There is a from The Hill today which cites some democratic strategists as being very, very concerned with the ongoing saga over Hillary Clinton’s email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. In recent days, the Clinton campaign has decided to turn over the entire server to the Justice Department for an ongoing investigation into whether she was passing top secret information over her personal email server in violation of federal law.
Report from The Hill:
Democrats are worried that the furor over Hillary Clinton’s private email server will be prolonged and intensified after her sudden move to hand it to the FBI.
The Clinton campaign’s decision to give up the server and a thumb-drive containing back-up copies of emails left Democrats scratching their heads as to why the former secretary of State had resisted turning over the server for months.
Coupled with new polls that suggest Clinton is vulnerable, Democrats are nearing full-on panic mode.
“I’m not sure they completely understand the credibility they are losing, by the second,” said one Democratic strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At some point this goes from being something you can rationalize away to something that becomes political cancer. And we are getting pretty close to the cancer stage, because this is starting to get ridiculous.”
“Look, this is a classic example of the cover-up being ten times worse than the so-called crime — though in this case there wasn’t a crime,” said another progressive strategist.
“The culture of secrecy that has surrounded the Clintons — understandably in some cases — has now yielded a situation where she did something that wasn’t necessary and looks nefarious.”
The former secretary of State remains the odds-on favorite the win the party’s presidential nomination. But the pattern seen in the email controversy — months of stonewalling followed by an eventual concession — has stoked worries about her flaws as a candidate.
The slew of unimpressive poll numbers is exacerbating the situation. Some have shown slippage against her main left-wing rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Others have indicated her losing swing states against possible Republican opponents. Still others have revealed continuing weakness in her ratings on trustworthiness and favorability.
Is it really “panic mode?” That I’m not sure. We’re in the doldrums of August so the news is slow and reporters are reaching for stories. The panic mode on this will only begin if it becomes a bi-partisan issue and Democrats, such as Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley, also start attacking Hillary on the matter.
If the FBI turns up some incriminating evidence on the server, then all bets are off. However, assuming the server simply helps to backup what Hillary has already claimed, and the attacks only come from the Republican side of the aisle, then this issue may not amount to much.
Bottom line, it’s still ongoing and will dog the Clinton campaign for a while until it is resolved enough to get it out of the spotlight. I have to believe she would not have turned over the server if she thought there was evidence on it which would lead to an indictment or escalate the situation.
