Does Donald Trump Still Want Julian Assange Dead?
US President-elect Donald Trump seems to agree with Julian Assange at the moment on a number of issues. But, not too long ago, his views were different about the WikiLeaks founder. He wanted Julian Assange dead a few years back.
In 2010, the situation was quite different. Trump was far away from the race to enter the White House. His views about Assange were also different. It was the time when WikiLeaks came into prominence by gaining highly classified military information from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Many considered Assange a criminal who deserved an exemplary punishment.
A number of prominent personalities found Assange guilty. Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the controversial whistleblower had “blood on his hands.” King claimed that there should be much more outrage against the WikiLeaks founder.
Other major personalities who wanted a harsh punishment for Assange included former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former CIA Director James Woolsey. All these people are now standing by Donald Trump as a strong support system. Trump, on the other hand, wanted Julian Assange dead. He called the Chelsea Manning leak as “disgraceful.”
“I think there should be like death penalty or something.”
Trump surrogate King said that time that Assange and his organization were helping terrorists. He said, by leaking classified information, the WikiLeaks founder was helping terrorists kill US citizens. He also demanded that WikiLeaks should be declared a terrorist organization because of its alleged connection with extremist groups. King also introduced a bill against WikiLeaks in December 2010.
Woolsey, now Trump’s national security adviser, said in November 2010 that Assange was a “handmaiden of terror.” Gingrich said Assange was engaged in “information terrorism.” He demanded that WikiLeaks should be permanently shut down. He said America should treat Assange as an enemy combatant. This indicates there have been many people, who want to eliminate America’s enemies, want Julian Assange dead.
Things have changed. For many, something shocking happened this November. Donald Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s illustrated career fell short against Trump’s outrageous political claims, such as building a wall across the Mexican border, banning Muslim immigration and so on. Many Democrats, including President Barack Obama, thought there was something fishy about Trump’s victory.
The US government accused Russia of trying to influence the election results. Among many other allegations, Vladimir Putin was accused of hacking confidential emails from Clinton’s account and giving it to WikiLeaks. The accusation came after Assange’s organization had leaked a number of controversial Clinton emails. Many believe the controversy just before the election hurt Clinton’s chances. Those people might have wanted Julian Assange dead at that time.
Russia has, however, laughed off the allegations. So has Donald Trump. Now, Julian Assange has come forward. He said that it was not Russia that had provided those emails to WikiLeaks. Assange told Fox News that it was no rocket science to hack Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s account.
“Podesta gave out that his password was the word password. This is something a 14-year-old kid could’ve hacked.”
And, Trump can only agree with Assange this time. Trump claims that the American voters are responsible for his victory. And, there is no conspiracy theory involved in this. Trump seconded Assange’s opinion about the U.S. media coverage being dishonest. Trump says the U.S. media coverage is “more dishonest than anyone knows.”
“@FoxNews: Julian Assange on U.S. media coverage: “It’s very dishonest.” #Hannity pic.twitter.com/ADcPRQifH9” More dishonest than anyone knows
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Even Woolsey has changed his tone about Assange now. When asked about Trump’s apparent agreement with Assange on the issue, Woolsey sounded cautious and politically correct. “This really ought to be a situation in which we get at the facts and understand them before we start making judgments, it seems to me,” he said.
Trump may not want Julian Assange dead anymore, at least not now, when the WikiLeaks founder is busy in exposing his political rivals. However, if Assange starts offending Trump, things may change again.
[Featured Image by Carl Court/Getty Images]
