 Chelsea Manning is an American hero who revealed the war crimes that our own government was committing Abroad now because she chose to leak this classified information to the public She was sentenced to 35 years in prison now. Thankfully. She only served seven years Before President Obama commuted her sentence in 2017. However till this very day. She still remains Principled she remains adamant about the right for us to know what our government is doing And now she's refusing to testify and throw Julian Assange under a bus because she thinks that Protecting the First Amendment is more important than her own individual Freedom so I don't know that I would have the courage to do what she's doing But I do know that what she's doing is Incredibly commendable and it's really important and it shows how brave she is so more on this as Zach Boodbrick of the Hill reports Manning served seven years in prison for providing classified documents before President Obama commuted her sentence in 2017 But was yelled for contempt in March after refusing a grand jury subpoena to testify against WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange Manning's support committee said that her conditions qualify as Solitary confinement and that Manning is kept in her cell 22 hours a day She has not been outside for 16 days She is permitted to make phone calls and move about outside herself between 1 and 3 a.m The committee said in a March 23 statement So the condition is absolutely horrible because she refused to testify. This is what she is subjected to Solitary confinement now the sheriff in that county has come out and said she's not in solitary confinement You guys are lying in fact the jail that she's staying at doesn't even have a solitary confinement cell But what people close to Chelsea are saying is that it doesn't matter because functionally she's serving in solitary confinement She's not allowed to leave her cell She is not Able to socialize with general population there and it's essentially solitary confinement But the argument is that well we have to isolate her and keep her away Keep her locked away from everyone else for her own protection, but this is the same excuse They always use when they lock people in solitary confinement It's inhumane It's torture and I'm not buying this bullshit excuse But I just want to take a step back and acknowledge again How absurd it is that because she refused to testify Because she's principled and she already told them everything that she knows about wakey leaks and Julian Assange And because she essentially won't throw him under the bus She's being locked in what is tantamount to solitary confinement. I mean it's it's absurd now recently Alexandria Ocasio-Gortez talked about the importance of protecting whistleblowers and I wanted to share what she had to say This was a video that was tweeted out by public citizen because she Said something that is really important with regard to what we need to do to protect them So the reason why we have to conduct and and have these Accommodations is because we are a committee that is committed to protecting whistleblowers and I do have to commend The ranking member and and to see the coordination between the ranking member and the chair in a commitment to Whistleblowers not just in respecting them, but in protecting them is really admirable and important and I wanted to note that because because this is This is what protecting whistleblowers looks like when they need a certain accommodation because they are a fear retaliation We have to make accommodations this committee in particular as the oversight committee in the house of representatives We have a unique responsibility to protect those that have the courage to come out and say when something is wrong regardless of the administration even in prior administrations it were you know It doesn't matter the party when something is going wrong in government when there is overreach when there is an abuse or Or or a misconductive process we have an obligation to see and investigate it out so for someone who is a member of the house of representatives to say that is Incredibly important because time after time it doesn't matter the party affiliation whoever is in the White House aggressively prosecutes Whistleblowers Obama was perhaps one of the most aggressive if not the most aggressive in American history at prosecuting whistleblowers We saw the treatment Of Chelsea Manning under his watch before he decided to ultimately commute her sentence. We saw his reaction and response to Edward Snowden It's just completely unacceptable So for AOC to take a stand here This is really important because she is going against the grain now when public citizen tweeted out this video She responded and quote tweeted the video saying related Chelsea Manning has been trapped in solitary confinement for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury Solitary confinement is torture Chelsea is being tortured for whistleblowing She should be released on bail and we should ban extended solitary in the United States and to that I say thank you for speaking out on this AOC because we're locking these people these human beings in cages and they're kept in solitary confinement under the guise of wanting to protect their physical well-being but You can protect their physical well-being by not treating them worse than animals in a zoo you can do that So I don't buy this excuse. You don't have to treat them inhumanely to protect them You can actually treat them like human beings And not deny them the dignity that they deserve as human beings And I'm glad that she said this solitary confinement is torture the psychological stress that that causes I mean, I feel like It can have long-term consequences that are negative for someone's mental health And this is something that Chelsea Manning was struggling with the last time when she was kept in solitary confinement So I worry about her safety. I worry about her mental health and her well-being And I'm more worried about You know the consequences of her being kept in solitary confinement than I am About her physical safety because there are guards there to protect her So all around this is just it's so frustrating to see time and again the united states Take this stance towards whistleblowers that is comparable to the stance that third world authoritarian regimes take It's disgusting and I'm glad that there are finally people brave enough in congress that are willing to speak out On the behalf of whistleblowers I just hope that the next president of the united states will take the same approach So I would urge people to press presidential candidates like bernie sanders and tulsi gabbard elizabeth warn even the others To actually protect whistleblowers not just chelsea manning But edward snowden and julien assange who's a journalist because even if you don't like these individuals personally This has broader implications for the first amendment Mike is a total loser. So don't hit the subscribe button, okay? And whatever you do folks do not hit the notification bell either Mike treats me so unfairly