Did the 2016 Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton say that she deserved to given the presidency if Trump was removed from office? No, that's not true: the article comes from a liberal satire website, and Clinton has neither publicly stated those exact words nor given any recent interview with the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes."
The story originated from an article published by Bustatroll on December 4, 2019, titled "Hillary:'If Trump Is Removed, I Deserve To Be Given The Presidency'" (archived here) which opened:
Since having her rear end handed to her by President Trump in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton has turned into a crazy person. No, that is not a harsh statement. Based on her own words and actions of the three years since her loss, any sane person would have to come to this same conclusion.
She just cannot accept the fact that she was not elected President of the United States. Over and over again, she's sticking her nose into White House business, telling us what the President is "doing wrong" or how she would have handled such and such situations. She also repeats her delusion that America wanted her, that more of us voted for her.
She. Just. Won't. Let. It. Go.
Now, with the Democrats hoping for a removal from office of our elected president through a sham impeachment, she's at it again and the crazy just got crazier.
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Hillary:'If Trump Is Removed, I Deserve To Be Given The Presidency'
Since having her rear end handed to her by President Trump in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton has turned into a crazy person. No, that is not a harsh statement. Based on her own words and action...
In the satirical story, Clinton is quoted this way:
Well let's look at this situation. The man who did not get the popular vote of the American public, who stole a victory through the electoral college, who tried to convince the country to throw me in jail without charges, and who is clearly unqualified for the job is accused of criminal offenses in violation of his oath of office. What are my thoughts?
My thoughts are that I warned everyone this would happen and that my last three years have been hell because of his accusations. A bomb was mailed to me, for god's sake. He turned my life upside down.
So my main thought is that, if Trump is removed, I deserve to be given his seat. I've earned it and the people wanted me.
Although the particular quotes from Clinton are invented by the site, they are not far off from what Clinton has actually said. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in late September 2019, the former Secretary of State and First Lady said about Trump:
I believe he knows he is an illegitimate president...It was like applying to a job and getting 66 million letters of recommendation and then losing to a corrupt human tornado.
Later in the interview she called for Trump's impeachment.
Bustatroll is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact-checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact-checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past, but new ones keep cropping up.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer, it is of course also fake news.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes bustatroll.org as:
A site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news, part of a network named America's Last Line of Defense run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard, the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about bustatroll.org before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Socialist California Does NOT Refuse To Fly US Flag 'Until Trump Is Gone'
- Fake News: Adam Schiff Did NOT Pay Witnesses Over $40 Million To Testify Against Trump
- Fake News: Justice Roberts Does NOT Call Impeachment Vote 'Immoral And Possibly Illegal'
- Fake News: Greta NOT Going on Hunger Strike Until Trump is Removed
- Fake News: 4 Democrat Senators Are NOT Turning Republican Because They Oppose Impeachment
