As several have pointed out on Twitter, the problem for the Democrats here with regard to this article on Hillary Clinton’s email scandal is that you’re reading it on Vice.com:
Jason [Leopold] is the guy who sued the State Department for access to Clinton’s emails earlier this year, and continues to be one of the best people to turn to for up-to-the-minute coverage of the scandal. He has a whole community of avid readers who care about what he abbreviates the “HRC emails.”So when Sanders implored American voters—and journalists—to just drop the email subject altogether, I thought I’d ask Jason for his take.
Now that I’ve had this conversation, I care a whole hell of a lot about the damn emails. Read what he had to say, and maybe you will too.
Basically, Jason Leopold takes the position that, based on the emails that we’ve seen – and that Hillary Clinton flagrantly broke the law to try to keep away from FOIA scrutiny – the woman was a blithering idiot as Secretary of State and incompetent, to boot. And what makes this a genuine scandal for him is not the content* as the sense of… entitlement? Privilege? Sheer undeserved arrogance? …that made Hillary Clinton decide that rules were for other people.
And, again: when people like me say this, the Democrats will attempt to shrug it off. When people who are not me – i.e., people who are partisan Republicans – say this, well, that’s a complication for the Democrats. Because ignoring the fact that ordinary people are deciding that Hillary Clinton is an untrustworthy liar won’t actually make that issue go away for the Democrats. It will merely make that issue fester for a while, and then erupt at an inconvenient moment.
Which is awesome. Just so we’re clear on that.
Moe Lane
*He and I disagree on how bad the content is, but I’ll forgive him that, because I’m pretty sure that Jason Leopold would agree that an indictment is justifiable in this case. I don’t really care if he took the scenic route to get to that point: the important thing is that he arrived.