WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Thursday that a Hillary Clinton victory would promote an environment of “neo-McCarthyism” and validate efforts to crack down on free speech, both in the press and online.
“The Democrats are always speaking about how terrible McCarthyism was, and it was in many ways,” Assange said in a radio interview with Sean Hannity. “But at least the USSR actually existed then, and there actually was Russian influence on campaigns in the United States, which was serious.”
“What we’re seeing now is Hillary Clinton and her campaign trying to whip up a neo-McCarthyist hysteria where she claims that, effectively, Donald Trump is an agent of the Russians, that WikiLeaks is an agent of the Russians, and where her campaign has also implied that Jill Stein, the Greens leader, is a Russian agent, and that the Intercept, another U.S. publication, effectively [all] Russian agents,” Assange said.
“We have the ruling party … running around, calling the opposition leader, in fact multiple opposition readers, and the critical press, foreign agents,” he said. “What kind of press climate is going to exist afterwards, especially if Hillary Clinton is elected? It will be perceived to be a validation of that hysteria.”
“So the press afterwards will be cracked down upon, and online publishers, and people on social media,” Assange added. “It will lead to a very harsh climate where the First Amendment will be eroded.”
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Hannity claimed that WikiLeaks was providing a public service by leaking private documents obtained from the Democratic National Committee, and Assange said in reply that WikiLeaks was only acting because too much of the media was working to suppress the truth.
“That’s the purpose of our organization, to try to bring the truth to the public that is otherwise suppressed,” Assange said. “Democrat aligned-media like MSNBC, Politico, Washington Post, we expose as acting against journalistic ethics, taking marching orders from the DNC, checking, in the case of Politico, checking their copy with the DNC before even their own editors get to see it.”
“So unfortunately there has to be a place where whistleblowers, consultants, and yes, even computer hackers who care about the truth have a place to publish it,” Assange said.
