Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton “relies on excessively technical and legalistic answers to explain her actions” as she did Sunday in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, answering questions about her email scandal in such a way that compelled the Washington Post Fact Checker to give her “Four Pinocchios.”
That’s not a good thing. It’s the highest number of marks against Clinton’s candor about a scandal that she may have barely escaped by the skin of her celebrity status.
Recent polls show a majority of Americans disagreed with the FBI’s decision not to recommend charges against Clinton over the email case.
Here’s what the WaPo’s Fact Checker said:
Clinton is cherry-picking statements by (FBI Director James) Comey to preserve her narrative about the unusual setup of a private email server. This allows her to skate past the more disturbing findings of the FBI investigation…
“…While Comey did say there was no evidence she lied to the FBI, that is not the same as saying she told the truth to the American public — which was the point of Wallace’s question. Comey has repeatedly not taken a stand on her public statements.
“And although Comey did say many emails were retroactively classified, he also said that there were some emails that were already classified that should not have been sent on an unclassified, private server. That’s the uncomfortable truth that Clinton has trouble admitting.”
The interview with Clinton may be viewed here.
Clinton seems to have a history of telling tales, whether they have to do with dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, or trying to help a wheelchair-bound youngster in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The New Bedford story was part of her acceptance speech last week in Philadelphia, and yesterday’s Boston Herald carried a story in which officials in that community said was not true.
In her speech, Clinton also observed, about GOP nominee Donald Trump, “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”
But that could easily backfire if Republicans quote Comey’s statement to Congress: “Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
To which the GOP could add, “Someone that careless with highly classified information is not someone we can trust with nuclear weapons.”
