Trump, who praised WikiLeaks 141 times, now has 'no opinion' on Assange - Polidicks

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-12/donald-trump-administration-pressing-charges-julian-assange/10995934 https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/225943/6084a2e3-6da4-499a-9dfa-1b34434bf2a7/All the Times Trump Has Mentioned WikiLeaks, Which He Now Cl.mp4

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/11/why-trumps-non-answer-julian-assange-is-so-inexplicable/ Trump mentioned WikiLeaks more than 100 times in just the final month of the 2016 campaign, according to Factba.se. Many of those times, he expressed admiration for the anti-secrecy group’s work. “This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable,” he said once. “Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks,” he said another time. Yet another time: “Oh, we love WikiLeaks. Boy, they have really — WikiLeaks! They have revealed a lot.” Trump’s decision to play down his past embrace of WikiLeaks is no surprise. In fact, it’s his M.O. Whenever anyone around him gets in trouble — be it Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos or Michael Cohen — he and his White House tend to minimize their proximity to him, no matter how implausibly. Foreign policy advisers become “coffee boys.” Campaign chairmen who ran the heart of his 2016 campaign become people who “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.” But Trump unquestionably made WikiLeaks a prominent feature of his stump speech in the closing days of the 2016 campaign, bear-hugging its disclosures and arguing it was performing an important service. The media trafficked in these disclosures, too, but Trump went a step further in actually praising WikiLeaks. As with Russia, he adopted an enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend approach. Even after he became president and his own intelligence community essentially accused WikiLeaks of being a front for the Russian government, Trump declined to harshly judge either one. What’s most jarring about all of this, though, is that he once actually suggested the death penalty for those involved with WikiLeaks. He did this just six years before 2016, after WikiLeaks’ and Chelsea Manning’s Iraq and Afghanistan war disclosures. https://twitter.com/RiegerReport/status/1116323667200368640 Life comes at you fast.

Does he even know who assange is? After all, I don't think he has his name on any buildings.

I doubt Trump even has the mental faculties to know who Assange is. I’m sure his understanding of the DNC leaks is limited to just “Russian hackers.” Regarding his silence, I don’t think it has to do with him distancing himself from collusion. I think he’s facing a lot of internal pressure from his cabinet and the DOJ because now that they’re in power they’re the ones who don’t want to get the whistle blown on them. This is why Assange’s arrest is dangerous for the precedence it sets. People who cheered it on are gonna face a hell of a reckoning when someone leaks that the Trump administration is using migrant children for ritual sacrifice and that person is promptly charged and put in prison by a court stacked with hard right judges who value nebulous concepts of “national security” over the common good of the public.

Even after he became president and his own intelligence community essentially accused WikiLeaks of being a front for the Russian government, Trump declined to harshly judge either one. At least he acknowledges that WikiLeaks isn't that bad but still it won't make a difference should Assange be extradited.

it's disgraceful, Assange should face the dealth penalty, I love wikileaks, I don't know anything about wikileaks. All statements Trump has made

I really hope we don't extradite Assange to the US.

If Sweden raises an extradition request they would most likely take priority over the US request due to the original request. Thread by @davidallengreen

I'm pretty sure the rape case from Sweden was dropped years ago.

Julian Wikileaks?

Why was Sweden not not told before the arrest was made? :thinking:

Shelved or paused, not dropped entirely.

Julian Embassy.

Yes, very good of a radically anti-press, anti-transparency president who has previously called for whistleblowers to be executed to "acknowledge" Wikileaks isn't "that bad." I wonder what could have prompted that change of heart? 🤔🤔🤔