Bill Clinton mostly escaped criticism this week after meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which caused major optical problems for an Obama administration that may be struggling with how to handle a possible indictment recommendation for Hillary Clinton over her private email system.
Republicans and the media have focused on Lynch’s judgment for agreeing to the meeting, since she is overseeing the ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton. By Friday, there were calls for her to recuse herself from the investigation, and even Democrats who criticized the meeting focused on Lynch.
“I think she should have said, ‘Look, I recognize you have a long record of leadership on fighting crime, but this is not the time for us to have that conversation,'” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told CNN. “‘After the election is over, I’d welcome your advice.'”
Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump did assail Bill Clinton during a talk radio interview Thursday. “You see a thing like this and, even in terms of judgment, how bad of judgment is it for him or for her to do this? Who would do this?” he asked host Mike Gallagher.
But Trump quickly turned the episode into a way to attack Hillary Clinton.
“As Bernie Sanders said, Hillary Clinton has bad judgement [sic],” he tweeted Friday. “Bill’s meeting was probably initiated and demanded by Hillary!”
Obama ignored questions shouted from reporters as he discussed the Zika virus Friday morning, and his spokesman tried to avoid the issue. Still, when questions were asked, most were asked about Lynch.
“Do you agree with the attorney general that having that meeting was not a good idea now?” a reporter asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest during his daily briefing Friday.
“She said she understood that the meetings have ‘cast’ a shadow on the investigation. Do you think that now that shadow has lifted, that she has gone far enough?” another reporter inquired. Earnest dodged all these questions and refused to admit the meeting was a mistake.
Labor Secretary Tom Perez seemed to let Bill Clinton off the hook by saying it’s just Bill being Bill.
“It was a chance meeting at the airport,” he told NBC on Friday. “And anyone who knows Bill Clinton knows that if he runs into someone at the airport, by chance, he’s going to come up and say hello to them.”
Lynch has since said she wouldn’t speak with Clinton again, even if the former president sauntered over to her plane on the Phoenix tarmac.
President Obama so far has been mum on the propriety of Clinton’s decision to chat Lynch up.
