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Seth Meyers: Billionaires Are Freaking Out About Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders [VIDEO]

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Targetpractice11/12/2019 1:16:05 am PST

Think we might be going about the whole Gabbard bit the wrong way, focusing too much on the word “she” when there are two words that more readily kill the threat of a defamation suit: “I think.” IOW, Clinton is expressing an opinion that an unnamed woman in the Dem primary field was being groomed for a third-party run by the Russians who see her as an asset. As the Gabbard campaign’s letter notes, what matters is how the statement is “read and understood by the public.” That raises the question of why the public read Hillary’s opinion and immediately assumed she was talking about Tulsi Gabbard. And they insist that the “confirmation” came from Clinton’s spokesman, but he was asked specifically if Gabbard was the woman being referred to.

Or, shorter and pithier, you cannot tarnish an already rusted blade. To prove defamation you have to prove injury to one’s reputation. But if Tulsi’s reputation is such that everybody automatically assumed she was the target of Hillary’s statement without being explicitly named, then there’s no way that her lawyers could prove “injury.”