Media

Matt Taibbi Rips MSNBC Host Over Network Doing ‘Nothing But Vomit Up Fake Russian’ Stories Before Host Ends Segment

Independent journalist Matt Taibbi sparred with MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan on Thursday over the Twitter Files and Hunter Biden's laptop. [Screenshot Youtube MSNBC]

[Screenshot Youtube MSNBC]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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Independent journalist Matt Taibbi sparred with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan on Thursday over the Twitter Files and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Hasan questioned Taibbi’s recent appearance before Congress, where he refused to reveal his sources despite Democratic Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia repeatedly demanding answers.

Hasan then played a clip from Taibbi’s 2021 appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience where he said that as a journalist, once you start getting handed stories, it’s a bad line to have crossed.

“The hilarity of this coming from MSNBC which did nothing but vomit up fake Russian hit stories that came straight from the FBI for six consecutive years, you guys still haven’t apologized for it.”

“I wasn’t there in that period so I’ve got nothing to apologize for,” Hasan said. “I’m asking you your words, did you cross a line? It’s a very simple question, you can ‘what about’ and deflect, it’s a simple question, we played a clip for you, I’m giving you a chance to answer. Did you cross the line, your words?”

“No I did not,” Taibbi said. “The stories are self-contained stories that hold up in themselves and what I was talking about in the Joe Rogan story, I was quoting a passage from Seymour Hirsch’s book ‘Reporter’ when he was talking about when he was given a story by the CIA about an Israeli spy that they had caught and he was saying something to the effect of I who had always gotten the material, was being handed the material. So yeah, look, it sounds bad, but this stuff is clearly in the public interest, it’s real, it’s true and I’m doing the best I can to report it.”

“I think these stories are going to hold up over the test of time unlike your Russian story,” he added. (RELATED: ‘Does That Bother You?’: Rep. Chris Stewart Confronts Yellen Over IRS Agent Showing Up To Journalist’s Home)

Hasan then questioned Taibbi as to why he met with Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Jim Jordan.

Taibbi defended himself, reminding Hasan that MSNBC was one of several outlets that dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation.

Hasan then alleged Republicans are threatening the press and books, with Taibbi arguing that Democrats are more of a threat to free speech than Republicans.

“What about your Hunter Biden story?” Taibbi shot back.

“I don’t think I’ve ever written about the Hunter Biden story so maybe you should apologize for putting words in my mouth. You said at the beginning I put words, I never said a word about the Hunter Biden story,” Hasan said before he cut the segment.

Hasan appeared to dismiss the importance of the laptop in a tweet from Oct. 2020.

“Even if every word of the New York Post ‘reporting’ on Hunter Biden is true, every word of it, it still wouldn’t equate to one percent of the corruption stories involving Trump, Trump family members, Trump administration members, or Trump administration members’ family members.”

Hasan later tweeted in Dec. 2022 that it wasn’t a “liberal media conspiracy to suppress” the story because both Fox and the Wall Street Journal turned it down initially.