ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Hillary Clinton has a hard time being honest.
“What I did was allowed by the State Department but it wasn’t the best choice,” Mrs. Clinton said in an October presidential debate, regarding the set-up of her personal email server while serving as secretary of State. “And I’ve been as transparent as I know to be.”
Which, according to the State Department’s inspector general, isn’t very transparent.
Mrs. Clinton and her top staff refused to cooperate with the IG investigation, not even granting them an interview. On Wednesday, the IG concluded Mrs. Clinton failed to seek approval for her use of a private server and violated the department’s record-keeping policies, contrary to Mrs. Clinton’s narrative for the past year.
In another effort to spin, Mrs. Clinton’s team released another half-truth.
“The inspector general documents just how consistent her email practices were with those of other secretaries and senior officials at the State Department who also used personal email,” Brian Fallon, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign spokesman said in a statement.
Which is complete baloney.
No other secretary of State had a private email server set up in their basement.
Then came the right-wing conspiracy.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Fallon appeared on Fox News, saying he’s read some reports that suggest the State IG had ties to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, suggesting it was all a set-up.
In January, after reports said some emails on Mrs. Clinton’s home-brewed email server weren’t just classified, but were more than top-secret, Mrs. Clinton’s team replied: “It is alarming that the intelligence community [IG], working with Republicans in Congress, continues to selectively leak materials in order to resurface the same allegations and try to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.”
Playing the victim is signature Clinton.
Which takes us to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Without getting too into it, after the story broke in early 1998, President Bill Clinton said: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time.”
Both of those claims were proven false.
Story Continues →
