I can’t believe I just typed that, but it’s true.
I agree nearly 100% with what Whoopi Goldberg just said on The View.
The topic was Julian Assange, and the battle lines were very clear.
You had Meghan McCain (who is turning into more of her father day by day) on one side saying she hopes Assange “rots in hell” (charming Meghan).
On the other side was Whoopi. And Sunny Hostin (whoever that is). And me.
Take a look:
Here was the recap from Fox News:
Whoopi Goldberg began the segment by reading a tweet from WikiLeaks' official Twitter account, which said in part that Assange "has won dozens of journalism awards" and has "been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010."
"This is just a campaign by the CIA to delegitimize and dehumanize him," Goldberg, 63, continued before opening up the panel.
At one point during the discussion, Goldberg asked what her fellow co-hosts thought was "going to happen" to Assange, who hours before his arrest was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for his work aiding Chelsea Manning in cracking a password that helped her gain access to classified U.S. government files in 2010.
“I hope he rots in hell!” McCain, 34, stated.
Responded Hostin, 50: “I think that if you have a problem with Julian Assange and what he released in terms of national security, then you need to have a problem with the Pentagon Papers, you need to have a problem with the Panama Papers, you need to have a problem with the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs being released.
"Because those items, I think being released, protected our democracy and the reason that the Obama administration and Eric Holder decided not to punt, but decided that our constitution protected Julian Assange is because our constitution does protect Julian Assange."
"I'm sorry, " McCain quickly interjected. "I’ve got to push back hard on that.”
“You can push back after I’ve finished speaking,” Hostin fired back. "The Constitution protects freedom of the press.
"It is our First Amendment to the Constitution because I believe it is our most important amendment, so it is very clear that the Constitution protects information, investigative journalism even if that information is gotten illegally," she continued. "Even if that information is a matter of national security."
“I think what you said was just straight propaganda, just so we’re clear,” McCain told Hostin. "I'm sorry."
And from MSN:
“The politics of this have always been completely hypocritical on both sides,” McCain said, noting that President Obama’s attorney general Eric Holder declined to prosecute Assange on the basis that WikiLeaks is essentially a “journalistic” organization. “This is something that a lot of people who have put national security first, and I put myself in that category, have been warning about and warning about and warning about and the only time the Democrats started caring is when it started affecting them politically and when Hillary Clinton's emails were released.”
Asked what will happen to Assange, McCain replied, “I hope he rots in hell!”
Her co-host Sunny Hostin had a markedly different take on the matter, saying that if people “have a problem” with Assange and the secrets he published, then they must also have a problem with the the release of the Pentagon Papers and the Panama Papers, both of which she believes “protected our democracy.” She disputed the notion that Obama and Holder “punted” on Assange but rather that they decided the Constitution protected Julian Assange is because our Constitution does protect Julian Assange.”
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