The Federalist Publishes, Quietly Deletes Defense of Duterte Death Squads

Right-wing website The Federalist on Friday published and then later quietly deleted an article defending Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte’s notorious extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers. The article, titled “Why The Philippines Needs President Duterte’s Harsh Treatment Of Drug Cartels” and written by Seaborn Hall, positively compared Duterte to President Trump, concluding that “he is a ‘thug’ most of the Filipino people still love and support.” The article was removed hours after publication, and without an editor’s note. Despite its own finger-wagging about stealth-edits in the media, The Federalist has a long history of quietly memory-holing its own content (despite its own claims otherwise).