John Paul McIsaac is blind and has said that because of this, he could not confirm that Hunter Biden did it. There is no security camera footage that we know of of Hunter Biden dropping off the laptop. But the timeline would fit with Hunter Biden potentially not recalling that he had dropped off the laptop. Ryan, important noise to contextualize new Hunter Biden coverage since the second Trump administration has kicked off by saying Hunter Biden corruption, which was very real and which he is not totally copying to, is on a level, it's on a totally different planet from what we're seeing from the Trump administration, the Trump family, the Whitcoff family.

7:47Emily Jashinsky:It is not comparable in any way whatsoever. That is not necessarily vindicating, but I'm curious from your perspective, having covered Israeli influence operations, especially as they relate to the media, how much of the story sounds plausible? What's the point of him lying about this? I don't understand. Like, if the hard drive is authentic, like what what i'm trying to get at what point is he trying how does it help him is he just trying to deflect this to israel yes now that israel is like the boogeyman yes and i think the dc establishment is the boogeyman as well i think there were and you'd probably agree with this there are absolutely hanky things going on with rudy giuliani going to ukraine and trying to pin this trying to drum up corruption evidence on hunter biden which really was not that difficult to do.

8:38Emily Jashinsky:So yes, Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, they're involved in this wild plot to implicate Hunter Biden in corruption because they knew about the Burisma thing. And so I think they knew that if they scratched the surface, perhaps other evidence would present itself. But he says, and Tucker's now saying that he was approached by people, Israelis, he said Israelis, not people connected to Israel. He said specifically by Israelis when he was at Fox News pushing the story. And that does sometimes happen when somebody is pushing a story or when a story is suddenly starting to kind of materialize. You can sometimes connect the dots about who is behind the scenes trying to make the story materialize by who's pushing it on you, by who's saying like, you should really cover this.

9:22Anyway.

9:23Emily Jashinsky:But does that, I mean, I actually don't even know why the Israelis would do that to Hunter Biden. Blackmail? They really love Trump so much? I don't know. yeah that's i mean i don't see it yeah well there's something i mean anytime you got ukrainian you know there's it's a it's a it's an amorphous world but i don't i also don't see the point and he claims to have gotten sober i believe in the spring and summer of 2019 and the laptop was according to mcissaq dropped off in april of 2019 so this would not have that's why i think again he's being careful and saying i don't recall any of that uh but to your your question also can we underline he so they found the laptop they matched it yeah serial number like he dropped the laptop somebody dropped the laptop off who else would do it i don't know and from the laptop we know he was hanging out with quite an interesting cast of characters at the time yeah no also the fact that the blind guy at the computer store didn't see you does not I don't need to point out the obvious.

10:28Of course, he didn't see you.

10:30Emily Jashinsky:It's such a wild Hunter Biden story. The blind guy at the computer shop, like only Hunter. But to your point about why he's making these claims, I would submit as evidence D2. Let's watch. You know, you could say lots of things about Trump are bad, but getting us into a war we can't win in which Americans are dying in Iran that will only diminish America's power and bankrupt us. I mean, that's the only exit, really. Yeah. And make Iran stronger. And like, no, no, Chuck Schumer is like, yeah, it's bad. But of course he endorses, like the whole leadership structure endorses that. So like, can't really say, like they like Trump now.

11:09Yeah. I don't know if they like Trump. Maybe it's like he's obnoxious or whatever, but he's doing what they want. I think it's a little bit of a, well, by the way, I don't disagree that there is an enormous failure of the, of what I call the, the elite oligarch Epstein class of Washington, DC. Yes. That are, that you and I both know. Very well. Yes. And that have, that are as interested in protecting their, their, their corporate overlords as they are in protecting anything.

11:48Emily Jashinsky:OK, so the elite Epstein class, which Ryan, speaking our language here, right up our alley. Let's put this Fox News tar sheet up on the screen. D3, Hunter Biden in a deposition that was recently released is saying that his family is broke. He's being crushed by legal fees. Fox reports the deposition is related to an ongoing lawsuit between Biden and the firm Winston Taylor for unpaid legal bills. Winston Taylor claims the Biden scion owes it$17 million from representing him in criminal prosecutions, congressional investigations, and defamation suits against his critics. Joe Biden actually left the presidency in debt, I think like$800 ,000 of debt.

12:29Emily Jashinsky:So the Bidens are trying hard to gin up business one way or another. Jill Biden released her book. Joe Biden's about to release his book. And Hunter Biden has a sub stack that he's plugging in these interviews. Ryan, I think the tactic here is actually really clever. And I'm as amused and entertained by Hunter Biden's sometimes revelatory interviews on these podcast channels as much as anyone else's. I think it's clever. I do think it's strategic. But right now, the way to make money in Washington is to say that you're revealing how people make money in Washington. Like that's the new that's kind of can become the new grift.

13:08There was a funny point, funny moment in the interview where he says, I don't want to be a corporate chill anymore. What on earth was I even adding to the conversation? It's like, that's why I want to live in authenticity now. It's why I'm, I'm an, it's why I'm an artist. It's why I'm writing a substack. It's why I'm working with multiple nonprofits that are, that are doing aftercare and doing drug, drug treatment. It's why I'm working with Bitcoin. It's why I'm working with, you're like, wait. What was that last one? Bitcoin? Bitcoin. And then he says, because I love Bitcoin, but also because I'm getting paid.

13:46It's like, okay, what are we doing here? Yes.

13:49Emily Jashinsky:And he keeps saying that there's... Also, he is a perfect spokesperson for Bitcoin. So perfect. Like, have you ever needed to move huge amounts of money untraceably across borders to make purchases that may or may not be legal in the state where you live? live or the country where you live. I have a product for you. He should be doing ads. Yes. Just like that. Tag hunt slash hunter. Yeah. Yeah. Discount code hunter. But he is also in all of these interviews saying that the laptops found nothing that implicates him in trading on access. He says that he shouldn't have done Burisma, that he understands now why that was bad.

14:32Emily Jashinsky:No kidding. The people quietly in the Obama administration at the time were raising red flags about it. The State Department were raising red flags about it at the time. But again, he said to Tucker, I did not trade on access. Well, if we're agreeing that this laptop is real, there's so, so much evidence that he was trading on access. The Post points out he was doing these dinners at Cafe Milano with his dad, with Kazakhstani, Russian and Ukrainian patrons all easily connected to the government. He was doing coffee at the Four Seasons with the Chinese business associates. And that, by the way, we remember, as the Post points out, he, quote, threatened his father's wrath if a payment was not made.

15:11Emily Jashinsky:And you can tell when he's doing these business deals, he's on crack over and over again. He's on something because he's unintelligible in some of the text messages where he is threatening his dad's wrath. Like, that's actually pretty obvious. But Tucker's the one who did the interview with Tony Bobulinski, who was formerly a business partner, was involved in the business. He met Trump in the lobby of a hotel. I mean, I've met Biden. Right. And Bob Alinsky is the one who revealed the 10 % for the big guy comment. And so anyway, all this to say, if you go to, who's the guy that's done the great laptop breakdowns?

15:49Emily Jashinsky:I wish I remembered the name so I could plug the website. But if you go to this website, there is just enormous amount of breakdowns, not about any of the sexual stuff, but about the business stuff from the laptops. It's like a YouTuber? He might be a YouTuber, but he has like PDFs where he's isolated a lot of the important parts from the laptop documents. And you can look at the business connections. It's also convoluted and pretty impossible to follow. You're like Charlie Kelly on the Pepe Silva board when you're trying to put it together. But it's just ridiculous. There was intelligence agents that were working to cover up the story that were using CIA email addresses to organize that 51 former intelligence agent letter to make it so that when you tried to send the New York Post's reporting on this in a direct message, Twitter said, nope, can't do it.

16:35Emily Jashinsky:It came back with an error. I remember you couldn't do that. And the types of corruption that he was engaged in are just deeply corrosive to our democratic system. At the same time, they're also patty cake compared to Trump's sons who are just straight up like, oh, Kazakhstan, you want a defense pact? Yep. And you want, then how about you make us 50 % owners of this mine? Yep. I'm sorry, what? Why? It is just. Forget the$50 ,000 a month retainer. They're like, we want to own half the mine. Wide open corruption. For free. For all of you to see, it's staggering levels of corruption, family business dealings.

17:21Emily Jashinsky:Their argument is probably internally that it makes them more like the Arab countries who can just wheel and deal in a way that's better for the country because they know best. And they're more sophisticated cocaine rather than crack. Yes, much more sophisticated. But anyway, worth remembering, and I went through some of that stuff on an after-party episode. No, not the cocaine. I didn't go through some of that stuff. But some of the laptop stuff on an After Party episode a couple weeks ago, if people want to take a look at it, because the Hunter Biden media tour is amusing, and I'm all for him spilling the secrets.

17:54Emily Jashinsky:We also don't need to whitewash the truth about what he was mixed up in either. So that's enough of that. Let's head to the USS Lincoln. Say big on your landscaping project at Menards. Whether you're looking for edgers, pavers, or wall blocks, Menards has the largest in-stock selection of concrete landscape block ready to take home today. Build a beautiful border for your landscape with our interlock edgers on sale now through August 16th. Save big on landscape block at Menards. Also check out our weekly flyer on Menards.com for all the great deals happening now. Save big money at Menards. I'm Mungish Shatikular and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive.

18:40This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

19:24Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive How to Live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, it's that time again Backpacks, first day of school outfits And the low-key anxiety of Am I even doing this right? Good Mom's Bad Choices is diving into the back-to-school season The way only we know how Unfiltered, funny, and full of the moments other shows won't touch From surviving morning drop-offs To the guilt of missing the first bake sale I already told me that next season she wants to join a club team that's by your house so I was like so you want me to pick you up from school I'll take her by my house but then I have to take her there and then I have to drive back and then some days I'm here and I have to go pick you up at school and then bring you I was just like hell no this is a space where moms trade their highlight reel for the real real whether you're a new mom, a veteran mom or just trying to make it to pick up on time this season of Good Moms Bad Choices is for you.

20:28Listen to Good Moms Bad Choices from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So at the start of the Iran war, the United States had two carrier groups in the region. One of them had multiple difficulties, including the underwear section of the ship catching fire. That's the Gerald Ford, as well as people accidentally flushing socks and T-shirts down the toilets, clogging them up. So the Gerald Ford carrier group had to retreat from our war effort. That left the USS Lincoln, which cost us something like$10 or$20 billion to produce, which cost us, I think, around$8 million a day to operate.

21:11I was just doing a little math. That's about$300 ,000 an hour to keep that thing going. Let's check in on how it's going. Not so well. I'll put this first element up on the screen. Sailors are trying to jump off the thing as it's been out in the ocean for more than 240 days at this point. Let's roll this first thought. You guys, there's a mental health crisis happening aboard the USS Lincoln in the Middle East that no one is talking about, and mainly because the Navy's pretty much quashing it. You will read online about food shortages, supply shortages, poor morale among crew members. That's because they've been at sea continuously for 250 days.

21:58They've been deployed a total of 271 days, 250 without a port of call. That's unheard of. Normally they would go to port every three to six weeks. They have not been to port in 38 weeks. Keep in mind there are 52 weeks in a year. And yes, the showers are moldy. They're eating basically like a gruel kind of slop at this point. There's no deodorant. There is no toothpaste. My nephew has a friend on board there. And I was basically hearing updates last week when I was in the States in real time. They're not talking about the mental health crisis. Six people have tried to jump off that ship. The most recent was last Monday.

22:34You know, when you have not touched land in 38 weeks, in over 200 days, things start to happen to you mentally. You know, combine that with exhaustion and deadly mistakes start to happen. So, you know, this is how the Department of War, this is how Donald Trump treats our service men and women whose lives are already being put in harm's way for a bullshit war of aggression that was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks. We are further putting their lives at risk out of sheer ineptitude and neglect. It defies logic. It defies reason. And it defies basic fucking humanity. And this is not just a guy saying his nephew talked to his cousin.

23:14and we can put up this next element. I just think it's E2 from the Military Times. Multiple USS Abraham Lincoln settlers have tried to go overboard amid extended deployment, families say. So this is extraordinarily serious. This is, you know, you go back, you read novels about like 19th century seafaring. Okay, they had it worse than these guys had. This is not good. No, 38 weeks. And, you know, they're getting resupplied, you know, from shore as quickly as possible from little, you know, shuttle boats going back and forth. But this is this is getting dark. And this is this is what the U.S. has to threaten Iran with as it's going into these negotiations or negotiations that aren't exactly happening.

24:04Right. Like if you don't give us what we want in these talks, you know, we're going to unleash hell on you again because we have the fearsome USS Lincoln nearby, which we spent billions of dollars to construct and many billions more training and recruiting sailors and supplying them. And if you're looking at it, you're like, I don't I'm not so sure this is in fighting force. If, you know, it has already moved significantly out of, you know, close range of Iranian missiles, which undercuts the whole point of having an aircraft carrier group, right? It's like supposed to be mobile and get you close to your targets.

24:42Now, if they come under, you know, drone barrages or other cruise missile attacks, you're going to be, you know, the sailors who are in charge of the defense of the ship are not going to be at their peak performance. Clearly not.