No, Julian Assange Didn’t Claim Bernie Sanders Was Threatened To Drop Out

We Are Change

A popular website has sensationally claimed that Assange said Bernie Sanders was threatened in an interview with John Pilger.

There is only one big problem – the so-called quote by Assange doesn’t exist.

I crawled the Internet and came up empty handed, but what I did find is information on a website that has time and time again published BS stories. The website in question is usasupreme.com, which even has their owners hidden from who.is. So for wasting my time and having me tweet out disinformation, I intend to absolutely destroy your credibility. For you see, this type of bullshit fabricated information hurts us all in the end.

The quotes from USA Supreme are actually copy pasted edited quotes from Amy Goodman’s interview with Assange on Democracy Now!

The real quote from Democracy Now doesn’t mention anything about Sanders being threatened to drop out of the race.

The rest of the copy pasta squelches together quotes from a Washington Times article where Assange accused Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton of committing “extortion.”

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Julian, we cut you off earlier when you were talking about what you felt were the most significant emails that you have released. Is there any last one that you’d like to mention? And also, do you have any thoughts on Donald Trump? I mean, just before we went to air, a CNN poll came out that says Donald Trump is ahead by 5 percentage points of Hillary Clinton. Now, he did just come off of the Republican convention, but many called it the worst convention in history, so it’s not automatic that he should have had this percentage lead. Of course, though, you have the crisis, the disarray, the Democratic Party is in because of these emails that you’ve released.

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, you’re asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? Personally, I would prefer neither. Look, I think—you know, we know how politics works in the United States. Whoever—whatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And so, as a result, corporate lobbyists will move in to help control those levers. So it doesn’t make much difference in the end. What does make a difference is political accountability, a general deterrence set to stop political organizations behaving in a corrupt manner. That can make a difference, because that changes the perception of what you can do or not do. And so, always—well, almost always, you should choose the principled position, which is to set a disciplinary signal about acting in a corrupt way, and take a philosophical position, which is our institutions can only be as good as our understanding of our institutions.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to—

JULIAN ASSANGE: Now, are you asking—the other—

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, go ahead, Julian.

JULIAN ASSANGE: The other top emails, well, as I said, I think this instruction by Luis Miranda, the head of communications, to go out and covertly spread anti-Bernie Sanders propaganda is a clear instruction combined with a chain of command. It’s not simply expressing a sentiment. It is expressing an instruction within the DNC to subvert the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Then there’s a lot of emails about the close relationship between the DNC and the media—The Washington Post involved in a co-fundraising party, an off-list co-fundraising for the DNC, calling up MSNBC during the middle of a program and saying, “Pull that segment now,” Debbie Wasserman Schultz calling up the president of MSNBC in order to discipline Morning Joe, etc. That’s, you know, of course, something that we’ve all suspected happens, but this is concrete proof of it.

But, you know, I really encourage people to research the more than 8,000 attachments that we put out, separate files, including more than 175 spreadsheets. That has the real core, the financial core, of the power structure and the exercise of monetary influence over the DNC. And that’s something that’s going to seed journalistic investigations for years.

AMY GOODMAN: Julian Assange, we want to thank you for being with us. Julian Assange, founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks. This is Democracy Now! You can go online at democracynow.org to read the transcript or to hear again either the audio podcast or the video, see the video of this interview. We’re broadcasting from the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. It’s the first day. It will be gaveled in in just a couple of hours from this broadcast. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. When we come back, a debate. Stay with us.

USA Supreme’s “quote” is below:

Pilger: Julian, we cut you off earlier when you were talking about what you felt were the most significant emails that you have released. Is there any last one that you’d like to mention? And also, do you have any thoughts on Bernie Sanders? I mean what is your opinion why Bernie Sanders drop out of the race?

Assange: Look, I think—you know, we know how politics works in the United States. Whoever—whatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And Bernie Sanders was independent candidate trying to get the nomination trough the Democratic Party and if you ask me he did get the nomination,but he was threatened to drop out!

Pilger: What do you mean by that will your next leak contain information about Bernie Sanders?

Assange: Of course we’re very interested in revealing the truth about any candidate and yes we have some material about Bernie Sanders that will be published!

Assange isn’t focusing entirely on Clinton however, urging anyone with information on Bernie Sanders to come forward!

Additionally, the website claimed that Assange revealed to John Pilger months ago that his 88 gigabyte insurance file (dead man’s switch) includes Hillary Clinton and other government officials’ data from around the world. This too is a BS lie, that can’t be traced back to anywhere but USA Supreme.

Pilger: It is an encrypted file that is 88 GB what does that mean?Does file includes videos and other larger documents and for who are they intended.

Assange: Well it contains everything from videos to e-mails from all over the world!

Pilger: The people in the United States would like to know does this file contain info about Hillary Clinton?

Assange: Well lately I heard a lot of threats from US official and this might be the reason for it,but the answer to your question is yes encrypted file with a dead man’s switch and it is about Hillary Clinton but also it contains info for much more government official around the world!

John Pilger said that he will use information from this interview for his next Wikileaks documentary.

I humbly welcome Julian Assange and John Pilger to sue USA Supreme for misrepresentation and defamation. These types of fake news reports hurt credible claims and go against journalistic principles of integrity. Already other websites have began republishing this false statement made by USASupreme including USUNCUT.

What is accurate is many journalists have said that Sanders was threatened – including independent journalist Wayne Madsen, who said Sanders was threatened with losing his spot on the senate veteran affairs committee.

It would surprise few if Hillary’s henchmen threatened Bernie with losing more than a committee seat.

The post No, Julian Assange Didn’t Claim Bernie Sanders Was Threatened To Drop Out appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change http://wearechange.org/assange-didnt-say-sanders-threatened/