Former US Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tried to do her best to be funny on Twitter this weekend, by posting a fake letter from President John F. Kennedy to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev dated 16 October 1962 in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The letter, which was actually taken from a recent episode of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, purported to resemble Donald Trump’s peculiar writing style used in a message addressed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after Ankara launched a military operation in northern Syria on 9 October.
"Dear Premier Khrushchev, don't be a d--k, ok? Get your missiles out of Cuba", the mock letter said, which Clinton captioned as being "from the archives”. “You are really busting my nuts here. Give you a jingle later. Hugs, John Fitzgerald Kennedy".
Found in the archives... pic.twitter.com/iFFeqloYHM
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 20, 2019
Although many of Clinton's followers really enjoyed the parody, some didn't like the fact that Hillary did not attribute the joke to the Jimmy Kimmel show where the spoof letter first aired on Wednesday night.
Hillary is leading for the troll of the year!
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) October 21, 2019
So I guess Hillary Clinton’s social media team didn’t even come up with this — the fake letter is a cringe joke lifted from Jimmy Kimmel’s show.pic.twitter.com/JQDijPkU5Y https://t.co/ONrlG0TPhd
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 20, 2019
Other Twitter users were eager to find parallels between Clinton’s joke and email controversy the former secretary of state was embroiled in following the revelation that she had used a private server for official communication from 2009-2013, with 33,000 of her allegedly “personal” emails later being deleted.
Email archives?
— Saladino for Congress (@JoeySalads) October 20, 2019
Not deleted, unlike your emails and reputation.
— Terry Kinder (@tkinder) October 21, 2019
Some could not help but remind Clinton about a childhood photo she tweeted back in October 2016, congratulating the “future president” on her birthday.
Found in the archives pic.twitter.com/N11L7jPDir
— sharia board 👳🏻♂️👻🎃 (@SirajAHashmi) October 20, 2019
Also found in the archives: pic.twitter.com/8SUh6CoKO3
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) October 20, 2019
The letter sent by Donald Trump to his Turkish counterpart on 9 October, urged Erdogan not to be “a tough guy” and “a fool”, while threatening Turkey with economic sanctions amid Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria. It was later reported that the Turkish president had tossed the letter “in the bin”.
EXCLUSIVE: I have obtained a copy of @realDonaldTrump’s letter to #Erdogan. @POTUS warns him to not “be a tough guy! Don’t be a fool!” Says he could destroy Turkey’s economy if #Syria is not resolved in a humane way. Details tonight at 8pm #TrishRegan #FoxBusiness pic.twitter.com/9BoSGlbRyt
— Trish Regan (@trish_regan) October 16, 2019
Hilary Clinton was also involved in another controversy last week, following a verbal offensive towards an unnamed presidential candidate from the Democratic Party who was she said was a 'Russian asset', which was understood as being directed at Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who later hit back by calling Clinton “the queen of warmongers” and the “embodiment of corruption”.