About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

But Her Emails...
Author: BobR    Date: 02/08/2018 15:07:31

During the 2016 election campaign, the drumbeats were relentless: "her emails!", referring to Hillary Clinton's practice of using a private email server - which was legal at the time, and done by her predecessors as well - for conducting state business. The crux of it was that a few classified emails slipped through, all but three of which were not marked as classified, and 3 which contained a small "c" in parenthesis that either she didn't notice or did not realize what it meant.

It was a modern example of a witch hunt. The FBI cleared her of any wrongdoing, but that wasn't enough for the Republicans. They kept having investigations and hearings, dragging her through them all. It was, as they say, a big "nothing-burger". It was, however, likely enough to keep her from winning the electoral votes she needed to secure a win in the race.

Based on all of this, one would rightly assume that Republicans are VERY concerned about the safety and security of our classified information, and would want to pursue anyone who was careless with it. One would think... but of course we are talking about the Republican party, where hypocrisy is a way of life.

Last year, tRump invited the Russian ambassador into the Oval Office for a private meeting where he disclosed sensitive classified information regarding ISIS:
President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

[...]

One day after dismissing Comey, Trump welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — a key figure in earlier Russia controversies — into the Oval Office. It was during that meeting, officials said, that Trump went off script and began describing details of an Islamic State terrorist threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft.

For almost anyone in government, discussing such matters with an adversary would be illegal. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law.

This past week, there was a big dust up regarding White House aid Rob Porter, and accusations he has a woman-beating problem. His current girlfriend - White House Communications Director Hope Hicks - was tasked with writing the press release defending him (which added a certain salaciousness to it all - something the media loves to run with). Lost in all the #MeToo discussions was the revelation that he never got a proper security clearance:
Whatever the case, and whether this was emotion or calculation, it is remarkable just how wrong the White House got this one. Reports indicate that Porter never received a full security clearance, despite his high-ranking role as staff secretary — a gatekeeper serving closely alongside Kelly. The reason is that both ex-wives told the FBI during background interviews that he was abusive.

If how this was handled is true, it's an indictment of how the White House handled Porter's entire employment and an even bigger indictment of the staff's initial reactions to the news Tuesday. It's tough to believe nobody was asking questions about why Porter hadn't received a full security clearance.

This is only two examples of tRump being cavalier with classified information with regards to who got access to it. Had tRump been a Democrat, do you think the Republicans in Congress (and FOX "News") would be ignoring it?

But her emails, though...

 
 

26 comments (Latest Comment: 02/08/2018 22:55:37 by livingonli)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati