Republicans complained about Chuck Hagel, Obama’s pick for Defense Secretary, and challenged him to explain the money he was once paid by an organization named Friends of Hamas. But there’s a problem: “Friends of Hamas” doesn’t really exist. It turns out to a joke privately uttered by Dan Friedman, leaked to and laundered as weasel-worded reality by Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro, and ultimately repeated by top Republicans in an effort to nix Hagel’s nomination.
“If anyone didn’t know already,” Friedman wrote, “Partisan agendas, Internet reporting and old-fashioned carelessness can move complete crocks fast. If you see a story on Hagel addressing the Junior League of Hezbollah, that’s fake too.”
