The Troll Queen

The Gabbard campaign’s demand for an apology from Hillary Clinton includes the text they want her to deliver, including "I support and admire the work that Congresswoman Gabbard has done and will continue to do." pic.twitter.com/RldwBFp5cj

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 11, 2019

This definitely looks to be more about grabbing attention than about seriously feeling that Clinton has defamed her as far as I can tell. After all, as has been pointed out before, Clinton never mentioned Gabbard by name, and she said Republicans were grooming her, not Russia (and with her Fox News appearances, Gabbard herself has done a lot to reinforce that reputation). I feel a little awkward for spending any attention on this myself--except that it really is a lot of nonsense. She isn't just demanding that Clinton apologize for something she did not actually say, she's also demanding that Clinton basically endorse the job Gabbard is doing.

The "free" attention this gets the long-shot candidate when or if Clinton responds is absurd. If the response she gets from Clinton is "Fuck off", each word has a dollar value of roughly one half of "priceless". And even if Clinton doesn't respond at all, Gabbard can milk it for whatever it's worth.

Is it presidential? Ah, heck no. But if she were running for Troll Queen, it isn't bad.