Hillary Clinton, under pressure in 2010 to stop Wikileaks' Julian Assange from dumping more U.S. secrets, reportedly asked at a meeting: "Can't we just drone this guy?"
The comment, reported by the website True Pundit, has been gaining traction despite attempts by the Clinton campaign to spin it away, according to The Hill. It reportedly came while Clinton was secretary of state and under increased pressure from the Obama administration's inner circle to stop Assange from delivering leaked cables about the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
"Hence, Clinton's early morning November meeting of State's top brass who floated various proposals to stop, slow or spin the Wikileaks contamination," said True Pundit. "That is when a frustrated Clinton, sources said, at some point blurted out a controversial query."
"'Can't we just drone this guy?' Clinton openly inquired, offering a simple remedy to silence Assange and smother Wikileaks via a planned military drone strike, according to State Department sources. "The statement drew laughter from the room which quickly died off when the Secretary kept talking in a terse manner, sources said," according toTrue Pundit.
Sources told True Pundit that Clinton pushed the fact that Assange was a "soft target" without fear of reprisals from the United States.
According to the the website, Clinton top aide Ann-Marie Slaughter, State's director of policy planning , authored an email to Clinton, Cheryl Mills, her chief of state, and aides Huma Abebin and Jacob Sullivan entitled "an SP memo on possible legal and nonlegal strategies re Wikileaks."
The True Pundit story was shared by Wikileaks, InfoWars.com and RedState.com on social media.
New York Magazine attempted to shed doubt on the report by questioning True Pundit itself.
"Even setting aside the logistical difficulties of a hypothetical drone strike targeting a guy who, at the time, was traveling largely in U.S.-friendly countries, there are a boatload of reasons to be skeptical about this," said the mag's Jesse Singal.
"The most compelling is sourcing: Who are these incredible anonymous sources that True Pundit has access to? Who is running TP, for that matter? … By the norms of journalism, an anonymous journalist reporting an anonymous source's account of some incredible event has as much credibility as a rumor a preschooler excitedly whispers in your ear."
Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook declined to comment about Clinton's supposed comment to WTTG-TV.
"I'm reticent to comment on anything that the WikiLeaks people have said," said Mook. "They've made a lot of accusations in the past."
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