CNN's Dana Bash explains how right-wing media pressured Congress into again investigating Hillary Clinton

Bash: “Sean Hannity, Fox News, the conservative media, from Breitbart to talk radio, they have been aggressively pushing this story”

From the October 24 edition of CNN's Inside Politics:

Video file

JOHN KING (HOST): There’s a big drama going on in town today. We’re going to get to it in just a minute, but the Republicans surprised us with this. They have every right to have aggressive oversight of things that happen in any administration. Correct me if I'm wrong, there was a Republican House during this part of the Obama administration. If this was a big deal that needs to be investigated, why are we starting it late in 2017? Why didn't we start it several years ago?

DANA BASH: It's a great question. You just heard the beginning of his remarks, Devin Nunes, the chair of the [House] Intel Committee, suggest that Congress wasn't informed about a potential FBI investigation. We just don't know the answer. It's a really good question, we don't know the answer to it. 

What we do know is that the president tweeted about it a couple of days ago, on the 19th of October. Sean Hannity, Fox News, the conservative media, from Breitbart to talk radio, they have been aggressively pushing this story, saying that the mainstream media is ignoring it, that this is an example of how the Russians funneled money into American politics, they claim -- whether or not that's true, we don't know -- but to try to help the Clintons, and it’s sort of the shoe was on both feet. We don't know, but obviously the fact that all the Republicans, not the Democrats, but just the Republicans on the House Intel Committee gathered to announce that they're investigating this means that there is -- that there is -- that they're listening to their base.

Previously:

Fox & Friends tells Trump how to use the Department of Justice to prosecute his perceived enemies

Study: Hannity’s treatment of Trump's Russia scandal takes an authoritarian turn

Trump team uses debunked right-wing media smear to deflect from Russia scandals

NBC News just admitted the NY Times' story based on Clinton Cash “doesn't hold up that well,” here's why