Cassidy Hutchinson and Amber HeardJacquelyn Martin/Associated Press, Michael Reynolds/Getty Images Trump supporters started calling Cassidy Hutchinson “Amber Heard 2. 0” in the hours after her testimony. One victims’ rights lawyer says the insult is a “new dog whistle” being used to discredit women.
The quick use of the term shows how the salacious celebrity trial is being weaponized online. In the hours after former top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave shocking testimony about Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, the former president’s loyalists took to social media to try and discredit Hutchinson using a new tactic: comparing the 25-year-old to Amber Heard. These influencers are weaponizing Heard’s name — and the negative associations it now carries on the internet — to accuse Hutchinson of lying.
And an expert told Insider that the “Amber Heard 2. 0” insult is being used as a “new dog whistle” to discredit women. In her testimony before the House panel investigating the Capitol riot, Hutchinson detailed explosive allegations of Trump’s conduct, testifying that the former President knew his supporters were armed and demanded to be taken to the Capitol alongside them.
But Trump supporters baselessly called her claims “perjury. “”If this isn’t perjury, I don’t know what is,” the far-right influencer Liz Crokin wrote on the messaging app Telegram to her audience of almost 90,000 users. “Amber Heard 2.
0 lied under oath to lay a groundwork for a possible criminal indictment of a US President. The penalty for perjury under federal law is up to five years in prison. “Crokin’s post was shared by two popular QAnon influencers who have 68,000 and 79,000 followers on Telegram, respectively.
Meanwhile, multiple popular posts calling Hutchinson “Amber Heard 2. 0” garnered hundreds of likes on a far-right forum for Trump supporters. Other Trump defenders joined the pile-on.
“Who else thinks Amber Heard just dyed her hair?” Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump assistant, wrote on Trump’s social media site, Truth Social. Author Tim Young wrote on Twitter that “Cassidy Hutchinson makes Amber Heard’s testimony seem compelling and true. ” Recently ousted Republican lawmaker Madison Cawthorn also got in on the insult, asking: “Why is Amber Heard testifying to the J6 committee?”During Heard’s trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp, who was suing her for defamation, public opinion on the internet swayed overwhelmingly in Depp’s favor.
Fans of the actor made viral videos attacking Heard and accusing her of lying, created fancams in support of Depp, and rejoiced when a jury ruled in favor of Depp and ordered Heard to pay millions in penalties. Social media creators launched themselves into stardom with never-ending coverage of Heard’s defamation trial against her ex-husband Depp. Discussion of the trial spread like wildfire online, including among conservatives who have leveraged details of the salacious trial against the “Me Too” movement.
Representatives for Heard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Heard speaks with a member of her legal team in court on April 14, 2022. SHAWN THEW/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesCarrie Goldberg, attorney and founder of C.
A. Goldberg,PLLC, a law firm specializing in victims’ rights and sexual violence cases, called the comparison to Heard a “new dog whistle””The aim is to make an example of her, to see her thrown to the wolves and torn apart,” Goldberg told Insider. “Victims and advocates foresaw that the caricature of Amber Heard would go on to play this important socio-cultural role for abusers: allowing them to easily and succinctly villainize women who testify against them in the future,” she continued.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesThe far-right’s reaction to Hutchinson’s testimony reveals a pattern of how powerful men can use digital armies to discredit the women who speak out against them, according to Goldberg. “That abusive and dangerous men have troll armies standing-by to harass and destroy women on their behalf really illustrates the misogyny pumping through the veins of this country and across the internet,” she said.
Hutchinson stands behind her testimony, a spokesperson told Insider. “Ms. Hutchinson stands by all of the testimony she provided yesterday, under oath, to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” her spokesperson said in a statement.
Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/cassidy-hutchinson-testimony-capitol-riot-amber-heard-insult-2022-6
