MidPoint | Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for Policy at the DHS
Former assistant secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security takes a look at the Hillary Clinton email situation from a cyber-security angle and brings up questions on how secure...
By: NewsmaxTV
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MidPoint | Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for Policy at the DHS - Video
New details about how she identified public records in her possession reveal her press conference at the U.N. to be wildly misleading.
Hillary Clinton asked the public to trust her during a recent press conference at the United Nations, when she stated that she has already complied with transparency laws by turning over all public records she generated as Secretary of State.
She had no business making that claim. A Time magazine report about the process used to identify public records in her possession shows that she cannot possibly know if she is in compliance with the law. And juxtaposing her process with the words used in her press conference shows her core claim to be wildly misleading.
Unless she can disprove the story, her credibility can only suffer from the comparison.
* * *
To understand the impression Hillary Clinton created at her press conference, before additional facts were available, it is best to begin with her words. What follows are the parts of the event where she characterized the emails she has turned over.
She began:
...after I left office, the State Department asked former secretaries of state for our assistance in providing copies of work- related emails from our personal accounts. I responded right away and provided all my emails that could possibly be work-related, which totalled roughly 55,000 printed pages, even though I knew that the State Department already had the vast majority of them. We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work-related emails and deliver them to the State Department.
A reporter at the press conference followed up, asking, "Can you explain how you decided which of the personal e-mails to get rid of, how you got rid of them and when? And how youll respond to questions about you being the arbiter of what you release?"
Her reply:
Original post:
Hillary Clinton's Laughable Process for Flagging Work Emails
Hillary Rodham Clinton is not only the best-known, but also the most favorably viewed of the potential presidential candidates from either of the two major parties, according to aGallup poll released Thursday.
The poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday of last week, mostlyafter the news broke about Clinton's use of a private email account while she was secretary of state, but before the news conference this week in which she addressed the issue.
Roughly nine in 10 Americans said they knew enough about Clinton to have an opinion, and the poll found that 50% viewed her favorably, while 39% had a negative impression. On both counts, that put her in better position than any of the potential Republican candidates at this early stage of the presidential race.
Clinton's favorability has declined since she left the State Department, as Americans have begun to see her as a presidential candidate, rather than in the more non-political role of the nation's top diplomat. When she left the agency, about two-thirds of Americans had a favorable view of her, a number that has dropped steadily as partisanship has taken its inexorable toll.
Last June, when Clintonreleased her book, "Hard Choices," 54% of Americans had a favorable view, according to a Gallup survey taken at the time. The comparison of that number with the current figure indicates that the email controversy had not had a significant impact on Americans' view of Clinton as of the time the new poll was taken.
Among the Republican hopefuls, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the best known, with roughly two-thirds of Americans holding an opinion of them.
But in Bush's case, that opinion was closely divided, 35% favorable and 33% unfavorable. Christie stood in a worse position, with negative perceptions outweighing positive ones, 34%-31%.
Among the potential serious contenders for the GOP nomination, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida had the highest net favorability, with 26% holding a positive view and 21% a negative one, the poll found. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also had a net favorable rating, but was somewhat less known, with 20% favorable and 18% unfavorable.
The least popular Republican candidates overall were former Sen.Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and the two Texans potentially in the race, former Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz. For Santorum, negative views outnumbered positives, 27%-20%, for Perry it was 32%-25% and for Cruz, 28%-22%.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who some have hoped would challenge Clinton, had a net positive rating, but was far less known than Clinton. The poll showed 22% viewing her favorably and 19% unfavorably. Warren has repeatedly said she is not running and has taken no steps toward starting a campaign.
Read more:
Hillary Clinton's popularity remains high, outstripping GOP rivals, poll finds
Hillary Clintons feisty albeit belated damage-control effort defending her decision to use a private e-mail server exclusively while she was President Barack Obamas secretary of state may have reassured supporters of the former first lady, but the many still-unexplained gaps in her answers have stoked a firestorm among enemies of the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.
The brouhaha over hdr22@clintonemail.com isnt going away, anytime soon.
Whether Ms. Clintons exclusive use of a private server and e-mail address eschewing the U.S. State Departments for both official government and personal communications was simply convenient as she claims, or a clever means of giving Hillary and Bill Clinton control over what becomes part of the historical record, it has set another round of partisan nastiness.
Whats not yet clear is whether the controversy poses a serious threat to her quest for the Oval Office.
At the very least, Ms. Clinton will face more questioning by Republicans in Congress. For her first damage-control session, more than a week after the the news broke, Ms. Clinton picked her forum: the United Nations, away from the tougher Washington media pack. And she abruptly ended the raucous session Tuesday after only 20 minutes. Up on Capitol Hill, where Republicans now control both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the going will get much tougher and Ms. Clinton wont be the one deciding when its over.
Ms. Clinton admits that she destroyed tens of thousands of e-mails after first culling those that involved government business and turning them over to the State Department at its request. The destruction of roughly 32,000 e-mails is okay, she insists, because they were all personal and didnt have anything to do with her service as U.S. state secretary. And, she adds, neither the public nor Republicans nor the prying media nor historians have any right to second-guess her.
For any government employee, it is that government employees responsibility to determine whats personal and whats work-related, Ms. Clinton said. I went above and beyond what I was requested to do.
But there was no explanation as to why she waited nearly two years after she left office before turning over copies of the official e-mails to the State Department.
In the end, I chose not to keep my personal e-mails e-mails about planning Chelseas wedding or my mothers funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends, as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes, Ms. Clinton said. No one wants their personal e-mails made public and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy.
Thats not out of character, given Bill and Hillary Clintons long and troubled history of documents mislaid and fiercely adversarial approach to investigations. After all it was Ms. Clinton, then first lady, who claimed it was a vast right-wing conspiracy behind, then unproven, allegations that Mr. Clinton was having sex with a White House intern.
Read more from the original source:
GOP smells blood in Hillary Clinton e-mail affair
In April 1994, Hillary Clinton took questions from reporters for more than an hour as first lady. By that point, she had a reputation for not being particularly transparent and for not spending enough time addressing the national media. Doug Mills/AP hide caption
In April 1994, Hillary Clinton took questions from reporters for more than an hour as first lady. By that point, she had a reputation for not being particularly transparent and for not spending enough time addressing the national media.
Controversy swirled. The press had questions, a lot of them. And so, finally, Hillary Clinton decided to address reporters.
"Well let me thank all of you for coming," she said, sitting on a low platform in the State Dining Room.
It was April 1994. The first lady wore pale pink and took questions for more than an hour about the Whitewater investigation, cattle futures, the suicide of White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster and which documents may have been removed from his office. Finally, there was the question of why she had let the scandals fester so long.
Her answer:
"My sense of privacy because I do feel like I've always been a fairly private person leading a public life led me to perhaps be less understanding than I needed to of both the press and the public's interest as well as right to know things about my husband and me," she said.
By that point, almost 18 months into the Clinton presidency, Hillary Clinton had a reputation for not being particularly transparent and for not spending enough time addressing the national media.
"I've always believed in a zone of privacy and I told a friend the other day that I feel after resisting for a long time, I've been re-zoned," said Clinton.
But, of course, the suspicion that she must be hiding something inside the zone of privacy didn't go away that April day. Even now, if you post a story about Clinton, within minutes someone will comment about Whitewater or Vince Foster's suicide, often in ALL CAPS.
See the original post here:
Hillary Clinton's Privacy Problem