The Democrats would love to pass some legislation prohibiting “hate speech” particularly in connection with political campaigns. Of course, this is predicated on them being the ones who determined just what “hate speech” is. That would be speech they don’t like.
With the Mueller Report exonerating PDJT of collusion the fake news networks are still looking for something to delegitimize PDJT’s victory in 2016. Christiane Amanpour over at CNN appeared to advance another reason this week. That would be the failure of the government to suppress “hate speech.”
Amanpour, the anchor for CNN’s international desk, had former FBI director James Comey in for an interview. During the course of the interview the phrase “Lock her up,” which was chanted during many of PDJT’s rallies, came up.
Amanpour put forth the notion that the phrase was a form of “hate speech” and should have been shut down by the FBI. Amanpour, who also is employed by PBS as host of Amanpour & Company, appeared to be completely serious. She is contending there’s a legitimate question as to whether the government should have disallowed that language in 2016.
The exact wording is below.
“Of course, ‘lock her up’ was a feature of the 2016 Trump campaign. Do you, in retrospect, wish that people like yourself, the FBI, I mean, the people in charge of law and order, had shut down that language—that it was dangerous potentially, that it could’ve created violence, that it’s kind of hate speech. Should that have been allowed?”
Amanpour grew up in Iran and moved to Britain around age 11. So, although not raised from birth in the West, she should be familiar with the First Amendment. So where did the idea that “hate speech” is something the government can forcibly repress when it wants to do so come from?
She also suggests that chanting “Lock her up” was a form of aggression and violence. This sounds an awful lot like the excuses that the far-left uses to justify rioting and looting when a conservative speaker is scheduled to speak on a college campus.
Comey gives the correct answer about the government’s role.
“That’s not a role for government to play. The beauty of this country is people can say what they want even if it’s misleading and it’s demagoguery.”
Conservatives often complain about social media censorship. This is rooted in the perception that conservative views are being silenced. Amanpour is pouring fuel on that fire.
As Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky )noted:
Indeed, her assertion serves as clear-cut evidence this anxiety is much more than self-pity and paranoia. It wasn’t the work of a crazed Twitter pundit or hyper-partisan blogger. It was the “chief international anchor” of a major cable network, a powerful woman who’s widely respected in her industry, using airtime to argue federal law enforcement should have stopped people from saying “lock her up.”
Amanpour’s question to Comey—who, to his credit, gave the right response—reminds us the desire to ban political expression is rising among the very people who have the power to do it. It’s much too early to declare defeat or descend into panic, but the problem is entirely real.
So, where did this line of questioning originate? Is this another attempt to delegitimize PDJT’s election? Or was this some kind of trial balloon to see how possible it might be to advance such an idea? Remember there is nothing the left will not do to gain power.