At a rally in Greenville, North Carolina on Tuesday, Donald Trump told thousands of faithful supporters that Hillary Clinton was unfit to sit in the Oval Office. Referencing the FBI’s bombshell report that summarized the investigation into the former secretary of state’s email scandal, Trump unleashed some of his harshest criticism yet.
“It’s clear from the FBI report that Hillary Clinton lied about her handling of confidential information,” he said. “This is like Watergate, but worse.”
The FBI report, released to the public last Friday, made it even harder for objective observers to understand how Clinton escaped the claws of justice. Among other revelations, we learned that Clinton used at least 13 mobile devices during her four-year stint at the top of the State Department, none of which were found by the FBI.
“Who uses 13 different iPhones in four years?” Trump asked. “People who have nothing to hide don’t destroy phones with hammers. People who have nothing to hide don’t bleach their emails or destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required by federal law.”
Trump pointed out a not-so-funny bit of irony about Clinton’s aspirations: The presidency might be the only executive-branch job she could possibly hold.
“If she applied for a low-level job at the State Department today, she couldn’t even get a security clearance based on what she’s done,” he said.
And really, doesn’t that say it all right there? Clinton won’t have to pass a background check to become president, and that’s a good thing, because there’s not a chance in hell that she could pass it. Well, not without some shady dealings, which we can never rule out when it comes to Hillary Clinton.
In a sense, though, she must pass the ultimate background check: The watchful eye of the American people. And while most of us don’t go to vote with a strict checklist of federal security standards in our pocket, anyone paying attention can clearly see that this woman has no business handling classified information. Not anymore. Second chances are all well and good, but we’re not deciding whether or not to send her to prison. We’re not even thinking about putting her back in charge of the State Department. We’re being asked to make her the most powerful woman in the free world – the premier example of a politician failing upwards.
The only halfway-reasonable defense of Hillary Clinton’s actions is to “excuse” her as merely incompetent.
That might work to keep her on the right side of a prison cell, but it’s damn sure not enough to put her in the White House.
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