Hillary Clinton is nothing if not bold, calling for the legal prosecution of Americans for saying things online that she does not think they should be allowed to write.
During an appearance on the uber-liberal Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC, the former Secretary of State said that anyone who traffics in what she calls “propaganda” around the presidential election should be prosecuted civilly or criminally. Making yet another reference to the debunked “Russia-gate” hoax that Clinton was instrumental in promoting in 2016, she said “it’s important to indict the Russians.”
But Clinton has her eye on her fellow Americans, too. She said she thinks there are “Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda” who should be charged and prosecuted as well.
The irony is not lost on commentators who note that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s 2016 campaign that paid for the so-called “Steele Dossier.” The report from Brit Christopher Steele accused Donald Trump of all sorts of political and personal malfeasance, including a rumor that Trump hired prostitutes to engage in particularly depraved private activity. It is now widely recognized as a hoax.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote on his blog that Clinton’s interview with Maddow was “chillingly consistent” with Clinton’s hostility to the First Amendment. He noted that Maddow did not even mention that Clinton and her associates were directly responsible for the actual misinformation about Trump in the Steele dossier, and that she did it for personal political gain.
Similarly, reporter Glenn Greenwald posted on social media that Clinton’s prescription was “insanely repressive,” and that she and Maddow should actually be sharing a jail cell under Clinton’s own hoped-for rules. He called Clinton a purveyor of “demented debunked lies.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not impressed either. The former independent candidate who dropped out and joined forces with Trump said that both Hillary Clinton and Democrat candidate Vice President Kamala Harris had a troubled view of constitutional freedoms. He noted that Harris incorrectly called free speech a “privilege.” It is not a privilege, but a right enshrined in the country’s governing documents.
