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you are lying. where do you get this shit about hillary praising Assad? are you nuts?
Clinton talked about the developments Syria on CBS’ Face the Nation on March 27, 2011. Host Bob Schieffer pressed her on why the U.S. reaction would be different from its response to Libya with air strikes. Syria, Schieffer noted, is no friend of the U.S. as an enemy of Israel and ally of Iran, and Assad’s father had "killed 25,000 people, at a lick" in 1982.
Clinton said:
"Well, if there were a coalition of the international community, if there were the passage of a Security Council resolution, if there were a call by the Arab League, if there was a condemnation that was universal, but that is not going to happen because I don't think that it's yet clear what will occur, what will unfold.
"There is a different leader in Syria now. Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer.
"What's been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there's a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities than police actions which, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see."
So Clinton did refer to Assad as "a reformer." But she crafted the line as the opinion of "members of Congress of both parties," not her opinion. And she never defended (as Wallace said) Assad, instead saying in that interview that he "exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see."
Two days later, Clinton addressed her comment at a press conference in London. She responded to a Wall Street Journal reporter’s question asking if it is her position that Assad is a reformer.
"I referenced opinions of others," Clinton said. "That was not speaking either for myself or for the Administration."
She said the administration deplored the Syrian crackdown on protesters and that it’s up to Syria’s leaders "to prove that it can be responsive to the needs of its own people."
Clinton went on. "We’re troubled by what we hear, but we’re also going to continue to urge that the promise of reform, which has been made over and over again and which you reported on just a few months ago – ‘I’m a reformer, I’m going to reform, and I’ve talked to members of Congress and others about that,’ that we hear from the highest levels of leadership in Syria – will actually be turned into reality," she said. "That’s what we’re waiting and watching for."
As the military crackdown on Syrians persisted and worsened, Obama and Clinton called on Assad to go. Clinton was interviewed in November 2011 for ABC News by Jake Tapper, who noted she "at one point seemed to have optimism that Assad was a reformer."
Clinton said, "Well, we had hoped so because there was a lot at stake, we wanted to see an agreement, for example, between Syria and Israel. That was something that people have been working on for 30 years. We heard what Assad said about what he wanted to do for reform. But when it came to it, in the Arab Spring and as people actually demanded some freedom and their rights, he responded, as we have seen, very violently.
https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jun/01/chris-wallace/chris-wallace-hillary-clinton-defended-syrias-assa/
BASHAR ASSAD
Bashar al-Assad is the 19th president of Syria. He entered office in 2000. As president, Assad is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian armed forces and regional secretary of the socialist Ba’ath Party in Syria. Born in 1965, Assad is the third son of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, who held office from 1971-2000. Before replacing his father as president, Assad studied medicine at Damascus University, graduating as an opthamologist in 1988. He served in the Syrian Army for four years as a doctor. In 1992 he moved to London to continue his studies, but was called back to Syria when his older brother Bassel, who had been designated to replace their father as president, was killed in an automobile accident. Assad is married to Asma al-Assad, a British woman of Syrian origin. The couple has three children. Presidency 2000-2011 On June 10, 2000 Hafez al-Assad passed away, and on June 18, 2000 Bashar was appointed General Secretary of the ruling Ba’ath Party. Soon after, after running as an unopposed candidate for the presidency, he was elected to a 7 year term in office. At first, Assad was seen as a better alternative to his father by many Syrians. They hoped the well-educated younger Assad, with his background and exposure to the West, would bring about changes to the status-quo. Assad stated that democracy was “a tool to a better life,” but that it couldn’t be rushed into Syria. At first, Assad somewhat successfully helped Syria ease out of the economic troubles it was in at the end of the 90s. Modernization gradually entered the Syrian public and private spheres.
Syrian Civil War In 2011, inspired by other Arab Spring protests throughout the Middle East, waves of unrest began breaking out in Assad’s Syria, in time turning into the bloody Syrian Civil War. Many of the protesters were opposed to the totalitarian rule imposed by Assad’s ruling party, in place since the time his father took office. As the war progressed Assad began making fewer and fewer public appearances. Foreign countries and military groups began sending in support for either the Syrian Army or the rebels, turning the fighting into a proxy war.
from the Jerusalem Post - https://www.jpost.com/Tags/Bashar-Assad?page=2
Great! I'm glad you're up to speed now.
