Well, they say all good things must come to an end and for Republicans, it’s beginning to look like their favorite Anti-Hillary Clinton talking point is unraveling right before their eyes.
It seems they may have to actually focus on
the issues instead of obsessing over a manufactured scandal. (I’m kidding, of
course!)
At
first blush a new NBC News report seems like bad news for Clinton and her
campaign. Journalists seemed to confirm that her emails contained “references”
to CIA operatives who were conducting espionage overseas. Sounds bad, right?
Right-wing media outlets certainly wanted to pretend like it was. Conservatives gleefully began spreading the narrative that this meant Clinton’s servers could have led to American CIA agents getting killed. NewsMax, a cheap Fox News knockoff, blared:
U.S. intelligence officials say “top-secret” emails Hillary Clinton kept on her private email server when she headed the State Department include the real names of CIA spies serving undercover overseas — a violation of federal law that has put the agents in harm’s way…
The readers of NewsMax – and other right-wing sites – were led to believe
Hillary’s arrest was only moments away.
Nope,
not even close.
The
NBC News investigation found that this was a case of more smoke than fire and
quite a bit of wishful thinking on the part of conservatives. Here’s what they found instead (emphasis
added):
But contrary to some published reports, three officials said there was no email on Clinton’s server that directly revealed the identity of an undercover intelligence operative. Rather, they said, State Department and other officials attempted to make veiled references to intelligence officers in the emails — references that were deemed classified when the messages were being reviewed years later for public release.
Catch
the differences?
There
were absolutely no direct
references to the identities of undercover operatives. No “names” or
distinguishing characteristics. No way to know who the emails were referring
to. If a terrorist were to find these emails, they would be spectacularly
unhelpful.
Making
matters even stronger for Clinton’s case, the emails were only deemed
classified years later. At the
time she had them, they were considered mundane.
This
falls in line with what Clinton has been saying all along. She admits that
having the server at her house was a mistake, but it was never a criminal act,
and it ultimately put zero CIA agents at risk of any danger. The Republican
charges to the contrary are evaporating under scrutiny.
If this is all they have against her should
she receive the Democratic nomination, they are – without doubt – utterly
screwed.
Author Jameson
Parker covers US politics, social justice issues, and other current
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