Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Controversy Over Clinton's Use of Personal Email

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a press conference at the United Nations in New York 10 March 2015


During her time as secretary of state, Hilary Clinton exclusively used a private, nongovernmental email account. Clinton explains her acts, stating “I thought using one device would be simpler; obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way".  Now, some question if she has breached federal records rules, as the correspondence of officials is considered to be property of the US government. Clinton and her lawyers sorted through the approximately 60,000, deciding that about half of them were personal.The state department will release the 55,000 pages of work-related emails that Clinton requested be made public. However, the other half deemed personal were later deleted. Clinton maintains that she complied with all governmental rules, although still refuses to release any private emails that were mixed in with the work-related emails. Clinton is now seen as a top contender for the 2016 Democratic nomination, and is expected to announce a run for president in the near future. Do you believe that there was a lack of transparency in Clinton's actions or was it a genuine mistake? Should she be forced to be more open with the public with the emails? Did she handle the situation well, or wait to long to address the concerns over this controversy?

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2 comments:

Kelsey O'Donnell said...

I think that the press is making a huge deal out of this "scandal" when really it's nothing. You always begin to see such scandals about politicians before they are about to run for office, especially for the highest one, the president. There are a lot of people who don't want to see Hilary in office whether it's her connection (marriage) to former president Bill Clinton, the fact that she's a woman, or her very democratic policies. It can be complicated to have more than one email so I understand where Hilary is coming from with that defense and I don't think that this "mistake" really is one. She has never had any issues with lack of transparency or breach of code before so what I think this is is merely people looking for dirt to try and knock her down before she even has a chance.

Unknown said...

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/nsy1a2/on-her-majesty-s-secret-server

Do the emails matter? Half were deleted at Hilary's discretion, so we'll likely never know. Does it matter that the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic party's presidential ticket doesn't think rules apply to her? Absolutely.

The situation was handled horribly, and "convenience" is about the worst excuse imaginable. Is it being overblown? Perhaps-- but this will help build the narrative of a young(er), more principled Republican (Walker, Paul, etc.) against a long-time political hack with entitlement issues.