Posted on 09/18/2024 7:08:16 PM PDT by george76
Hillary Clinton has long been one of the most anti-free speech figures in American politics, including calling upon European officials to force Elon Musk to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). She is now suggesting the arrest of Americans who spread what she considers disinformation. It is a crushingly ironic moment since it was her campaign that funded the infamous Steele dossier and spread false stories of Russian collusion during her presidential campaign. Presumably, that disinformation would not be treated as criminal viewpoints.
Speaking on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show this week, Clinton was asked about continued allegations of Russian efforts to disseminate Russian propaganda in the United States. Clinton responded:
“I think it’s important to indict the Russians, just as Muller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in direct election interference and boosting Trump back in 2016. But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda. And whether they should be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrence, because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States.”
The interview was chillingly consistent with Clinton long antagonism toward free speech.
Clinton, of course, was not challenged by Maddow on the fact that her campaign was the conduit for disinformation linked to Russian intelligence services.
Not only did U.S. intelligence believe that the Clinton campaign was used to make the debunked claims, but it was clearly done for purely political purposes.
Clinton efforts were so obvious by July 2016 that former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s alleged “plan” to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The Russian investigation was launched days after this briefing.
Her general counsel, Marc Elias, his former partner Michael Sussmann, and the campaign were later found involved in not just spreading the false claims from the Steele dossier but other false stories like the Alfa Bank conspiracy claim.
It was Elias who managed the legal budget for the campaign. We now know that the campaign hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense.
New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that Elias denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said that Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”
Elias was also seated next to John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, when he was asked about the role of the campaign, he denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Even assuming that Podesta was kept in the dark, the Durham Report clearly shows that Elias knew and played an active role in pushing this effort.
The Clinton campaign lied to the media, spread false claims of Russian disinformation, and was accused of being a conduit for Russian intelligence. So would the “better deterrence” have been for Clinton herself to be arrested?
Sussmann ultimately did stand trial but was acquitted. Notably, John Durham noted that “no one at Fusion GPS … would agree to voluntarily speak with the Office” while both the DNC and Clinton campaign invoked privileges to refuse to answer certain questions.
For a person who is on her fourth memoir, Clinton is remarkably hostile to free speech. Notably, in all of these memoirs, she does not address her prominent role in calling for the censorship and now arrest of those with opposing views. She also does not discuss how her campaign lied to the media and funded the Steele dossier. Perhaps that is coming in the fifth memoir.
What is clear is that Clinton herself has no fear that such prosecution would ever await her. She is one of those who may silence others but not be silenced. The public is to be protected from views that she deemed disinformation, misinformation, or malinformation.
To that end, as one of the guardians of truth, Clinton chastised the media for not being more consistently anti-Trump, a daunting prospect since the media has been accused of running almost 90 percent negative stories on Trump.
Nevertheless, shortly after the second assassination attack on Trump, Clinton called Trump a danger to the world and added that “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is.”
Ideally, between the arrests of those accused of disinformation and an effective state media, Clinton hopes to rein in errant thoughts and viewpoints.
In the interview, Maddow did not have even a slight objection to the implications of arresting people with criminal viewpoints. Censorship and criminal prosecutions are such mainstream concepts that they are as unsurprising as a fourth Clinton memoir.
Beware of what you wish for, Hillary! I bet you’re #1 on the Top Ten List of Disinformation Spreaders!
Need to a)stop using their words and b) point out that “disinformation” is a communist concept and word usage.
Clinton feels the left MSM doesn't hate Trump enough? The witch wants MORE bias? Whoa - that's breathtaking. White trash...
This just gets better by the day. Where are we headed with these people? They are beginning to pattern their behavior after Kim Jong Un’s regime. Wow...
The laws are for the little people.
I used to listen to the conservative radio host George Putnam back when Bill Clinton was president. He would often say, “the Clintons will always be with us.” I would laugh at that but he was right. Thirty years ago and they’re still massive irritants.
All trials for such cases will be be held in Washington DC, unless the felony takes place in New York.
Citizens arrest Hill. Take yourself straight to prison.
And of course, she and her ilk want the right to label which information is ‘disinformation’.
There’s so much to hate about these communist pigs.
That’s rich coming from the woman who paid for the fake Russian dossier.
It really galls her that she isn’t the Reichsführer of the Americas.
I used to wonder how women in Nazi Germany could be prison guards. After Hillary, I don’t wonder anymore.
I’m sure Clinton has no idea how many Americans despise her and she doesn’t care,
Democrats are not normal people.
in a given population more than half are literally idiots that the rest of us out of compassion, feed and support.
At my age(69) I’ve run out of compassion
Is reincarnation or lizard or both a factor ?
Pot calling the kettle black.
I have been to Dachau myself, but I know someone who is a retired FEMA agent. She told me that FEMA camps could be built in a matter of weeks, to lock people up.
I wasn't aware of that
Clinton’s recent remarks were horrifying. Publicly endorsing criminal penalties for political speech.
Turley has the chops to address the issue — which is no longer obvious to Americans who have never had a civics lesson in school.
The issue is not Clinton’s hypocrisy. She was outed as a liar and a hypocrite before I was born. She herself is no longer a threat to our freedom. But her ideas must be confronted and refuted.
Jonathan Turley, you have the intellect and the platform; leave the easy target to the mediocre critic, for the benefit of whatever village idiots out there don’t yet know her character.
This delusional bxtch is irrelevant and I said bxtch because it’s hard to hide the C word.
My, the commies are going full fascist these days, aren’t they. Masks, not just slipped, but fallen to the ground and stomped on.
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