Tuesday in New York City, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was heckled by an anti-war demonstrator at an event hosted by Columbia University.
Clinton and the man engaged in a contentious discussion for over three minutes regarding the Biden administration’s financing policy for foreign conflicts. The protester claimed that this policy was dragging the United States into a third world war.
According to Newsweek, the former Democratic presidential candidate encountered opposition while delivering her remarks at a Columbia event honoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on its 75th anniversary.
“The hypocrisy of … can you please make a statement about President Joe Biden’s speech,” a man identified as Robert Castle yelled as Clinton attempted to speak over him from the stage.
“Can you please make a statement about Joe Biden’s speech?” he asked. “This is a clearly warmongering speech!”
“President Joe Biden is calling for $100 billion of funding for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, and we’re supposed to just bundle these together and pretend — like we’re going to rush to World War III? And we’re all just going to let Hillary Rodham Clinton sit here?”
The man was cut off by Clinton, who told him to “sit down” and also said, “You’re done.”
The two then engaged in a First Amendment dispute, with the former first lady arguing that Castle had exhausted his right to free expression and was therefore not permitted to continue speaking.
“It’s not free speech when you are disrupting everybody else’s opportunity to speak,” Clinton said.
“This is free speech. … This is people constructing narratives that are openly hypocritical,” he fired back.
My friends Robert Castle & @ZSimonMillerZ of the @SchillerInst confronted the warmongering queen herself @HillaryClinton. Robert begins by calling out her hypocrisy and clearly stating her entire talk is just warmonger. Part 2 coming soon.
"We came, We spoke, She cried" pic.twitter.com/4L3XkzXjQ5
— Jose Vega — Vote Diane Sare! (@JosBtrigga) October 23, 2023
Clinton attempted to change the subject as the individual continued to yell. She expressed her willingness to further discuss the matter in private at a later time.
“I’ll meet you outside,” she said, to which Castle responded with skepticism.
Clinton declined the man’s second attempt to convince her to condemn the White House’s foreign policy and its financing of actual or prospective conflicts on three continents. Instead, she stated, “I’ll still meet you outside.”
Another video uploaded by an attendee of the event indicates that Clinton and Castle did not meet following the forum.
Robert, my acquaintance, held up a sign after Hillary promised to speak with him but failed to do so.
https://twitter.com/JosBtrigga/status/1716567389888815193?
The White House requested $105 billion from Congress on Friday for humanitarian funds in Gaza and an aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the southern border of the United States.
CNBC reported Biden said the aid package would “help us keep American troops out of harm’s way, help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful and more prosperous for our children and grandchildren.”