Hillary Clinton Nails Republicans For Desperately Grasping At Email Scandal

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:44 pm

Hillary Clinton nailed Republicans for their increasing desperation and dependence on the bogus email scandal to try to win back the White House.

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Transcript via ABC’s This Week:
STEPHANOPOULOS: — your supporters including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, and Senator Feinstein herself, has suggested it’s political.

Is that what you think?

CLINTON: Well, it’s — I’m going to leave that to others who are quite experienced in the ways of Washington to comment on. I just have to point out that the timing and some of the leaks that have led up to it are concerning.

And I just want this matter resolved. The best way to resolve is to do what I asked months ago, release these, let the public see them and let’s move on.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you’ve said many times that the emails were not marked classified. No evidence that that’s not true.

But the non-disclosure agreement you signed as secretary of state said that that really is not that relevant. It says classified information is marked or unmarked classified and that all of your training to treat all of that sensitively and should know the difference.

CLINTON: Well, of course. And that’s exactly what I did. I take classified information very seriously. You know, you can’t get information off the classified system in the State Department to put onto an unclassified system, no matter what that system is.

We were very specific about that and you — when you receive information, of course, there has to be some markings, some indication that someone down the chain had thought that this was classified and that was not the case.

The final thing I would say because clearly the best answer to all of this is release and disclose these materials is that what I’m told is that this chain of emails very well included a published newspaper report. That seems a little hard to understand, that we would be retroactively over classifying a public newspaper article.

So let’s just get it out. Let’s see what it is and let the American people draw their own conclusions. This is very much like Benghazi, George. You know, the Republicans are going to continue to use it, beat up on me. I understand that. That’s the way they are.

But after 11 hours of testimony, answering every single question, in public, which I have requested for many months, I think it’s pretty clear they’re grasping at straws and this will turn out —

Former Sec. Clinton’s answer revealed why the Republican email scandal is going nowhere. The Republican insistence on talking about emails instead of real issues is a distraction tactic that is going to come back to haunt them in the general election.

If Republicans had anything incriminating in Hillary Clinton’s emails, they would have plastered it all over the media. The reality is that there is no evidence that Clinton did anything wrong, so Republicans are trying to imply that she did something wrong. Former Sec. Clinton was correct. For Republicans, her emails are nothing more than a campaign talking point.

Republicans are desperately casting about for a scandal because they know that if Donald Trump or Ted Cruz faces Hillary Clinton in November, Democrats will keep the White House.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association