Tags
Ann Wagner, Billy Long, Emails, Jared Kushner, Mike Pence, missouri, Reince Priebus, Roy Blunt, Steve Bannon
I’m willing to bet that you remember all about Hillary Clinton and her email. And most of you remember that despite several “investigations” by Congress and the FBI nobody could substantiate claims that she did anything untoward – although James Comey, then the Director of the FBI, did give her a schoolmarmish lecture about seemly behavior or something along that line, and later made a feint in the direction of “reopening” the investigation upon the “discovery” of some additional emails that were also very quickly found to be inoffensive, but which many believe created a false impression of wrong-doing that cost Clinton the election.
I’m also willing to bet that you also remember all the Republicans who couldn’t constrain their concern about what they pretended to think was an earth-shaking matter, or, at least, what they wanted us to believe was a big bad no-no that deserved a serious hand-slapping. And, of course, Missouri’s GOP delegation were more than happy to join the feeding frenzy. A few examples:
Rep. Billly Long (R-7) got mightily exercised when the FBI investigation failed to find evidence of criminal wrongdoing:
The American people deserve better than a justice system that looks the other way rather than demanding honesty at federal agencies,” said Rep. Long.“Director Comey said point-blank that former Secretary Clinton recklessly stored and transmitted classified information, and it’s unthinkable that such brazen carelessness with our secret national security data could avoid justice.
GOP Senator Roy Bunt made some gleefully stern comments about Comey’s email Hail Mary :
From day one, it has been clear that Secretary Clinton did not take her national security clearance seriously,” […]. “The law establishes a standard that national security material cannot be handled carelessly. I have serious questions about the way the FBI has handled this case up to now. The immunity given, the potential evidence that was allowed to be destroyed, and political support for the spouse of a senior FBI official are all very concerning. The FBI needs to set a better standard as they reopen this case.”
Blunt’s over-the-top I-told-you-so was echoed by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2), who was fairly salivating at the prospect of seeing a hard-working public servant punished for … something:
Secretary Clinton’s reckless mishandling of classified information proves that she cannot be trusted with the support of Missouri families. I am hopeful that this most recent probe by the FBI will be conducted fairly, swiftly and more thoroughly than the previous investigation.
Well guess what? We now have an opportunity to see just how seriously these self-righteous hacks really take a similar case where private email accounts have been used by the President’s capos to avoid public scrutiny. We’ll find out just who, if anyone in Missouri’s GOP delegation, has enough integrity to hold the apple(s) of Trump’s eye to the same standard with which they beat Hillary Clinton over the head.
It seems that son-in-law-in-chief and presidential advisor, Jared Kushner, set up a private email account during the transition upon which he has since conducted official business in preference to his official White House account. We are assured that while he used the account to exchange “emails with senior White House officials, outside advisers and others about media coverage, event planning and other subjects,” he did nothing wrong. Of course, we’ll just have to take the White House’s word about that since the folks there aren’t inclined to hand the emails over. And we’re also supposed to trust their assurances that these emails will be preserved as required by law.
Gee, if Clinton had only known that all she had to do was to say that she’d done nothing wrong she could have saved herself a world of hurt. Or maybe not. Clinton is a Democrat. And a woman. And smarter and kinder than the sleaze bag Republicans put into the White House. All hanging offenses to the members of the old, white, male cadre the GOP mostly represents.
Actually, use of private emails seems to be ubiquitous in Trump’s White House. Next time he tries to revive the “lock her up” business, remember that in addition to Kushner, White House officials Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon also used private email accounts to conduct their business.
Of course, we’ve known for some time that VP Mike Pence not only used private email to conduct state business in Indiana, but was actually hacked. Pence, interestingly enough, said nary a word about his transgressions during the campaign when he and Cheeto-in-Chief went off on Clinton’s emails.
But no matter. Because nowadays, given the way the cookie crumbles, the ball bounces, the mop flops, and the tail wags, we’ll wait a long time before we hear a peep from our otherwise truculent Republicans about private emails being used to evade the attention of a public that said GOPers and the Ritchie Rich-pants in the white House are determined to well and truly fleece.
We need to remind them that Karma’s a bitch, the wheel of fortune turns, and the handwriting is on the wall.
