Secretary Hillary Clinton checking email latimes.com |
It is Wednesday, which means it it time for the weekly installment of Blogger Candidate Forum. Before we get going on Hillary Clinton, let us acknowledge yesterday's Washington State Republican Primary. In case you have been off the grid, Donald Trump. Not news when you are the only one on the ballot. The next round of presidential primaries is on JUNE 7, with the big one in California. Now, shall we talk about Secretary Hillary Clinton?
Let us start with the obvious, for all intents and purposes, Madame Secretary will be the Democratic party nominee. Another obvious observation, is the impact of the State Department inspector general's report on Madame Secretary's email practices. Madame Secretary was not the only top State Department official with questionable email usages. Others include: former Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Madelaine Albright. Chris Cillizza reports in today's Washington Post, "The report....badly complicates Clinton's past explanations about the server and whether she fully complied with the laws in place governing electronic communication." (http://www.washingtonpost.com; accessed May 25, 2016) The newly released reports gives more than ample fuel to the Trump campaign narrative of "Crooked Hillary." Surprisingly the Sanders campaign has not made any statement about the report. Perhaps that is all well and fine because, Senator Bernie Sanders has not made this issue a focus of attack on Madame Secretary.
Secretary Clinton before the House Select Committee on Benghazi pbs.org |
Attorney General Loretta Lynch politico.com |
Secretary Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Committee washingtontimes.com |
United States Department of State en.wikipedia.org |
GOP will attack HRC because she is running for President but IG report makes it clear personal email was not unique at State Department (9:22 AM-25 May 2016 @brianefallon)
The Clinton campaign has spent months painting the IG Office's as beginning overly aggressive and cooperating with congressional Republicans to portray Madame Secretary in the worst possible way. This sounds disingenuous considering that the IG was appointed by President Barack Obama. This is the same issue she faces if Madame Secretary tries to was dispersion on the FBI investigation. The very same FBI overseen by Pres. Obama appointee Loretta E. Lynch. Does this mean that a DEMOCRATIC administration filled with DEMOCRATIC appointees is out to get her?
There is some credibly to Mr. Fallon's argument that Madame Secretary is far from the first Secretary of State to use less-than-airtight methods for ensuring the preservation and securing of her email. The report is particularly critical of former President George W. Bush's first Secretary of State Colin Powell who acknowledged that he used his personal email account for business and failed to follow with department policy regarding compliance with public record laws.
AG Lynch suggested that the White House "stay silent" on email probe politico.com |
The presumptive nominees online.com |
There is also the perception issue. Madame Secretary has been portrayed as dishonest and untrustworthy by both Mr. Trump and Senator Sanders. Certainly, this report makes the task of changing that impression significantly harder. The silver lining here is that Republicans are about to nominate a man whose numbers in the trustworthy, honesty, and readiness categories are even lower than hers. In this way, it makes the job of shedding the "Crooked Hillary" label a little easier.
No doubt this is a bad day for Secretary Hillary Clinton but she will overcome it. Her task, right now, is to be as forthcoming with the American public as possible. The results of the FBI probe are still in the wings but there is little evidence to suggest that there was any malicious intent to flaunt classification rules. Yours truly does not believe there was malicious intent either. Naturally, there are those outside the federal government who believe otherwise and that is fine with Blogger. Rather jump to any conclusions, yours truly believes that it is best to take a wait and see approach. The FBI is expected to conclude their probe this summer. Then we will what comes next.
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