Monday, September 28, 2015

It's been a bad Sunday and Monday for Hillary Clinton and her campaign --- AND --- Yes, it's largely about E-Mails


Cascading effect of E-mails and falling polls show Hillary Clinton and her campaign are beginning to totter

HRC's televised interviews show her arguably looking somewhat strong and confident  ---  but almost every new appearance adds more fuel to the fire growing at her feet

Yesterday's "Meet the Press" Hillary Clinton interview by Chuck Todd shows HRC all but throwing up her hands, as if to say "I can't say or do anything to make these problems go away...."  ---   In other words, Hillary's E-Mails scandals  [ there are many scandalous E-Mails problems for Hillary] have taken on a life of their own; and the stories are telling themselves with wider, deeper and more varied coverage by the main stream media

A perfect example is today's WaPo Fact Checker giving Hillary and her campaign THREE PINOCCHIOS for their adherence and push-back using a false timeline for the commencement  of the State Department's attempts to gain access to HRC's State Department E-mails, which had been on her private server



THE CHUCK TODD'S  "MEET THE PRESS" INTERVIEW OF HRC   

Mediaite gives this rather tepid and uninformative synopsis of the Todd-Clinton "Meet The Press" interview:  "Chuck Todd grilled Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press this morning about her transparency issues, email controversy, and her changing positions on multiple issues....  'Had every government agency head,' he said, 'did what did you at the State Department, there would be a lot of information that wasn’t in the public. Do you see that now as a problem as far as the public is concerned?'...   Clinton maintained that a large majority of emails she got and sent ended up in the government system, but still admitted in hindsight it was probably a mistake....   Todd confronted her about a number of discrepancies in what she’s said about the emails versus what’s come out publicly, and how despite her claim that it wasn’t a big deal to her at the time, 'to put an email server at your house was a complicated thing.'...”   ( See "Chuck Todd Grills Hillary on Email ‘Discrepancies,’ Changing Positions"  by Josh Feldman [with video link to whole "Meet The Pressa' Interview], 9/27/15, Mediaite [http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chuck-todd-grills-hillary-on-email-discrepancies-changing-positions/]).

NY TIMES ARTICLE FOCUSED ON HRC'S INABILITY TO EXPLAIN NEWLY DISCLOSED E-MAILS DUE TO HER LACK OF TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE  

Amy Chozick, who is one of the NY Times reporters  that regularly covers Hillary Clinton, focused on this:  "Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Sunday that she could not fully explain the discovery of a string of work emails sent from her personal account more than two months earlier than when she has said she began using that address as secretary of state. But she said she hoped that voters would look past what she called the “drip, drip, drip” of the furor over her emails....   'There was a transition period. You know, I wasn’t that focused on my email,' Mrs. Clinton said on NBC’s 'Meet the Press' when asked about emails sent from her personal account in her first two months after taking office in January 2009. She had previously said she did not begin using a clintonemail.com address for State Department business until that March....    The State Department said on Friday that Mrs. Clinton had exchanged emails in late January and February 2009 with Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the commander of the United States Central Command....   Pressed to explain the discrepancy, Mrs. Clinton said it was beyond her technical understanding...."   (See "Hillary Clinton Says She Cannot Explain Why Previously Undisclosed Emails Turned Up" by Amy Chozick, 9/27/15, NY Times/ First Draft [http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/09/27/hillary-clinton-says-she-cannot-explain-why-previously-undisclosed-emails-turned-up/?_r=0]).

The Chozick-Times piece continued along the same line with this:  "She said the clintonemail.com server had existed in the basement of her family’s home in Chappaqua, N.Y., for years before she added her account. 'It apparently took a little time to do that. And so there was about a month where I didn’t have everything already on the server, and we went back, tried to, you know, recover whatever we could recover,' she said. 'And I think it’s also fair to say that, you know, there are some things about this that I just can’t control.'...   'I am by no means a technical expert,' she added. 'I relied on people who were.'...    The issue of whether Mrs. Clinton has been forthcoming about when she began using the personal account – hdr22@clintonemail.com – is only the latest email-related question to distract from her policy positions and message during her presidential campaign...."

FALL-OUT OF THE TODD-CLINTON INTERVIEW AS TOLD BY NEWSBUSTERS 

A lot of this coverage has become a study in the media talking about what has been talked about  by Hillary.
                                                                             
The sort of snarky conservative blog NewsBusters put it this way:  "Don't put that popcorn-popper away just yet . . . On today's Morning Joe, Chuck Todd said he felt that in his Meet the Press interview of Hillary Clinton yesterday, she was signalling to her Dem supporters that there could be more damaging revelations to come on the email scandal. Todd was alluding to the moment in the interview in which Hillary agreed with his characterization of a 'drip, drip, drip' aspect to the scandal.  When Todd asked whether she could 'reassure Democrats that there's nothing else here," Hillary's answer was a very un-reassuring 'there's only so much I can control.'...   Hillary did get off a good laugh line, telling Todd she's providing 'more transparency and more information' than anyone else.  If the president thing doesn't work out, maybe a stand-up Vegas gig could be in Hillary's future...."   (See "Chuck Todd: Hillary Signaling More Email 'Stuff' Will Come Out"  by Mark Finkelstein, 9/28/15,  MRC NewsBusters [http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/09/28/chuck-todd%E2%80%94hillary-signalling-more-email-stuff-will-come-out]).

Especially notable was this exchange between Chuck Todd and the 'Morning Joe' panel:
WILLIE GEIST:  For people who didn't get a chance to sit down and watch the full interview with Hillary Clinton, we've been playing a lot of it this morning, what was your takeaway as you sat across from her?
TODD: I'm always a little hesitant to try to characterize your own interview.  Sometimes when you're involved in it --
GEIST: What new did you learn talking to her?
TODD: I guess I learned a couple of things. One is that she is not willing to say there's no more stuff that's going to come out. That I thought that she wanted to make it clear yesterday hey, more stuff could come out. There could be more revelations or there could be more charges. She said some of them could come from the Republicans, I think she was trying to politicize it a little bit, but she was basically, to me it was sending a signal to supporters, hey, maybe this doesn't go away but I'm trying to figure out how to handle it.
HAROLD FORD, JR.: But she did say that most of that if not all of that was out of her control.
TODD: Well that's what, right, that was another way of saying, hey, more stuff's going to come out: there's nothing I can do about it. A lot of people I think have come to her and say can't you just put everything out there that's out there and I think her argument is I don't know what's out there. I've already done what I can do."
Well, maybe that's part of Hillary's ongoing E-mails problem ---  but another part is what Hillary has  done and said about what has come out already.   A lot of what she and her campaign has told us about the E-mails just isn't true, like for example what follows.

THE WASHINGTON POST FACT CHECKER GIVES HILLARY AND HER CAMPAIGN THREE (3) PINOCCHIOS FOR HER STATE DEPARTMENT E-MAIL TIMELINE 

According to a report in today's Washington Post,  "...  [R]eaders have asked the Fact Checker to explore Clinton’s stated timeline about her dealings with the State Department about her private e-mail system. New questions have arisen in light of The Washington Post’s report that the State Department confirmed that the triggering event to seek Clinton’s e-mails was the congressional investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead....   Previously, the State Department had danced around this fact, despite a report in the New York Times on March 5 that quoted unnamed 'current and former officials' as saying 'it was the review of Benghazi-related documents last summer that, within the State Department, set off the chain of events leading to the public disclosure this week of Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email account.'... ( See "Hillary Clinton’s incomplete timeline on her personal e-mail account" by Glenn Kessler, 9/28/15, Washington Post/ Fact Checker [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/09/28/hillary-clintons-incomplete-timeline-on-her-personal-email-account/]).

The WaPo Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler  then asks this rhetorical question:   "Why is this important? Under the [Hillary Clinton] campaign’s preferred timeline, Clinton is not being singled out. She is simply one of several recent secretaries, rather than the secretary who exclusively used a private e-mail account for government business — and maintained a server for it in her New York home...."

The Kessler-WaPo Fact Checker article concludes with this:   "....   [Hillary] Clinton appears to be sticking to her timeline because it obscures the fact that she exclusively used a private e-mail for company business. If she had used a State Department e-mail, just as many other cabinet officials in the Obama administration used '.gov' addresses, it’s likely the State Department would not have had trouble responding to congressional requests. That’s why there are 'gaps in the record keeping.' ...    As part of Clinton’s effort to clear up questions about her e-mail set-up, Clinton should begin using a more complete timeline regarding her staff member’s dealings with the State Department on this matter. The current timeline is incomplete....     Three Pinocchios ...."

5 comments:

  1. UPDATE: THE "IT COMES DOWN TO WHAT HILLARY CLINTON MEANS WHEN SHE SAYS 'WE' " EDITION

    NOW HEAR THIS !!! NOW HEAR THIS !!!

    ACCORDING TO HILLARY'S "COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR," KAREN FINNEY, IT'S NOT INCONSISTENT TO SAY THAT HILLARY WENT THROUGH HER E-MAILS TO PICK OUT WHAT E-MAILS WERE WORK-RELATED OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS ON HER "PRIVATE" SERVER AND WHAT WAS "PRIVATE" --- AND NOW TO SAY THAT SHE DIDN'T PARTICIPATE IN THE PROCESS

    THIS MIGHT SOUND LUDICROUS TO THE AVERAGE PERSON --- BUT IT MIGHT BE ESSENTIAL FOR HILLARY CLINTON'S DEFENSE AGAINST CRIMINAL CHARGES OVER HER FAILURE TO PRODUCE CERTAIN E-MAILS


    Last Sunday Hillary Clinton executed a quick pivot during her interview with Chuck Todd that has not gotten as much attention as other things. She said: a) she wasn't thinking about E-mails when the so-called non-governmental E-mails system was set up on her private server, that was all done by technical people without her participation; and b) the process of selecting which E-mails were official public records and which were "private" was done by her attorneys without her participation. Those statements apparently contradict Hillary Clinton's narrative since her E-Mails became news back in March of this year.

    Now, HRC's "Communications Director" Karen Finney is telling everybody this isn't a contradiction of Hillary's earlier statements on those matters, because Hillary Clinton used the word "We" when describing who did those things.

    According to a report on Breitbart News, "Karen Finney, Senior Spokeswoman for Hillary for America stated that Clinton saying 'We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work-related emails' and stating that she 'did not participate' in the process of reviewing her emails is 'consistent' because 'she said "we" ' on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s 'The Lead with Jake Tapper.'... Host Jake Tapper played clips of Clinton saying, with regards to reviewing her emails and deleting personal ones, 'all I can tell you is that when my attorneys conducted this exhaustive process, I did not participate. I didn’t look at them.' On Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”... He then played Clinton’s remarks on March 10 at the UN, where she stated, 'We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work-related emails, and deliver them to the State Department. At the end, I chose not to keep my private, personal emails.' Tapper then played Clinton stating, 'So we went through a painstaking process, and turned over 55,000 pages of anything we thought could be work-related. Under the law, that decision is made by the official. I was the official. I made those decisions.'... Tapper then asked, 'was she involved, or not? And can you understand how these mixed messages might be feeding into these trustworthiness issues that she has with voters?'..." (See "CLINTON SPOX: HILLARY SAYING ‘WE WENT THROUGH’ EMAILS AND THAT SHE DIDN’T PARTICIPATE IS ‘CONSISTENT’ " by Ian Hatchett, 9/28/15, Breitbart News [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/09/28/clinton-spox-hillary-saying-we-went-through-emails-and-that-she-didnt-participate-is-consistent/]).

    Tapper also pressed Karen Finney about HRC's contradictory remarks about setting up the E-Mail system and private server.

    The Finney answers to Tapper's questions are a hoot .... I haven't included them because of space restraints; and this is just a comment and not a full post.

    BTW, this pivot or sudden change of narrative by the whole Clinton team is obviously not being done for "politics" -- it stinks and it keeps the whole E-mail story going. Instead, it's probably got more to do with heading-off criminal charges against HRC or setting up some kind of criminal defense if those charges do come down the pike.

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  2. Bill Clinton speaks tonight at 7 pm with CNN about how great the campaign is going followed by another 10% drop in the polls for Hillary.

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  3. to the above comment know it all before it happens person the CNN interview was stranger than you predicted. bill clinton said hes not involved with hrc campaign

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  4. UPDATE: THE "NPR SEEING RIGHT THROUGH HILLARY CLINTON'S LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT HER E-MAILS" EDITION

    YOU SEE, IT'S NOT JUST ME .... AN ARTICLE BY NPR & ON ITS BLOG SEES HRC'S LATEST COMMENTS AS ALL ABOUT POTENTIAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS AND LEGAL DEFENSES

    According to the folks at NPR [that bastion of the Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch and the rest of the vast "Right Wing Conspiracy"]: "The State Department is preparing to release another batch of Hillary Clinton's email messages Wednesday. It's the latest in what Clinton herself called a process of "drip drip drip" that will extend into early next year.... The email controversy has been causing the presidential hopeful a lot of political problems. But here's one reason the former secretary of state has been careful in how she responds to questions: The FBI is investigating the possible compromise of security information. So, when Clinton gets questions from reporters and voters about her emails, she's also talking to investigators...." (See "Hillary Clinton's 2 Audiences On Her Emails: Voters And Investigators" by Carrie Johnson, 9/30/15, NPR/ It's All Politics Blog[http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/09/30/444716743/hillary-clintons-2-audiences-on-her-emails-voters-and-investigators]).

    Carrie Johnson's article goes on to note the following: ".... Remember, Clinton is talking to two audiences: voters and investigators, and when it comes to avoiding subpoenas, lawyers will tell you, there's an important law passed in 2002 after the Enron scandal.... That law makes it a crime, obstructing justice, to get rid of documents in anticipation of an investigation by the Justice Department or Congress..or.." That's just one of the things HRC is looking-out for.

    The Johnson-NPR article then goes on to say this: ".... The FBI is investigating how and why sensitive information got onto her server. Clinton herself is not a target of the investigation. One issue that keeps coming up is whether that material was classified.... In August, Clinton told a Fox News reporter that none of the data had been marked.... 'Whether it was a personal account or a government account, I did not send classified material and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified which is the way you know whether something is,' she said.... From a legal standpoint, that response packed a punch. Knowledge matters in the law. In order to prosecute someone for mishandling classified information, the Justice Department needs to show a defendant knowingly violated the law — they knew the information was classified but went on to send it anyway...."

    Also, ".... In the past week, the State Department and the Defense Department said they have turned up new emails, messages apparently not shared with congressional investigators.... In August, as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, Clinton signed an affidavit. The sworn statement didn't say she turned over all the emails. Rather, the document said Clinton "directed" that messages that are or might be considered federal records be turned over to the State Department. Clinton said she believed that had happened as of last month.... Here's why this matters under the law. She said she didn't sift through them herself. Instead, she relied on lawyers to do that work, and reliance on attorneys, of course, is another legal defense...."

    And of course, this would be Carrie Johnson's concluding remark: ".... That may not be a coincidence. Hillary Clinton is a 1973 graduate of Yale Law School." To which I would only add this: "And she should know very well if she has a serious legal problem...."

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  5. Brooklyn GOP Chairman Arnaldo Ferraro immediately after winning election:

    "“Not to beat my own drum, but I’m one of the most qualified people ever to chair the Brooklyn Republican Party..."

    This is gonna be great!

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