#DrunkHillary

Submission 7,558

Part of a series on #HackingHillary. [View Related Entries]

About

#DrunkHillary is a hashtag used by supporters of 2016 United States Presidential Election Republican nominee Donald Trump to spread the idea that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is an alcoholic.

Origin

On August 8th, 2015, John Podesta sent an email^[1] within the Clinton campaign suggesting someone call Clinton and "sober her up." On October 27th, 2016, The National Enquirer^[2] cited the email as possible proof of a 2014 report they published that Clinton had a problem with alcohol.

Spread

That day, Drudge Report devoted its front page to a montage of photographs of Clinton drinking.

The rumor spread throughout the next few days. On October 31st, Sean Hannity^[5] pointed to a Snapchat video of Clinton dancing in July and suggested she was inebriated. The "#DrunkHillary" hashtag took off the same day, when Dilbert creator Scott Adams used it in a tweet^[3] arguing that Hillary was too much of a drinker to be trusted with the nuclear codes. On November 3rd, The Washington Post^[4] investigated the causes of the hashtag and concluded that once the rumor that Clinton lacked the physical stamina necessary to be president died down, Trump supporters grasped for a similar rumor.