Julian Assange, in addition to being a rapist, is objectively pro-Putin and pro-authoritarian. To be pro-Putin is also to be very anti–free press. He’s absolute garbage and these people are begging for his freedom? I’m so very glad nobody of consequence in the US government has any sympathy for this guy. If he hadn’t spent nearly a decade on the lam, he might already be finished with his US prison sentence, assuming he was convicted. Of course if he hadn’t waited out the statute of limitations, he’d also have to serve his Swedish rape prison sentence. At any rate, nobody should advocate for him except his own lawyers. These Australian politicians are throwing away their own dignity to appeal to the laziest, most insufferably ignorant of their constituents.

He embarrassed them. It will never happen.