“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.
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4What sort of answer would you find convincing in either direction?– Oddthinking ♦Oct 4, 2016 at 12:30
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This is in reference to a news story 2 days ago. There's not been enough time for anything to be verified. As such I'm voting to close for now though in a few weeks it may be possible to answer.– MurphyOct 4, 2016 at 14:21
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4@Oddthinking - can't speak for the OP, but an independent confirmation by someone who overheard and can confirm the statemet - either publicly, or to a journalist (shielded by source confidentiality), would definitely be convincing in the direction of "yes" answer. Proving a negative is as usual harder, but the article (at least at first skimming, I didn't read in depth yet) mentions a specific meeting, so statements by meeting participants that this was never said would point to a "no" answer. The scope is luckily much less than "everything Clinton ever said".– user5341Oct 4, 2016 at 18:21
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2@jwenting - valid points, but some confirmation is better than just an unconfirmed rumour– user5341Oct 7, 2016 at 15:35
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10According to Snopes the only source for this claims is "unnamed State Department sources," which is about as unattributed as you get. If it was said (and I doubt it), I would imagine it would have been a joke. I doubt that a) the State dept. can order drone strikes, b) she would actually consider bombing a foreign embassy. snopes.com/julian-assange-drone-strike– rougonOct 8, 2016 at 19:16
1 Answer
Probably not
The claim has never been independently made outside of True Pundit, and it cited anonymous State Department sources.
Clinton claims not remembering saying that.
I don't recall any joke. It would have been a joke if it had been said, but I don't recall that.
It very unlikely that killing Assange with a drone was a serious suggestion, as he was residing in non-hostile countries and embassies that that were unwilling to extradite; they would probably be very upset by a drone kill. Other more conventional methods of killing or capturing seem more plausible.
It could have been said as a rhetorical question for taking decisive (possible lethal) action. There's really no verifiable way to know. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."