© UnknownHillary Clinton
Specifically, the former Secretary of State told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday that Americans "engaged" in "propaganda" - similar to the type that led to the Russians "boosting Trump" in 2016 - should face criminal prosecution.
"I think it's important to indict the Russians, just as Mueller 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."
As Aaron Mate points out, her hypocrisy (and lack of shame) knows no bounds:
"To make her argument against free speech, she invokes the Russiagate scam that itself was the product of her campaign's own propaganda. Speaking of which, the case that she invokes here -- Mueller charging some Russians for social media activity -- led to Mueller dropping the case after the Russian company showed up to fight the case in court."Here is the full transcript via RealClearPolitics (emphasis ours):
MADDOW: Speaking of dictators, the Justice Department and the State Department have taken another of act -- a number of actions in the past several weeks, striking actions, to both call out and indict and take action against the Kremlin for their attempts at interfering in this -- in yet another presidential election cycle on Trump's behalf.Trump running mate JD Vance reacted to Hillary's demands:
The State Department has put out a $10 million reward for information leading to -- for information about people who are trying to -- about entities that are trying to illegally interfere in our election. We have seen these dramatic indictments from the Justice Department, including for paying millions of dollars, the Kremlin paying millions of dollars to pro-Trump influencers.
We have seen the Justice Department seize Web domains, where the Kremlin had set up news sites, what looked like news sites, looked like versions of American news sites, but were secretly operated by the Russian intelligence services or by the Russian government.
You feel like the U.S. government is sort of starting to figure out how to do this and taking this seriously enough, or do you still think there's a far distance to go?
CLINTON: I think there's a far distance to go.
I applaud the actions taken by the Justice Department and the State Department. I think that they're very important. But, truly, we are just at the beginning of uncovering everything that Russia, but not just Russia, other countries, have done and are doing to influence our election.
If you focus on Russia -- and I commend you, Rachel, for your new movie -- because we are only at the beginning of understanding the whole iceberg here. What the Russians started doing in 2015 and 2016, what they continued doing, they have gotten more sophisticated. They aren't even pretending anymore.
Their international news operation, Russia Today, R.T., is an arm of the Russian government, an arm of its intelligence operation. It's basically an extension of their spying efforts. They are using Americans, both those who are witting and willing and those who are unwitting and are just so surprised they're getting $400,000 a week or $100,000 a podcast to parrot Kremlin propaganda.
We know from what even Republicans have said, the chairs of the Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee and other Republicans who are currently in office have said that Republicans go to the floor of the Congress and they parrot Russian talking points.
So, I think it's important to indict the Russians, just as Mueller 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. They're not going to be going to a country where they can be extradited or even returning to the United States, unless they are very foolish.
So I think we need to uncover all of the connections and make it very clear that you could vote however you want, but we are not going to let adversaries, whether it is Russia, China, Iran, or anybody else, basically try to influence Americans as to how we should vote in picking our leaders.
Here is Hillary Clinton, calling for civil and criminal penalties for speech she disagrees with.Seems reasonable.
But why stop at jailing your opponents?
Hillary is calling for censorship, but she's really calling for violence.
Reject censorship. Reject violence.
There is a problem. And it's not easily remedied. The government thinks it is America and the stooges in it propagandize the government as America. But this is the furthest thing possible from the truth. The citizens are America.
Citizens are going to have to show the government who really runs this place or this kind of bullshit will only get worse.
Next thing you know. If you speak out against them, they will detonate your phone and car and microwave, and ring camera and so on and on and on
We are way past talk. And the longer it goes past talk the harder it will be.
This nasty slut knows it's past time for talk. And of course they double down to try and scare the citizens from taking the action they need