Civics: Hillary Clinton’s New Speech Code
“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 former first lady added.
There’s a novel legal concept. Because Russians can’t be punished in the U.S., she wants Americans to be arrested for their political speech if they happen to utter arguments also uttered by Russians.
Mrs. Clinton seems to be referring to the Americans recently cited by Attorney General Merrick Garland as dupes of Russian attempts to influence the U.S. election. Those folks may be naifs, or even fellow travelers, but they do have First Amendment rights.
Note that Mrs. Clinton is worried about speech she thinks helps Donald Trump. But would her speech standard also apply to the 51 former U.S. intelligence officials who claimed in 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”? They were spreading disinformation because the laptop and its contents were real and had belonged to Hunter.