The MAGAverse tries to summon another Clinton-FBI moment

The ingredients are the same: a seized laptop, leaked emails. But this time MAGA adherents are sourcing the ingredients and hoping the FBI takes it up.

In the final days of the 2020 race, MAGA world is trying to conjure up the same event that helped them in the home stretch of 2016 — an out-of-left-field FBI investigation into their opponent.

The ingredients are all the same: a seized laptop, leaked emails, insinuations and vague allegations of malfeasance, a hype machine of ardent Trump supporters.

The difference, however, is that this time an FBI investigation is not supplying the ingredients. Instead, MAGA adherents are sourcing the ingredients and hoping they summon an FBI investigation. And, of course, the new target is Joe Biden, not Hillary Clinton.

Now, Trumpworld is leaning on the FBI to essentially make a similar announcement at almost exactly the same time. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer and self-appointed private investigator, has obtained a laptop he claims belongs to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. He has handed the laptop over to the FBI, claiming it contains emails that show a variety of misdeeds and corruption — even if the emails aren’t all verified, don’t offer conclusive evidence of the misdeeds and bear the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation effort.

And the MAGA base is amping up the pressure on the authorities to investigate. Fox News and One America News Network hosts have dedicated entire segments breaking down the contents of Hunter’s purported emails. Further afield on the internet, conspiracy theorists are tying Hunter Biden to pizzagate-level plots. Trump himself is tweeting loudly about the issue, openly imploring Attorney General William Barr to investigate the Bidens and bringing up the issue whenever possible — at Thursday night’s debate, he even veered from a discussion about race to the “laptop from hell,” with little explanation.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/24/trump-maga-hunter-biden-conspiracy-432046