Last week Hillary Clinton agreed to turn over the controversial private email server housing thousands of emails to the Department of Justice. During her time as secretary of state, Clinton used a private server for her emails rather than using the federal government servers. This act may seem innocent at first, but it came under scrutiny when it was discovered that some of those emails discussed “Top Secret” matters, which violates federal law. According to The New York Times, “the inspector general for the intelligence community told members of Congress that Mrs. Clinton had ‘top secret’ information – the highest classification of government intelligence – in two emails among the 40 from the private account that the State Department has allowed him to review.” With Clinton as the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, this scandal could create a damaging effect on her campaign.

Previous rumors of Clinton being untrustworthy have clouded her campaign, and this controversy only intensifies those claims. What makes Clinton look even worse is the fact that she deleted the emails before turning the server over. Clinton’s campaign claims that the candidate did not delete any emails while facing a subpoena. According to FactCheck.org, that may be technically true, due to the fact that she may have deleted the emails before receiving the subpoena; regardless, the emails were deleted to cover her tracks.

Clinton has made several defenses and claims to protect herself and her campaign throughout this controversy. She has taken the position that she complied with department policy because most of her work emails went to government employees at their government addresses; therefore, they should be captured and preserved on the State Department’s system. This claim has been refuted, however, as—according to Jason R. Baron, a former director of litigation at the National Archives—“very few federal agencies have implemented an automated system for archiving email.” Clinton also claims that previous secretaries of state did the same exact thing; however, there is no evidence that any previous secretary of state sent and received emails on a private server.

While campaigning most recently at the Iowa State Fair, Clinton dismissed the controversy as a partisan issue. She continuously pushes that the emails in question were not classified and that she followed all laws regarding the use of the personal email server and account.

At the fair, Clinton said, “I won’t get down in the mud with them. I won’t play politics with national security or dishonor the memory of those we lost. I won’t pretend this is anything other than what it is: the same old partisan games we’ve seen so many times before.”

It is not partisan games, however, when Democratic government leaders are questioning and asking for emails. With government affairs and the horrific incident at Benghazi, Clinton needs to be honest about the server. Voters will respect her more if she owns up to her mistakes, rather than blaming partisanship and creating excuses. By blaming partisanship, she is only increasing the riff between the two political parties instead of working to unite them.

What’s even sadder about this whole fiasco is the history that is lost from those deleted emails. What we could have learned through those emails from Clinton’s triumphs and mistakes is now deleted due to Clinton working to protect her political image. She put herself first regarding the server versus the mistake she made and owning up to it. Does that seem presidential to you?

Clinton’s campaign has been and will continue to be clouded by the scandal. While she may be arguing her points and visions for her term as our nation’s president, she will also have to be on the defense regarding thousands of emails as well as testify in October. She will continue to blame Republicans, and I doubt she will ever own up to what she did, casting a cloud of doubt over her campaign. Voters will continue to doubt her trustworthiness, and as this drags on, other presidential contenders may throw their hats in the arena. Joe Biden and Al Gore have been rumored to consider running for president, and Bernie Sanders has taken the lead in a few polls. The Democratic Party are nervous—as they should be—that this could ruin their frontrunner.

Only time will tell what will happen to Clinton and what will come from her turning over the email server. It could be simply a little blimp in her campaign or an atom bomb. I think the best lesson to learn from Clinton’s email mistakes is this: Always use your work email. Always.