Thread: 2016 Democratic US Presidential Candidates

Is Joe Biden Banking on the Contents of Hillary Clinton's Emails? - The Atlantic

"As Joe Biden edges closer to a presidential run, there’s no shortage of theories as to what he’s up to. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has built a commanding lead in the national polls, giving Biden little apparent space to gain traction. Perhaps he’s counting on the early-primary state of South Carolina to provide a critical boost. He might be banking on appearing as a stronger general-election candidate than any of his potential rivals in the primary race. Maybe after spending the past 42 years of his life running for elective office, he just can’t stop.

But there’s one intriguing theory that has so far garnered little attention: What if Biden knows something about Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton that the rest of us don’t?

After jumping to what seemed a prohibitively large early lead, Clinton has stumbled in recent months. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, hardly the most charismatic politician, has emerged as a viable challenger, generating enormous enthusiasm on the campaign trail, and surging ahead in polling averages in New Hampshire.

Clinton, meanwhile, is battling a steady drip of negative headlines and revelations stemming from her use of a private email address and server during her term as secretary of state. Investigators have found that some emails contained information that was later classified, and media reports have suggested that some of this information may have been considered classified at the time it was shared, even if it hadn’t yet been labeled that way.

The emails that Clinton gave to the State Department are now being released in tranches every 30 days. Her server has been turned over to the Justice Department, which is reportedly optimistic that it can recover at least some of the emails that Clinton had deleted. No one knows what the emails that have not yet been released may contain.

No one, that is, outside of the administration. Those on the other end of Clinton’s correspondence presumably retain their own records of their exchanges. The White House has reportedly monitored the situation since before the questions over Clinton’s email became public. And the State Department has assigned a team to sort through the emails, reviewing them for classified information.

Clinton, and her loyalists, insist that the email probe is a distraction, and that there is no evidence that she deliberately broke any rules, much less violated the law. And so far, those claims have been borne out by each new round of disclosures.

If that’s not the case, though—if the emails contain revelations that are embarrassing, or worse—there’s a limited number of people who might be in a position to know it. Clinton’s own aides top the list. So do various White House officials.

And then, of course, there’s the State Department. Biden forged many relationships during his long tenure in the Senate, and State is chock full of longtime friends and former aides. The current deputy secretary of state, to choose the most prominent example, is Antony Blinken. He was hired as the staff director of the Senate’s foreign relations committee in 2002, and senior adviser to its senior Democratic member: Joe Biden. He stuck with Biden through the 2008 campaign, first becoming his national security adviser in the White House, then moving over to become

Obama’s deputy national security adviser in 2013, and finally taking up his current role at the State Department in 2015. “I have now had the good fortune to work alongside Tony Blinken for many years,” Biden said when he was nominated for the State Department position. “He is a good man. I’m proud of him.”

There’s no reason to think that Blinken, or any of Biden’s other contacts within the White House or the national-security establishment, have shared with the vice president any information to which they’re privy. In fact, in late June, Blinken and his wife, another former Biden aide who’s now an assistant secretary of state, both gave the maximum allowable donation of $2,700 to Clinton’s campaign.

But if Biden seems more confident than most pundits that Hillary Clinton’s nomination isn’t inevitable, it may reflect more than his natural ebullience and legendary optimism. It may be a sign that he’s banking on voters learning things that he already knows".

Originally Posted by misskit

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

And personally I haven't seen / noticed anyone on here championing Hillary as a 'savior of the middle-class'

That's right. Doesn't stop any of her detractors from stating there are. Wouldn't fit their "narrative."

Everything must be black or white to some. Those gray areas just take too much thought.

The 'grays' like ServerGate?

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Originally Posted by misskit

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

And personally I haven't seen / noticed anyone on here championing Hillary as a 'savior of the middle-class'

That's right. Doesn't stop any of her detractors from stating there are. Wouldn't fit their "narrative."

Everything must be black or white to some. Those gray areas just take too much thought.

The 'grays' like ServerGate?

Lame retort.

Trump is everywhere I tell ya. Even here on TD in a Hillary thread.

Hillary is going to be plagued with the email issue all the way to election day if she gets that far.

Originally Posted by Storekeeper

The ongoing din over Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State has grown so loud that Democratic Party stalwarts have begun to openly wonder whether she will even be their nominee next year, something unthinkable just a few short months ago

Not a dem but regardless of whether her emails were marked classified or not is not the issue for me.
Using an unsecured private email for her convenience illustrates a naive recklessness and a total lack of understanding the potential security breach involved. Not the behavior one would expect of a President.

State Department officials routinely sent secrets over email - Stripes

"The transmission of now-classified information across Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email is consistent with a State Department culture in which diplomats routinely sent secret material on unsecured email during the past two administrations, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Clinton's use of a home server makes her case unique and has become an issue in her front-running campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. But it's not clear whether the security breach would have been any less had she used department email. The department only systematically checks email for sensitive or classified material in response to a public records request.

In emails about the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, department officials discuss sensitive matters in real time, including the movement of Libyan militias and the locations of key Americans. The messages were released last year under the Freedom of Information Act and are posted on the State Department's website.

An email from diplomat Alyce Abdalla, sent the night of the attack, appears to report that the CIA annex in Benghazi was under fire. The email has been largely whited out, with the government citing the legal exemption for classified intelligence information. The existence of that facility is now known; it was a secret at the time.

In an email sent at 8:51 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, Eric J. Pelofsky, a senior adviser to then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, gives an update on efforts to locate U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the attack.

The email was marked unclassified when sent. Later, part of it was deemed classified and censored before its release.

In five emails that date to Condoleezza Rice's tenure as secretary of state during the George W. Bush administration, large chunks are censored on the grounds that they contain classified national security or foreign government information.

These emails also are posted on the State Department website's reading room.

In a December 2006 email, diplomat John J. Hillmeyer appears to have pasted the text of a confidential cable from Beijing about China's dealings with Iran and other sensitive matters. Large portions of the email were marked classified and censored before release.

Clinton insists she didn't send or receive classified information. But government officials have found material they deem classified in several dozen of 30,000 emails that the former secretary of state has turned over, an unfolding saga that has dogged her 2016 campaign.

Many of the emails to Clinton containing classified information were forwarded to her by a close aide, Huma Abedin. Most, however, originated with diplomats who have access to confidential material. Some emails sent by Clinton have since been censored.

Such slippage of classified information into regular email is "very common, actually," said Leslie McAdoo, a lawyer who frequently represents government officials and contractors in disputes over security clearances and classified information.

What makes Clinton's case different is that she exclusively sent and received emails through a home server in lieu of the State Department's unclassified email system. Neither would have been secure from hackers or foreign intelligence agencies, so it would be equally problematic whether classified information was carried over the government system or a private server, experts say.

In fact, the State Department's unclassified email system has been penetrated by hackers believed linked to Russian intelligence.

Many of the emails to Clinton came from state.gov email accounts, noted Steven Aftergood, an expert on classification at the Federation of American Scientists. "So if there is routine security screening and monitoring of incoming and outgoing State Department emails, anything that is classified should have been flagged. That does not seem to have happened. I think it's the State Department culture."

That may be true, but it would not save a rank-and-file official with a security clearance who was caught sending classified information over email, said Bradley Moss, a lawyer who frequently represents intelligence officers. That person could lose his job, his clearance, or both.

"In real life, the `everybody does it defense' doesn't fly," Moss said.
Clinton, speaking to reporters after an event in Iowa, said: "My use of personal email was allowed by the State Department. It clearly wasn't the best choice. I should have used two emails, one personal, one for work. And I take responsibility for that decision."

She added, "I'm confident that this process will prove that I never sent nor received any email that was marked classified."

The AP has asked the State Department to turn over records reflecting any concerns by agency computer staff or security officials over Clinton's use of a private email server, but has received no responsive documents.

There is no indication that any information in Clinton emails was marked classified at the time it was sent. But critics have said Clinton and her aides should have known not to discuss anything remotely secret over unsecured email. The emails show they were cognizant of security, routinely communicating over secure phone and fax lines.

Clinton also had access to a classified messaging system, but it's not widely used at the State Department. Most department officials in Washington and at embassies have on their desktops a classified network that goes up to "secret" level. A small number of State officials, including the secretary, can use a third system that goes up to "top secret" level in special secure rooms.

But even the middle-tier "secret" network is cumbersome for many in the agency, said officials who would not be quoted when discussing internal security policies.

Only a few top officials in Washington are able to read classified emails outside the department's headquarters. Most ambassadors can't open their accounts from home. Officials in the field may have no access at all.

Lots of State Department information is meant for use, sharing and interaction with foreign officials, the vast majority of whom aren't authorized to receive classified U.S. material".

Ex-Clinton Advisor: Clinton Team In ‘Sheer Panic’, It’s A ‘Bad Day In Clintonland’…



Doug Shoen -- Hillary's email scandal not going away

^ IMHO your sources are too quick to give Ohio to HRC. If you have any info supporting this I'd like to check it out.

^ Did you click on the underlined word "Ohio" in Landreth's post? It's the link to the Quinnipac poll.

If Quinnipac is the source you are calling into question, excuse me, I'll just slink off.

Originally Posted by Storekeeper

^ IMHO your sources are too quick to give Ohio to HRC. If you have any info supporting this I'd like to check it out.

It's still way too early to say whether HRC will go the distance. Dollars to donuts there'll be another juicy scandal she'll be implicated in before too long!

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

NYTs Asks 75 High Ranking Democratic Insiders About Hillary; They're Officially Getting Ready to Dump Ma Clinton.

That's not their exact words but the panic is truly bleeding out of the posts:

Panicky Democratic donors wonder: Are we really going to bet the White House on this shady loser? « Hot Air

Not their exact words... No shit.

Allahpundit is an anonymous blogger and the senior editor for the conservative commentary website, Hot Air.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

NYTs Asks 75 High Ranking Democratic Insiders About Hillary; They're Officially Getting Ready to Dump Ma Clinton.

That's not their exact words but the panic is truly bleeding out of the posts:

Panicky Democratic donors wonder: Are we really going to bet the White House on this shady loser? « Hot Air

Not their exact words... No shit.

Allahpundit is an anonymous blogger and the senior editor for the conservative commentary website, Hot Air.

But it sure denotes the atmosphere that surrounds ServerGate these days though...

If we fine posters aboard the Good Ship Teak Door are subjected to raw opinons from the likes of Salon, surely y'all can 'man up' and take a little from the other side, eh?

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

If we fine posters aboard the Good Ship Teak Door are subjected to raw opinons from the likes of Salon, surely y'all can 'man up' and take a little from the other side, eh?

Salon is an accredited news website: it's not even apples cf. oranges to an anonymous blogger on a commentary website.

More like apples cf. durian.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

If we fine posters aboard the Good Ship Teak Door are subjected to raw opinons from the likes of Salon, surely y'all can 'man up' and take a little from the other side, eh?

Salon is an accredited news website: it's not even apples cf. oranges to an anonymous blogger on a commentary website.

More like apples cf. durian.

Yep.

Fox News is considered a news site, but JoeBloggsIHateWhatever.blogspot.com is not a news site, it is a blog.

Why should we care about the raw opinion from some anonymous blogger? Man up and post something worthwhile, BM. It is out there.

Originally Posted by misskit

Fox News is considered a news site

Only by racist, senile, conservatives males.

Hillary Clinton Now Being Investigated Under the Espionage Act.”

"An FBI "A-team" is leading the "extremely serious" investigation into Hillary Clinton's server and the focus includes a provision of the law pertaining to "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information," an intelligence source told Fox News.
The section of the Espionage Act is known as 18 US Code 793.

A separate source, who also was not authorized to speak on the record, said the FBI will further determine whether Clinton should have known, based on the quality and detail of the material, that emails passing through her server contained classified information regardless of the markings."

Source: FBI ?A-team? leading ?serious? Clinton server probe, focusing on defense info | Fox News

What a tangled web we weave when...aw hell, y'all know the rest...

Grandma's got a new nick:

Boxcar ‘Hilly’: Clinton Claims GOP wants to ‘Deport Illegals in Boxcars’

Prime example of a 'Godwin's Law' violation so far but seeing as how Boxcar Hilly is going down in flames, she's grasping at anything. To wit:

"A day after Hillary Clinton compared GOP candidates to terrorists, she has suggested an opponent’s plan to deport illegal immigrants is reminiscent of the Nazis.

At a press conference Friday in Minneapolis, Hillary was asked how she planned on dealing with the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. “I’m glad you asked me that,” Hillary replied. Without offering any plan of her own, she immediately attacked a GOP rival’s plan to deport illegal immigrants."

“I find it the height of irony that a party which espouses small government would want to unleash a massive law enforcement effort– including perhaps National Guard and others–to go and literally pull people out of their homes and their workplaces,” Hillary explained. Then she added an image which evoked the Nazis: “Round them up, put them, I don’t know, in buses… boxcars, in order to take them across our border.”

The picture Clinton paints of placing people in boxcars is a potent one because, during World War II, Jews were forced into boxcars and transported to Nazi concentration camps as part of Hilter’s final solution. Clinton’s choice of the words appears extemporaneous but not accidental. She mentions buses then pauses and adds “boxcars,” rather than simply saying “trains.”

A video produced by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department shows actual immigrant removal operations taking place using an airliner.

The “boxcars” statement comes just one day after Clinton made another controversial attack on her Republican rivals. At a speech in Cleveland Clinton compared Republicans to terrorists, saying, “Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups. We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States.” Clinton’s terrorism comparison was widely reported, though some observers wondered why it didn’t get even more media attention, given how extreme her statement was.

Allison Moore, national press secretary for the RNC, put out a statement blasting Clinton’s remarks: “Not 24 hours removed from calling Republicans terrorists, Hillary Clinton reached a new low today hurling Holocaust references at her political opponents,” she said. “Hillary Clinton may be getting desperate over her sinking poll numbers and growing email scandal, but that’s no excuse for this kind of inflammatory and extreme rhetoric.”

In July, GOP candidate Mick Huckabee used a Holocaust reference during a radio interview with Breitbart News’ Alex Marlow on Sirius XM Patriot. Speaking of President Obama’s Iran deal, Huckabee said, “he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.” For making this reference, Huckabee was widely criticized in the media. He said later that “maybe the metaphor is not a good one.”

Hillary Clinton Says GOP Wants to Deport Illegal Immigrants in 'Boxcars' - Breitbart

Heh...Ma Clinton's prior support for cracking down on illegals will come up during this campaign you can be sure.

Undercover Republican Goes Hillary-Hunting in Clinton Library - The Daily Beast

^ ... HRC getting elected President would be an absolute disaster for the country. I'll bet she'd get treated even worse than BHO by the right. It'll be just fuggin ugly.

What, IYHO, would be prettier?

Originally Posted by wjblaney

What, IYHO, would be prettier?

James Webb ... Who has little to no chance of winning the nomination of the Democrats. Be nice to tone down the vitriol from both sides for 4-8 years.

Originally Posted by Storekeeper

Originally Posted by wjblaney

What, IYHO, would be prettier?

James Webb ... Who has little to no chance of winning the nomination of the Democrats. Be nice to tone down the vitriol from both sides for 4-8 years.

I like Webb. He'd make a fine president IMO.