Fiona Hill tells 60 Minutes about receiving death threats after she was targeted by Roger Stone and Alex Jones
Hill: “There were death threats. There was-- quite a number of them, especially online”
Published
Citation From the March 8, 2020, edition of CBS' 60 Minutes
LESLIE STAHL (60 MINUTES CORRESPONDENT): When you took the job, I know that there were some of your friends who had urged you not to. I wonder if any of your friends stopped talking to you.
FIONA HILL: There were some people in the professional circles in which I move through certainly took, let's just say some took offense, frankly, at the fact that I had-- decided to give this. They had given me counsel not to do the job. And they, you know, actually did believe that I would be aiding and abetting something nefarious by joining the administration. I felt very strongly, however, that we were in a situation where we were to a confrontation with Russia that someone like myself, who was not political, someone who was an expert should step up and try to do something.
STAHL: Right after you started at the White House, there was a smear campaign against you. Public. Distressing I'm sure. What was that all about?
HILL: Well, I'm still trying to get to the bottom of some of that, to be honest.
(CLIP BEGINS)
ALEX JONES: He's got a major Soros mole discovered in the White House, breaking now--
(CLIP ENDS)
STAHL: May 2017, right-wing conspiracists launch an online campaign to discredit her.
(CLIP BEGINS)
ROGER STONE: George Soros has penetrated the Trump White House. A woman named Fiona hill
(CLIP ENDS)
HILL: I have to say that the scale of this did take me by surprise.
STAHL: This was Roger Stone--
HILL: I was, Roger Stone, Alex Jones. And I did think--
STAHL: So from the right?
HILL: "Why me?"
STAHL: Were there death threats?
HILL: There were death threats. There was-- quite a number of them, especially online.
STAHL: She found it disturbing. And she doesn't rattle easily.
...
STAHL: In becoming an overnight public figure, she found herself contending with the anxieties of her 13-year-old daughter. How did she absorb all of this?
HILL: Initially, she was, you know, somewhat concerned about the whole thing.
STAHL: She must have been worrying all that time?
HILL: But she also helped me put things into perspective. Because on the day before I was meant to testify in public, and obviously I was trying to prepare myself for this, she was preparing for a big test. And she was having me quiz her in the car when I was driving her to school. And she was getting quite anxious. And, you know, I was kind of trying to pull rank on this one and said, "Look, put it into perspective. You know, Mommy, tomorrow has to, you know, kind of testify before congress and millions of people might be watching. And, you know, I mean, this is a test. And she just looked at me and she said, "This is much worse." And I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Well, you just have to tell the truth."