Yet again, Hillary Clinton’s campaign dominated the Sunday Shows. And yet again, not in a good way. Reactions to Clinton’s first national television interview since announcing her campaign were abundant, as it did not go as well as Team Clinton had hoped. Check out a rundown of critical reviews below.
Vox’s Jonathan Allen said Clinton’s interview was actually “terrible” and she continued to be extremely evasive on “questions of substance.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” John King debunks Clinton’s answer about never having a subpoena for her emails as “just simply not true.”
Also on CNN, Brianna Keilar, who interviewed Clinton, said she was “surprised” that Clinton did not show more contrition about all the scandals plaguing her campaign. Keilar then went on to also say that Clinton’s answers about her emails did not pass fact checks.
And on ABC’s “This Week,” Cokie Roberts summed up Clinton’s performance by saying Clinton “is not on her game in these interviews.”
Yesterday, the American Federation of Teachers endorsedHillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. The endorsement came as no surprise to anyone, despite AFT’s attempts to appear fair in its endorsement process by meeting with several Democrat candidates, including Clinton her challengers – Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.
In addition to AFT endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2008, the Clintons have been close to AFT and its president, Randi Weingarten, for years. AFT has donated $1.1 million to the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative since 2011. Weingarten herself sits on the board of the Pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA, and worked closely with Hillary Clinton while she served as Senator from New York. Weingarten also praised Bill Clinton as the “education President of the last century.”
Today, Barack Obama’s nominee to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said “Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security” and said Russia’s behavior is “nothing short of alarming.”
This statement is astounding, especially since President Obama’s 2012 campaign attacked Mitt Romney for saying Russia was our main geopolitical foe, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called Russia an ally:
In a recent interview with CNN, Hillary Clinton stated that “everything I did was permitted” regarding her handling of her State Department emails. Washington Post Fact Checkers dug into this claim and here is what they found:
Regulations Were Put In Place While She Was Secretary of State
In 2009, just eight months after Clinton became secretary of state, the U.S. Code of federal regulations on handling electronic records was updated: “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.”
Clinton’s system though did not allow for her emails to be easily preserved because “her practice made it difficult to locate records in response to specific requests, because Clinton’s e-mail would be in another official’s inbox — but would not exist in the federal system as part of Clinton’s outbox.”
She Even Told Her Staff To Not Use Private Emails
On top of that, when Clinton was secretary, a cable went out under her signature warning employees to “avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts.”
Clinton Ignored Directives from The Foreign Service Manual
The Foreign Affairs Manual made it clear that before a senior official (such as a Senate-confirmed presidential appointee) departs government service, he or she must prepare an inventory of personal papers that are proposed for removal. The manual states that “correspondence or e-mail received or sent in an employee’s capacity as a Department official is not personal.”
It is now apparent that Secretary Clinton blatantly disregarded these directives. Instead she chose to keep her emails for nearly two years before turning them over to the State Department.
Final Conclusion: Three Pinocchios
In reality, Clinton’s decision to use a private e-mail system for official business was highly unusual and flouted State Department procedures, even if not expressly prohibited by law at the time. Moreover, while she claims “everything I did was permitted,” she appears to have not complied with the requirement to turn over her business-related e-mails before she left government service. That’s a major misstep that she has not acknowledged.
Hillary Clinton got in trouble this week when she lied about receiving a subpoena regarding emails on her private server.
Fact checkers are already blasting Clinton for the remark that she “never” received a subpoena, but a trip down memory lane reveals this isn’t the first time Clinton has been subpoenaed.
In fact, Hillary Clinton made history when she was the first First Lady to be called before a grand jury in 1996 regarding her role in the Whitewater scandal. From January of 1996, the New York Times reports:
Mrs. Clinton has already answered questions from Mr. Starr under oath three times about other areas of the inquiry. But this is the first time that she will appear before a grand jury. Indeed, White House officials said they believed it was the first time that any First Lady had been called before a grand jury.
TIME Magazine notes that the subpoena was delivered to Clinton at the White House on a Friday, and was designed to shed light on “the mystery surrounding the discovery of her Whitewater billing records.”
This 1996 subpoena just serves as another reminder that regardless of the issue, people involved or decade, the Clintons are constantly at the center of scandal.
Hillary Clinton and her campaign went to great lengths a few months ago to demonstrate exactly how “cheap” they were. The idea was this: get stories written about how frugal Clinton’s campaign is so Clinton’s 2008 donors won’t feel burned again by her lavish spending.
Earlier this month, former Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod claimed he did not know that Hillary Clinton had a private email:
However, two new emails show that Axelrod actually emailed Clinton on her private server. On both June 25, 2009 and July 26, 2009, Axelrod sent messages to Clinton’s private email account:
Yesterday, the State Department released 3,000 emails from Hillary Clinton’s private sever.
The New York Times Michael Schmidt reported that the State Department had to go back and classify about two dozen of Clinton’s emails, despite claims that the former-sectary hadn’t sent any emails that would be considered sensitive.
Politico is reporting that Hillary Clinton is meeting privately with labor leaders in DC in a couple weeks.
What will the meeting entail? Who knows! It’s secret.
In recent weeks, Clinton has had run-ins with labor leaders over her positions—or lack thereof—on trade and the minimum wage. Clinton has refused to endorse President Obama’s Pacific trade deal, despite advocating for it as Secretary of State. And on the minimum wage, Clinton has endorsed the efforts of those fighting for the $15 minimum wage, but not the $15 minimum wage itself.
Hillary loves Liz. Liz loves Bernie. No one loves Hillary.
Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton penned a love letter to Elizabeth Warren in TIME Magazine’s “Top 100 Leaders” issue. Clinton laid it on thick, saying Warren “fights so hard for others to share in the American Dream because she lived it herself.”
Warren, given many, many opportunities to return the favor, has never done so. Last fall when she was asked if Clinton was her Party’s “best choice” for president, Warren dodged.
And when asked if she differs with Clinton on key issues, Warren said Clinton needed to clarify her position on trade.
