Hillary Clinton made headlines this week during her appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where she expressed her concerns about President Donald Trump posing a danger to free speech. In her discussion with Willie Geist, Clinton criticized the suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel from his show, issued by ABC, rather than the White House. This was a surprising oversight, considering that conservatives have long faced systematic censorship.
Clinton’s remarks included claims that Trump employed “the authoritarian playbook” against Kimmel, who had recently been sidelined for misrepresenting the political beliefs of an assailant. “I view [taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air] as very dangerous,” she claimed, further elaborating on the nature of such actions. Clinton suggested they mirror classical authoritarian tactics: suppressing opponents and manipulating media to ensure compliance. “Use the power of the government to go after corporations and individuals,” she insisted.
In an effort to buttress her narrative, Clinton commended Kimmel for his emotional return to the airwaves, emphasizing his feelings of being misunderstood. “I thought, you know, Jimmy Kimmel did an excellent job last night in being very emotional, actually, about that moment for him and how he felt,” she said, hinting at the notion that Kimmel was a martyr for free speech.
However, during her critique, Clinton positioned herself as an unusual champion of free speech, sharing her own history of facing harsh remarks. “I’ve said a million times, I mean, good lord, the things that have been said about me, of the lies that have been propagated,” she explained, revealing a striking disconnect from the current landscape of discourse in America.
In a somewhat flippant tone, she quipped about wishing she could enlist regulators to silence her critics, saying, “If I had only known, I could call up the FCC chair and say, ‘Take this person off the air, get that person out of my sight, off with his head.'”
The irony is hard to overlook here. As Clinton focused her outrage on Kimmel’s six-day suspension, she neglected to address the broader implications of real censorship taking place under her party’s watch. Google recently acknowledged it complied with demands from the Biden administration to censor content, a significant revelation that casts doubt on Clinton’s narrative. The company confessed to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan that YouTube removed legal speech at the behest of the administration for years. “Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform,” Google’s legal representative stated, following the admission of wrongdoing.
This admission paints a troubling picture: the reality is that the climate of censorship is being directed by the very party Clinton aligns with. As she raised alarms about Trump’s actions, it becomes clear that the actual record shows her party exerting pressure on big tech companies to silence dissenting voices.
In short, while Clinton warns about threats to free speech, her selective outrage exposes a lack of awareness about the actions taken under her party’s banner. The narrative she presented on MSNBC rings hollow, particularly when balanced against the evidence of Democrats actively fostering censorship. In critiquing Trump, Clinton seems oblivious to the consequences of her own party’s stance on free expression.
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