Nine years ago, independent journalist Luke Rudkowski was at the second presidential debate of 2012 when he got the chance to ask then Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz about President Barack Obama’s “kill list.” The New York Times had revealed its existence just five months earlier, drawing on the testimony of dozens of the president’s current and former advisors who described the process by which he and his national security team decided whom they would mark for assassination via drone. Rudkowski wanted to know if she was comfortable with Mitt Romney, Obama’s Republican opponent, inheriting and using such a radical power.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Wasserman Schultz replied, looking at him with a mix of concern and pity.

“Obama has a secret kill list,” he began explaining, “which he has used to assassinate people all over the world — ”