The Biden Administration has held several patriots as political prisoners since the 2020 election. One of the most notable was Douglas Mackey, who went by the online persona of Ricky Vaughn, an influencer who made pro-Trump memes in the 2016 election. On Dec. 4, 2023, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Mackey's release until the appeals court rules on his situation.
Mackey was convicted in March 2023 of election interference for his poignant memes mocking Hillary Clinton and her supporters. A federal jury subjected him to a show trial in Brooklyn, claiming that his posting of memes to Twitter constituted a “Conspiracy Against Rights.”
“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote.
What did Mackey supposedly do? He amassed a following on Twitter for being funny with his pro-Trump rhetoric, reaching over 58,000 followers. With one of his memes, he mocked the voting system and Hillary’s supporters as being stupid with the text “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” inserted over a picture of the presidential candidate. Obviously, sending a text to vote would not count as an actual vote, but Democrats cried foul as they earnestly believed that their voter base was stupid enough to fall for an innocuous joke.
Mackey made several parody tweets in this regard, often using the hashtag #ImWithHer, which Clinton supporters used during the campaign, and he found a font similar to those used by official Clinton campaign ads.
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When the Feds arrested Mackey, many Trump supporters were outraged because it appeared as if the Biden Administration was targeting the meme-maker for being too effective with his jokes. If we are not allowed to make parodies and satire on social media as a society, it follows that we do not have free speech if it’s against the narrative of the Democratic Party establishment.
Trump supporters celebrated Mackey’s release on X, as his freedom from prison gives hope that the United States will prevail against the Biden Administration’s authoritarian overreaches against their political enemies.
President Trump commented on the release, posting a video stating, “Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats are trying to pose as the defenders of democracy, but in fact they’re the ones destroying our democracy.”
“Crooked Joe and his henchmen have tried to shut down free speech with a massive government censorship operation to silence their critics,” Trump continued. “They’re putting Douglas Mackey in jail for sharing a joking meme of Hillary Clinton seven years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that.”
Biden and his cronies’ indictments of protesters, meme-makers, and their direct political opposition leader, Donald Trump, have indeed been unprecedented in American history. American voters are holding their breaths to watch what happens with Mackey’s appeal. If the court upholds his conviction, it’s a blow to free speech, which has dangerous ramifications for the future as long as the Democrats remain in power.
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