Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville said Monday that the scandal involving Hillary Clinton and her use of an unauthorized personal email account when she served as secretary of state is merely the latest in never-ending series of “right-wing” inspired distractions.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush “did the same thing!” he said in response to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell asking whether he thinks Clinton should address her use of a personal email account.
“Do you remember Whitewater? Do you remember Filegate? Do you remember Travelgate? Do you remember Pardongate? Do you remember Benghazi? All of this is just the same cockamamie stuff that we go through,” the former Clinton adviser added, referencing the many scandals associated with the Clinton name.
To date, the former first lady has only touched on the subject lightly, saying in a 130-character tweet: “I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.”
Carville later accused the New York Times, which first broke the story of the former secretary of state’s personal email last week, of being complicit in a conspiracy to distribute “right-wing talking points.”
“It’s all about nothing!” he said.
Mitchell pushed back, challenging Carville’s characterization of the scandal as being little more than a “right-wing” conspiracy meant to smear the Clintons.
Backing her suggestion that there may be more to the story than Carville realizes, and circling back to her earlier question about whether Clinton should address the issue, Mitchell noted that none other than Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has stated publicly that the former secretary of state needs to answer questions regarding her unauthorized use of a likely comprised “homebrew” email sever.
“This is the same thing – Andrea, I’ve lived through this. What happened to Foulgate? What happened to Travelgate? What happened to Pardongate? What happened to Benghazi? You can go find a Democrat that says anything. My point is, this was legal in accordance with regulations. Colin Powell and Jeb Bush did the same thing. So I just don’t see — I’m not going to — I don’t see the deal here,” Carville said.
Mitchell noted that when Clinton was confirmed as secretary of state, she “accepted a certain set of rules,” including rules dictating that she and her foundation would accept no contributions from foreign governments. And like Clinton’s use of an authorized personal email account, it appears that the potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate failed to live up to the standards she accepted when she took the top job at Foggy Bottom.
Carville laughed, falling back on his claim that both politicos and the press are using a double-standard by not applying the same set of rules to both the Clintons and Republicans, including Jeb Bush and Colin Powell.
“The press, which took right-wing talking points … where do you think the email story came from?” he asked after diverting a bit to ding former Vice President Dick Cheney for the Iraq War. “It came from Republican staffers! That’s where it came from!”
“I don’t know the source of the New York Times,” Mitchell responded after a moment of silence.
“I do,” Carville nodded.
The Democratic strategist eventually conceded that the former secretary of state will likely address the email scandal, but he said it doesn’t matter: Right-winger and the press will never stop hounding the Clintons.
“It will never change,” Carville said, adding later “There is always going to be a distraction in Clintonland. There never is a time when there’s not. I’ve lived through this for 20 years.”
“It is always the same, Andrea. My point to you: It’s never going to change. We go through the same thing 20 times and this doesn’t give any life to anything. We know what happened at Benghazi,” he said. “This is not going to change anything. It just gives – it just gives people a reason to get out of breath about a lot of cockamamie, goofy stuff.”
