Supplemental: Chuck Todd refuses to do his job!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015

Once again, a witch hunt is on:
At the present time, you’re seeing a full-blown assault, all across the press, against Candidate Clinton.

Once again, a witch hunt is on.

Each morning, the opening segment of Morning Joe is an incoherent disgrace. Mika and Joe lead the charge, as aggressively and imprecisely as is humanly possible. Willie Haskell-Geist and a gang of sycophants refuse to note the obvious problems with the co-hosts' work.

That said, the hunt is on in a widespread way. Consider the way Chuck Todd refused to do his job on Sunday’s Meet the Press.

Todd spoke with Candidate Fiorina. After a few initial pleasantries, an L-bomb was deployed:
TODD (8/23/15): Do you still have great admiration and respect for Hillary Clinton?

FIORINA: In many ways I do. She's a hardworking woman. She's an intelligent woman. She has dedicated herself to public service. It is also true, however, that she is not trustworthy, that she has lied about some key things: Benghazi, her emails, her server—

TODD: Lying is a big charge. Do you know—why do you know she's lying on Benghazi?

FIORINA: Well, for heaven’s sake! The night of the Benghazi attacks, we now know that the State Department and the White House knew this was a purposeful, preplanned terrorist attack. Nevertheless, the next morning she went into the State Department and she addressed the American people and talked about a video that did not represent the values of this nation.

Several days later, she said the same thing over the bodies of the fallen. What she should have said was this was a purposeful terrorist attack and we will seek retribution.

TODD: You believe she purposely lied?

FIORINA: Absolutely, I do.
“Lying is a big charge,” Todd said. He then proceeded to show the world that he was only pretending.

Fiorina said that Clinton has lied about Benghazi. Pretending to act like a journalist, Todd asked Fiorina how she knows that Clinton has lied.

Well for heaven’s sake! Fiorina responded with this:

“The night of the Benghazi attacks, we now know that the State Department and the White House knew this was a purposeful, preplanned terrorist attack. Nevertheless, the next morning she went into the State Department and she addressed the American people and talked about a video that did not represent the values of this nation.

“Several days later, she said the same thing over the bodies of the fallen. What she should have said was this was a purposeful terrorist attack...”


According to Fiorina, Clinton knew, on the night of the attack, that the attack had been “preplanned,” presumably to coincide with 9/11. She implied that Clinton knew the attack wasn’t connected to the YouTube videotape which was, at that very time, roiling the Muslim world.

Did Clinton know or believe any such thing at that time? Does she know or believe any such thing even now?

As far as we know, the intelligence community has never reached those judgments. But so what?In an imitation of journalism, Todd failed to ask Fiorina how she knows that Clinton believed those things.

“Lying is a big charge,” Todd said. Assuming even minimum competence, he was faking nicely.

A sharp third-grader would have known what to say: How do you know that Clinton believed those things?

Politely, Todd forgot to ask. Did you know that a witch hunt is on?

46 comments:

  1. I don't get Bob's hand wringing over poor HRC, she ran a pretty despicable campaign against Obama in 2008. From saying nothing when Ferraro called Obama lucky to be black or he wouldn't be where he was (ironic coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign!), to her harping on the Rev Wright BS

    See here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXsUwC_NCPs

    And on and on.

    Now the whining about the press picking on her over e-mails. The only problem with that story is the press doesn't understand the issue.

    A federal employee cannot send work related e-mails from his/her non-GOV e-mail address except for emergency situations, and then she must cc' her work address. This has been a policy for at least a decade and has been a law since 2014.

    It doesn't matter if the e-mail is high security or not, the policy/law is to record all correspondences for such things as FOIA requests and litigation holds, etc.

    Hillary never used her .gov address, much less cc'd it. She wasn't an elected official as Sec of State she was a federal employee who should have obeyed these simple rules. She chose not to, i guess she felt the rules did not apply to her.

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    Replies
    1. Ah, so Clinton violated no law. Thanks for clarifying that.

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    2. Who do you believe about the rules in place: (1) The Secretary of State, head of the agency in question, (2) some anonymous conservative troll, quoting no sources, but adopting an authoritative (e.g. know-it-all) tone? Hint: the correct answer is 1.

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    3. And given the fact that the two previous Secretaries of State did the same thing re: personal e-mail accounts.

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    4. In his letter, Kendall quotes from a memoir by former Secretary of State Colin Powell who wrote that he used his personal e-mail account for messages to “principal assistants, to individual ambassadors, and increasingly to [his] foreign-minister colleagues.” LINK

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    5. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy screws the pooch ala HRC with private email usage for classified information.

      In the course of its inspection, OIG received reports concerning embassy staff use of private email accounts to conduct official business. On the basis of these reports, "OIG’s Office of Evaluations and Special Projects conducted a review and confirmed that senior embassy staff, including the Ambassador, used personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business. In addition, OIG identified instances where emails labeled Sensitive but Unclassified6 were sent from, or received by, personal email accounts"

      https://oig.state.gov/system/files/isp-i-15-35a.pdf

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    6. 4:55, don't believe me? fine, ask anyone who has worked for the fed gov't for the past decade and a half. Any agency, dept etc. They'll tell you the policy.

      Colin Powell did it as well? Well then, he was wrong and out of compliance with federal policy. I'd expect it to be brought up if he ran for office.

      Oh, i agree no law broken, just an important policy that is now law thanks to careless, clueless or corrupt people like Clinton and apparently Powel.


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    7. State Dept. Spokesman Tells CNN: Hillary Clinton "Was Not Violating Policy" With Personal Email

      John Kirby: "At The Time, When She Was Secretary Of State, There Was No Prohibition To Her Use Of A Private Email"LINK

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    8. mm, are we going to argue about the term policy? Ok, there was a guideline in place that personal accts should not be used. while it was not a law or a regulation, it was a policy at all levels of the US gov.t (it's a law now).

      So, again, sure she was not breaking a law, but she was going against long standing policy (i'm sorry, guidelines), by not using a .gov account for ANY of her e-mails.

      "Using a personal email account exclusively is a potent prescription for flouting the Federal Records Act and circumventing the Freedom of Information Act," Metcalfe said. "And there can be little doubt that Clinton knew this full well."

      http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/mar/12/hillary-clintons-email-did-she-follow-all-rules/

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    9. mm, i watched the media matters video. The spokesperson says at about 1:01 "we still have no prohibition" for using personal e-mails.

      He's wrong. Regulations since Nov 2014 require the use of a .gov acct in almost all case.

      From a pro-HRC Newsweek report: "Because the rules changed in 2014, after Clinton left office, and now it’s required to use a federal system. If Kerry used a personal account, he would be violating a regulation. Clinton did not."

      http://www.newsweek.com/hillary-clinton-emailgate-312784

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    10. HRC email fail has never been about private email rather it is about a private server located out of the reach of the government she worked for which no previous Foggy Bottom chief ever considered to be prudent.

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    11. mm, the whitehouse press secretary apparently feels otherwise:

      Clinton did not have a government account at the State Department but instead used her personal e-mail account. That was permissible only if all e-mails relating to government business were turned over and archived by the State Department, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at his daily briefing.

      “Very specific guidance has been given to agencies all across the government, which is specifically that employees in the Obama administration should use their official e-mail accounts when they’re conducting official government business,” Earnest said. “However, when there are situations where personal e-mail accounts are used, it is important for those records to be preserved, consistent with the Federal Records Act.”

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clintons-use-of-personal-e-mail-at-state-dept-violated-obama-directive/2015/03/03/454d7938-c1b9-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html

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    12. So, why did Colin Powell deliberately flout that same guideline if it was so clear cut and inviolate?

      I am suspicious of anyone who tries to definitively state what was in another person's mind. We don't know what Clinton knew.

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    13. cicero, you're as clueless as mm. Most federal employees use non-gov't servers at times, whether it's working at home a few days a week, a site visit or during gov't travel.

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    14. not mm. I have no idea, but if he was running for office i'd hope that question would come up as well.

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    15. @7:09 It suggests to me the guidelines were not as widely followed or universally applied as you claim.

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    16. Was this allowed?

      Yes. The laws and regulations allowed her to use her own email for work.

      Under the Federal Records Act, reaffirming a prior regulation (36 CFR § 1234.24) on the need to preserve work emails.

      In meeting the record-keeping obligations, it was Secretary Clinton's practice to email government officials on their ".gov" accounts, so her work emails were immediately captured and preserved.

      ***********
      Given Secretary Clinton's practice of emailing Department officials on their state.gov addresses, the Department already had, and had already provided, the Select Committee with emails from Secretary Clinton in August 2014 — prior to requesting and receiving printed copies of her emails.

      The review process described above confirmed Secretary Clinton's practice of emailing Department officials on their .gov address, with the vast majority of the printed copies of work-related emails Secretary Clinton provided to the Department simply duplicating what was already captured in the Department's record-keeping system in real time.
      ****************
      Until very recently, the government's interpretation of "records" meant pieces of paper, regardless of whether the actual item being recorded began in digital form. That's why, as Bush White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino stated in 2007, "So you would either print it off, or you would forward it to another email, to your personal account -- I'm sorry, to your White House account, in some way keep that so that in the future, if the Counsel's Office needed to look back at those records, that they would have access to that."

      ******
      Mrs. Clinton’s use of her personal account was also permitted by federal regulations, Kendall says, including rules issued by the National Archives to implement a federal law on record preservation.

      In 2009, Kendall says, the rule explained the practice to be followed when federal agencies “allow employees to send and receive electronic mail messages using a system not operated by the agency.”

      In that event, the employee must ensure that a record of the e-mail is obtained in a government system. “Secretary Clinton followed that regulation through her practice of communicating with other Department officials on their state.gov e-mail accounts,” Kendall’s letter says.

      By forwarding and copying messages to department employees at their government addresses, her emails were preserved in the State Department system, he said.
      ******

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    17. @7:07

      HRC used the Chappaqua server EXCLUSIVELY. Also, HRC didn't use FOGGY Bottom issued secure Blackberry or iPod.

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    18. Was the Department able to respond to requests related to FOIA or Congressional requests before they received printed copies of her work-related emails?

      Yes. As the Select Committee has said, the Department provided the Committee with relevant emails it already had on the state.gov system before the Department requested any printed copies from former Secretaries, and four months before the Department received the printed copies.

      For example, in the well-publicized hack of Sid Blumenthal's email account, a note he sent Secretary Clinton on September 12, 2012 was posted online. At first blush, one might not think this exchange would be captured on the state.gov system. But in fact, Secretary Clinton forwarded the email, that very same day, onto the state.gov system. And the email was produced by the Department to the Select Committee, and acknowledged by the Select Committee, in August 2014.

      This example illustrates: 1) when an email from a non-".gov" sender had some connection to work or might add to the understanding of Department officials, it was Secretary Clinton's practice to forward it to officials at their "state.gov" address; and 2) the Department was able to search and produce Secretary Clinton's emails when needed long before, and unrelated to, receiving the printed copies as they were already captured on state.gov accounts.
      ***********************
      Was classified material sent or received by Secretary Clinton on this email address?

      No. A separate, closed system was used by the Department for the sole purpose of handling classified communications which was designed to prevent such information from being transmitted anywhere other than within that system, including to outside email accounts.

      How did Secretary Clinton receive and consume classified information?

      The Secretary's office is located in a secure area. Classified information was viewed in hard copy by the Secretary while in the office. While on travel, the Department had rigorous protocols for her and traveling staff to receive and transmit information of all types.
      ***********************

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    19. "Oh, i agree no law broken". I'm glad that's settled. Can we now move on to something reasonable people give a shit about.

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    20. mm: "In meeting the record-keeping obligations, it was Secretary Clinton's practice to email government officials on their ".gov" accounts, so her work emails were immediately captured and preserved."

      Sending it to a fellow .gov does not automatically save it as a message from Clinton when searching her files, if you read the post i put up before quoting the retired US archivist you'd know that. If she makes that claim she's full of shit.

      As for the video from media matters, where the spokesperson claims there are no restrictions on sending e-mails from a non-gov address even now, he's full of shit. Here's the law since 2014
      http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2015/nr15-65.html

      Mutaman, yes no laws were broken, HRC simply decided to ignore federal guidelines on record keeping. Federal records are important for FOIA reviews, for history, for lawsuits. So, yes i give a shit. I find this far more important than Rev. Wright, which Hillary pumped as an issue in 2008.

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    21. "Sending it to a fellow .gov does not automatically save it as a message from Clinton..."

      Well, if you say so. Apparently they seemed to manage to find them.


      "....he's full of shit..."

      Well, here is what the LAW says from your link.

      *******************
      “The National Archives discourages the use of private email accounts to conduct Federal business, but understands that there are situations where such use does occur.” Congress amended the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act in November 2014 to prohibit the use of private email accounts by government officials unless they copy or forward any such emails into their government account within 20 days. LINK

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    22. "HRC simply decided to ignore federal guidelines on record keeping...."

      From the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 5: Information Management

      ***
      5 FAM 443.2 Which E-Mail Messages are Records

      b. The intention of this guidance is not to require the preservation of every E-mail message. Its purpose is to direct the preservation of those messages that contain information that is necessary to ensure that departmental policies, programs, and activities are adequately documented. E-mail message creators and recipients must decide whether a particular message is appropriate for preservation. In making these decisions, all personnel should exercise the same judgement they use when determining whether to retain and file paper records.

      5 FAM 443.3 How to Preserve E-Mail Records

      Until technology allowing archival capabilities for long-term electronic storage and retrieval of E-mail messages is available and installed, those messages warranting preservation as records (for periods longer than current E-mail systems routinely maintain them) must be printed out and filed with related records.

      5 FAM 443.5 Points to Remember About E-Mail

      -Before deleting and E-Mail message, apply these guidelines to determine whether it meets the legal definition of a records and if so, print it.
      -Messages that are not records may be deleted when no longer needed.
      ***

      You will note that it is required to provide printed copies of email records, and second that it is the responsibility of the employee to determine which to retain and which to delete.

      There sure is a lot of bullshit floating around.

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    23. @mm,

      HRC's "enemies" know how to use a FAX machine. Well, at least HRC has exceptional language skills.

      "Clinton Goofs on Russian Translation, Tells Diplomat She Wants to 'Overcharge' Ties"

      Clinton presented Lavrov with a gift-wrapped red button, which said "Reset" in English and "Peregruzka" in Russian. The problem was, "peregruzka" doesn't mean reset. It means overcharged, or overloaded.

      And Lavrov called her out on it.

      "We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?" Clinton asked Lavrov.

      "You got it wrong," Lavrov said. "This says 'peregruzka,' which means overcharged."

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  2. lest anyone forget Ferraro's (a member of HRC's team) remarks and HRC's weak response:

    "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro told a local California newspaper last week.

    "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept," Ferraro said.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4428719

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  3. Poor Bob. Tries to start a discussion about the lazy, ineffective Chuck Todd and all he gets is another flame war about Hillary's e-mails.

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    1. Bob's readers are dumb. lazy, and liberal. They don't know how to defend Clinton against Fiorina's charges any more than Todd.

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  4. Which is worse? A Secretary of State who's lying or one who's clueless?

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  5. Hillary Clinton is neither of those things. Please stop this now. It offends me that you would refer to a woman who served her country honorably in that way. There are boundaries David. Not everyone here will vote for Clinton but we treat her respectfully. If you want to trash Democrats (or women) go back to your conservative websites.

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    Replies
    1. You're right, anon.

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    2. @9:08

      Good to know Howler libs show deference to all women regardless of political ideology. Are you confident a search of the Howler will yield negative on any disparaging remarks regarding Condi Rice, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Carly Fiorina, Laura Ingraham, etc?

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    3. It's ok if everybody does it. Right?

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  6. In keeping with Scarborough's morning ritual of flogging Hillary Clinton, who do you think the first guest was? Correct. Carly Fiorina who proceeded to repeat her accusation that Hillary Clinton lied about Benghazi. Needless to say, Mika - the liberal Democrat for balance on the show - sat there sipping her morning latte. Not a single person challenged Carly. Your liberal media at work.

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    Replies
    1. MEka is not a liberal democrat. She only plays one on TV. In truth she's a pro-lifer who admitted to supporting Pat Buchanan in '92.

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    2. Conservatives and liberals have opposing understandings of what the facts are.

      Fiorina presents the conservative view; "The night of the Benghazi attacks, we now know that the State Department and the White House knew this was a purposeful, preplanned terrorist attack."

      Bob presents the liberal view: "As far as we know, the intelligence community has never reached [the judgment that] the attack had been “preplanned”...[and] wasn’t connected to the YouTube videotape which was, at that very time, roiling the Muslim world."

      Bob's disclaimer, "as far as we know" weakens his conclusion. We won't know what the intelligence community believes unless the Obama Administration makes a public statement about it. But, a statement along the lines of Fiorina's would embarrass the Administration, so they have reason not to make such a statement.

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    3. To give another example of the unethical behavior one sees every day on the Scarborough and His Dancing Mika Puppet Show every single day.

      This is total and intentional journalistic malpractice. These are the hypocritical phony assholes who sit in judgement of Secretary Clinton's "transparency". You can't make this shit up.

      MSNBC's Morning Joe Fails To Disclose Mukasey's Role As A Jeb Bush Adviser.

      On the August 24 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough asked Mukasey about Clinton's personal email use as secretary of state, allowing him to suggest that the investigation into Clinton's server "could be criminal" and that her email use was "grossly negligent" without disclosing Mukasey's role as a foreign policy adviser to Bush's campaign. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 8/24/15]

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    4. Good pickup, mm.

      OTOH your comment is exaggerated: "These are the hypocritical phony assholes who sit in judgement of Secretary Clinton's "transparency". Mukasey and Morning Joe aren't typical Most of those judging Secretary Clinton have their bias publicly known. And, several of her critics are supporters.

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    5. @mm

      No worries. Media Matters, Correct The Record, David Brock, Paul Begala, James Carville and Howler libs still offer HRC unconditional support even if she were videotaped lambasting a black female gay paraplegic campaign volunteer.

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    6. @mm

      ABC News George Robert Stephanopoulos' failure to disclose his $75K donation to Clinton Foundation when he was interviewing Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer was merely an oversight.

      Delete
  7. One political candidate makes a charge against another constittues a witch hunt? Welcome to Bobworld.

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  8. cicero,
    After all we now know, how can anyone not criticize the disastrous failed ideology of the women you cite?

    Think about it. If we agreed with their failed ideologies, we'd have to gin-up some fake controversy to try to bring them down. Or is that just another goofy conservative tic?

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    Replies
    1. @ 2:17

      Come on. The lib criticism of those women is as confined to their ideology as Trump's criticism of Meghan Kelly is confined to the actual questions she posed to him during the debate. Remove the personal invectives from liberal criticism of these women and you are left with only their names.

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