For the past 25 years, Republicans have been on their knees begging their God for the downfall of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Could anyone or anything stop her? Leading up to 2015 nothing seemed to be getting in the way of Clinton's coronation on Capitol Hill until March 2015 rolled around, and the Grand Ole Party finally thought they had what they needed to defeat Clinton -- she used a private email server while Secretary of State. There was just one little problem with this grand scheme... it would go nowhere and it still has gone nowhere.
Fox News (church for the right wingers) has flooded its airwaves with the Clinton "email scandal" as if it would eventually turn into something serious. If you are a Hillary supporter, like I am, or even just a Democrat, I am sure you, too, are sick and tired of hearing from your Republican friends (if you have any), "What are you going to do when Hillary gets indicted and Biden swoops in to save the day?" The first thing I am going to do, effective immediately, is find new friends, because let's face it... that's a load of bull that I am utterly tired of hearing. STOP BEING BRAINWASHED BY FOX NEWS.
Here are some questions and talking points you will hear from your Republican friends:
1. How are you still supporting Hillary Clinton? She cannot be trusted. She used her own private email server while secretary of state. What is she trying to hide?
First of all, Clinton is not the first Secretary of State to use a private email server. There is no policy whatsoever within the State Department that forbids a Secretary of State from using a private email server. Collin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Secretaries of State under the Bush Administration, both used private emails while holding office. Clinton has willingly worked alongside the State Department, the inspector general and the FBI since the investigations into the server use began. The FBI has already publicly confirmed that Hillary Clinton is not a target of its email investigation, but it is an investigation for national security reasons. Clinton was told by the State Department to hand over emails that seemed of importance at her discretion. Clinton and her staff went through more than 55,000 emails, sorting them between work-related and personal. Clinton handed over 30,000 emails to the State Department that seemed of importance for record keeping.
2. She sent and received classified information on her private email server... anyone could get that information. She can't be trusted!
Actually, she did not send or receive classified information. All of the emails that have been marked as classified during the investigation have been retroactively classified, meaning the information in the emails was not classified at the time of sending or receiving, but due to changing circumstances around the globe, now the information is considered classified.
The truth is, things are overclassified, and sometimes I would get something and it would be classified Secret or Top Secret. And I would look at somebody and say, I’m about to tell a foreign leader what is on this piece of paper that’s marked Top Secret… Why are you giving it to me as a talking point if it’s classified Top Secret? So it is tough sometimes. And if you don’t have any markings on a piece of paper, it is tough sometimes to tell whether it’s classified or not.
3. What will you do after Hillary is indicted?
Let me make this clear, Hillary Rodham Clinton is not going to be indicted because she did not break the law. Many people will argue that Clinton will be indicted and criminally charged for breaking one of two statues:
Mishandling classified information: Executive Order 13526 and 18 U.S.C Sec. 793(f) of the federal code make it unlawful to send or store classified information on personal email. As I stated above, none of the emails were deemed classified at the time they were sent or received. Clinton also was not willfully mishandling classified information. There would first have to be sufficient evidence pointing towards gross negligence on Clinton's part. So far, there has been no evidence found of Clinton willfully mishandling classified information. Setting up a secure private server with passwords and blocks is not committing negligence. There is a difference in leaving classified documents on a lunch table for anyone to read and having a secured private email server that, to your knowledge, the information on it will be secure and safe. So once again, Clinton did not commit negligence.
Violation of the 2009 Records Act:Section 1236.22 of the 2009 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements states that: “Agencies that allow employees to send and receive official electronic mail messages using a system not operated by the agency must ensure that Federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency record keeping system.” Well, Clinton did hand over 55,000 emails to the State Department for their records, and the FBI, as they continue their national security investigation, will continue to hand more of the deleted emails they discover over to the State Department that they see fit.
Therefore, in order for Clinton to be indicted there would have to be sufficient evidence needed to support the accusation that Clinton broke a statute. The U.S. attorney would need this evidence in order to hand it over to a federal grand jury, but there is no evidence of willful wrongdoing or willful breach of the system, the FBI has reported. Regardless of these facts and the facts that the Justice Department cleared Clinton of any wrongdoing many months ago, Republicans will continue to yield publicity on their creative effort in creating yet another faux scandal. Bernie supporters will join in on the faux scandal, and this too will pass, and Hillary will survive yet another attempt at destroying her.