'She’s a f***ing hawk and like a neocon, practically,' he said Greenwald: Clinton too hawkish

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who helped publish Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency leaks, blasted Hillary Clinton in an expletive-laden interview as being too hawkish, offering a critique from the left of her approach to defense issues.

In a conversation with GQ magazine, Greenwald charged that the former secretary of state and possible 2016 Democratic presidential contender is “banal, corrupted, drained of vibrancy and passion.” dismissing her circle as having “been around forever.”


“She’s a f***ing hawk and like a neocon, practically,” he said. “She’s surrounded by all these sleazy money types who are just corrupting everything everywhere. But she’s going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy.”

( Also on POLITICO: Greenwald: Snowden told Gitmo joke)

Some on the left —and libertarians from the right — view Clinton as too hard-line on national security issues. The dynamic plagued her during her unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid as she sought to distance herself from her initial backing of the war in Iraq, and one that some, like Sen. Rand Paul, a possible GOP presidential contender, have tried to highlight in today’s privacy-versus-security debates.

Greenwald also said that opposition to a possible Clinton 2016 candidacy “is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to [President Barack] Obama has been depicted as racist.”

“It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power,” he said, suggesting that should she win, that will perpetuate America’s “own de facto monarchy.”

A representative for Clinton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.