Conservative Republican Flip-Flop On Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks

Ah, the irony is delicious. Click here for an article in The Washington Post by Callum Borchers, entitled "Chelsea Manning’s release puts Donald Trump and conservative media in a bind."

For most of the past seven years, Chelsea Manning has been a tailor-made villain for the conservative media. Her disclosure of secret diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks allowed folks such as Sean Hannity to do two of their favorite things: remind everyone of how ferociously they support the military and to blame President Obama for something at or beyond the limits of his control.

On his Fox News show in 2010, Hannity declared that Manning “needs to be held accountable” for putting “our brave men and women in the military overseas in danger,” and he wondered: “Why can't Obama do something about the WikiLeaks?”

But since WikiLeaks published the leaked Podesta and Democratic National Committee emails, they've been a darling of the conservative right: They'd love to trash Obama's commutation of Manning's 35-year sentence, but how can they? It would make them look hypocritical! Can't have that.

As a result, Hannity has come up with a mealy-mouthed explanation for treating the commutation as straight news, not offering an opinion; Laura Ingraham is another conservative mouthpiece who has declined to attack Obama and Manning. Breitbart News, which has previously called Manning a "traitorous transsexual," has also covered the commutation as straight news, rather than attacking it. Greg Gutfeld of Fox News has suggested that if Manning were now to bash Obama and support Trump, conservative Republicans would leap to her support, as they have for Julian Assange (someone they also hated with a passion until the disclosure of the DNC and Podesta emails).

Trump, who once suggested Manning should be put to death, but who subsequently embraced WikiLeaks enthusiastically as it helped him destroy Clinton and win the election, has so far been silent on the issue.