Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro on Wednesday disputed the claim that New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman started a rumor claiming defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel had ties to a shadowy group known as “Friends of Hamas.”
“Sadly, for Friedman, that isn’t true,” Shapiro wrote. “In fact, Friedman knew it wasn’t true when he wrote the piece.”
Friedman wrote in a column that he sarcastically asked a congressional Republican aide whether Hagel had ever given a speech to a group called “Friends of Hamas.” (All evidence has suggested that the group doesn’t exist.)
But Shapiro on Feb. 7 published an article under the following headline: “Secret Hagel Donor?: White House Spox Ducks Question On ‘Friends Of Hamas.'” The story quickly spread in the conservative press.
Shapiro added on Wednesday that the Senate source for his story denied that “Friends of Hamas” came from Friedman. “I have received this information from three separate sources, none of whom was Friedman,” the source said, according to Shapiro.
Shapiro concluded that the whole ordeal is a ploy by the mainstream media to protect President Obama and his nominee for defense secretary.
Correction: This post’s headline incorrectly referred to the group as “Friends of Hagel.”
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