DHAKA: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s Democratic rivals declined to make an issue of the email scandal that has dogged her campaign, helping sharpen her increasingly aggressive message that controversy is being driven by Republican partisanship.
In Tuesday’s Las Vegas debate, her chief Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, threw her a lifeline on the issue — saying the American people were by and large uninterested in the issues regarding Hillary’s use of a home email server for her government work.
“The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Sanders said to applause from the Democratic voters at the party’s first 2016 presidential debate, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“The middle class in this country is collapsing. We have 27 million people living in poverty. We have massive wealth and income inequality. Our trade policies have cost us millions of decent jobs. The American people want to know whether we’re going to have a democracy or an oligarchy as a result of Citizens United. Enough of the emails. Let’s talk about the issues facing America,” Sanders said.
Questions about Hillary’s use of a private email server has roiled her campaign since the story broke in March. Critics say her use of an email server may have shielded her records from public access and put sensitive national security information at risk.
The FBI is investigating the mishandling of classified information and is in possession of her server, though officials say Hillary is not a target of the target of the probe. Hilary Clinton is also scheduled to testify in front of a House committee next week, where the email server is expected to be an issue. Her campaign has repeatedly said that her actions were not forbidden by the State Department and that she sent no information that was marked classified at the time.
Hillary Clinton said that committee — the Select Committee on Benghazi — had strayed far from its mission of investigating a 2012 terrorist attack.
“It is a partisan vehicle,” Hillary said. Republicans have used the committee “to drive down my poll numbers,” she said, pointing to recent remarks from a top House Republican.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee, [and] what are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the number two Republican in the House, last month.
Her other Democratic rivals largely took a pass on pressing her on the issue during the debate. Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who had criticized her on the trail, declined to take the bait. He would say only that the next president needed to have “the best in ethical standards.”
Asked if she would like to reply to his criticism, Hilalry Clinton said curtly: “No.”
BDST: 1112 HRS, OCT 14, 2015
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