With her private email server now in the FBI’s hands, Hillary Clinton is playing defense. The Democratic front-runner’s team insists she has done nothing some of her Republican opponents haven’t already done.
Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri broke with the usual practice of not talking to supporters about Clintons scandals and sent a long message about the email affair, beginning, “There’s a lot of misinformation, so bear with us; the truth matters on this.”
“Hillary didn’t send any classified materials over email,” Palmieri said. “Hillary only used her personal account for unclassified email. No information in her emails was marked classified at the time she sent or received them. She viewed classified materials in hard copy in her office or via other secure means while traveling, not on email.”
The Clinton campaign tried to play up the complexity of the matters at hand. It is “common” for information that used to be considered unclassified to be marked classified before release to the public, the campaign explained. Additionally, different government agencies disagree about what’s considered classified.
Clinton also wants to make her use of a private server look normal, by comparing her actions to other candidates’ use of private servers. The campaign has repeatedly called out Scott Walker’s use of email during his time as governor of Wisconsin. Palmieri notes that Jeb Bush also used a private server, and his staff decided which emails to turn over as work-related vs. private. She argued “it’s worth noting” that Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry also had what she described as “email issues.”
The campaign is unwilling to concede that there is anything to the email concerns aside from partisan politics, saying “this kind of nonsense comes with the territory,” and that Clinton is “ready” to engage her Republican foes.
On the road, the campaign has kept Clinton’s frequently appearing scandals quiet, by keeping any remarks on the subject short, emphasizing her compliance in the process and making he actions seem as normal as possible. While on a campaign stop in New Hampshire in July, Clinton reiterated that her use of private email wasn’t so different than what other in politicians have done.
“I’m glad that so many of the inaccuracies and the accusations have been cleared up in the past week, because I do want people to understand that this was something that others have done, and I did it, and when I was asked to help with the record keeping in the State Department I gave over 55,000 pages to make sure they had everything they needed, and now I’d be happy to have the public see them too,” Clinton stated.
While her emails lie in the hands of the FBI, Clinton is set to testify before the Benghazi select committee. Her campaign chugs along as normal, so far worrying about Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders only in New Hampshire. Republican candidates continue to condemn her use of a private email server and bash her handling of the situation. But with over six months to the first primary, Clinton’s campaign is counting on on the average voter not paying close enough attention to change their opinion of the former secretary of state.
“It’s gray, so there a lot of room for Republicans to attack her on it, and there’s a lot of room for people in the Clinton camp to say ‘No, no, no, there’s nothing here,'” claimed one Washington Democrat. “So we’re going to have endless fights over this the next 18 months, endless.”
