Yup, this is a rather non-scandalous scandal. Haven’t had to reach for my smelling salts yet…
Wikileaks appears to be getting drowned out by other news and that will only continue with each passing day. The lack of a bombshell before now means that the occasionally embarrassing comments here and there get passed over by other stories such as the polling and the horse race itself. Unless there’s an email that says “We need to find a new hiding place for the Vince Foster murder weapon – HRC” then I don’t think there’s much to the individual emails, except for two things:
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The leaks in total keep Hillary’s name in the news for bad reasons and could have a cumulative effect over time.
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They will undoubtedly seriously strain relations between members of her team. She’s going to have a hell of a time figuring out what to do with John Podesta on November 9th. And you have to wonder, if someone feels like they’re getting screwed out a dream job, what leaks could they provide?
We’re getting ahead of ourselves though.
The GOP House is going to investigate Clinton no matter what because it’s what the GOP House does to pretend that it’s fighting for the common Republican voter. They didn’t need Podesta’s leaked emails to tie up the last six years in fruitless “investigation” witch hunts.
Issa went into his job gloating that he was going to bury the administration in subpoenas (he was quickly forced to walk that back and pretend that he was going to use the power very carefully). These aren’t people who need an excuse to spend millions on a partisan investigation.
This was allegedly while Hillary was Secretary of State?
This will be one nasty can of worms. Even her loyal supporters can see an obvious conflict of interest. It will eventually get investigated.
Fortunately most of the public seems to be ignoring this information. The election is taking center stage.
This is mostly playing out in the form of sensationalistic headlines in the usual right wing media outlets: Breitbart, Fox, Washington Times (not to be confused with the Post). I think most minds are made up. I think early voting will break records this year. People are ready for this to be done and I doubt minds change course. My one concern is what happens with Gary Johnson and Jill Stein voters in a state like Florida, which has been forgiving to Trump in spite of insulting much of the state’s demographics. A more realistic concern is how this plays out post-election.
That’s not a particularly bold prediction. Clinton’s breakfast habits are eventually going to get investigated. It doesn’t mean it’s not nonsense.
Let’s hope it’s not proven that the Secretary of State received payments (through her husband) and gifts like free vacations.
That could lead to impeachment. I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure the law frowns on this type of thing.
Donations to the Clinton Foundation are much different from alleged payments directly to the Clintons.
Let’s also hope that the lizard people from space don’t order her to destroy America.
You don’t see a conflict of interest in Bill receiving lucrative speaking deals and family vacations?
I understand a spouse can earn income. But they have to be very careful about any perceived conflict of interest. That’s always been a headache for politicians with a spouse that works.
I fail to see how anything the Foundation or the Clintons themselves have done are fundamentally different from anything that any of the would-be prosecutors have done. That politicians enjoy being in proximity to money and that contributions either to a PAC or some other money collecting mechanism on behalf of a careerist like Clinton essentially buys access is not “news”. It only matters if it’s blatantly, patently illegal, and I’m sure that lawyers have been hawking the Foundation to protect against willful violations of the law. Both of the Clintons are lawyers themselves. And it’s not like they just decided after years of fecklessness that Hillary was going to run for office and they’re just now trying to sweep years of indiscretions under the rug. She’s been carefully prepping for a run for a good two decades.
The only negative from this is that it earns the Clintons the moniker as the ultimate insiders, which is a deserved label. They’ve got nobody to blame for that one other than themselves. The Clintons have always tiptoed around the law and very close to the line on political ethics. There are consequences for that.
I think what he’s saying is that nobody in congress is fit to dredge this issue up, as they’re probably on the take themselves. One of the few times I agree with Marco Rubio: repubs ought to be very careful about cheering Wikileaks on. Maybe tomorrow Anonymous decides they want a piece of the action and start hacking GOP servers. Maybe some insiders get so fed up with GOP radicals they start leaking info the old fashioned way.
Tiptoe around the law. I like that phrase.
I don’t know if the Clinton’s crossed the ethical line or not. But they did know better than to give their political enemies this kind of opportunity.
I agree conflicts of interest are far too common in both political parties.
The wikileaks releases are nearly over? We’re 2 days from voting.
Reuters has the most neutral reporting of them. Summaries that can quickly read. I think they are useful for people that want to stay informed.
Here is the final weekend releases. Nothing head turning. There are undergoing concerns among the staff about use of Clinton Foundation money. Chelsea’s wedding allegedly received funds. I assume the use of Foundation funds will be looked at closely in 2017.
#PodestaEmails29
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rt.com/document/581c68e7c36188a76d8b45d2/amp?client=ms-android-motorola
#PodestaEmails30
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rt.com/document/581cf01ec4618849668b4699/amp?client=ms-android-motorola
#PodestaEmails31
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rt.com/document/581dab68c461880e528b462a/amp?client=ms-android-motorola
#PodestaEmails32
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rt.com/document/581f1ef1c36188e81c8b4598/amp?client=ms-android-motorola
Since wikileaks is no longer neutral, none of those are in any way reliable. They are known to edit the leaks to promote their agenda.
Worse, Wikileaks has permanently ruined their reputation as a whistle blower.