NPR: Diane Rehms Show, Clinton Email, 05/31/2016

[IdaBriggs]

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-05-31/hillary-clintons-emails

Hillary Clinton has come under renewed scrutiny over her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. Last week the State Department’s inspector general released its report after investigating the matter. The report concluded that Clinton did not follow the requirements for handling records and should not have used a private server for department emails. Clinton’s critics were quick to say it underscores a lack of trustworthiness. Her defenders say she did little more than make a mistake by using a private server and there’s nothing in the inspector general’s report that’s very damaging. Diane and her guests discuss the continuing controversy over Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Guests

Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign
Eric Lichtblau reporter, The New York Times
Jonathan Turley professor of public interest law, The George Washington University Law School
Hilary Rosen Democratic strategist; managing director, SKDKnickerbocker, a political consulting and PR firm; and a CNN contributor

Okay, these are my notes written for you guys while listening. Feel free to listen yourself to clarify. Enjoy!



Brian Fallon spins as hard as he can, but sounds stupid. "She printed out a bunch of emails, and she answers questions, and Donald Trump is scary!" Diane Rehmes actually holds him to the questions, and makes it obvious he doesn't answer, especially "why didn't she do an interview with the State Inspector General?" The "because DOJ review" sounds weak and he means "FBI interview".

Turley is really good and points out she would have no way of knowing what Powell did in 2001-2005 while Rice didn't use ANY in 2005-2009, Lichtblau says "the IG report contradicts what she has said for the last year", Rosen says "no harm/no foul" and lies about the classification stuff. Turley says National Security concerns were egregious; he's had classification since Reagan years, and smacks Rosen's lies down HARD. He also had clearance during Hillary's tenure, so he knows the excuses are stupid. Lichtblau says the "no classification stamp isn't going to be a get out of jail free card". Rosen relies on the fact the Intelligence Community can't publicly complain about any damage her mistakes have caused. Then their is an argument about whether there is a trust issue - Rosen says she's admired, and Turley calls out the bad polls, spins and "errors in judgment". He also thinks she's been compromised by the Russians! Lichtblau talks about Guccifer and hacking attempts, along with Hillary refusing to go to a ".gov" account.

1st Caller: Very upset about "classified documents marked and unmarked' as a load of crap; he has two decades of experience with a Top Secret clearance" and never saw "retroactive classification" so he knows it's spin. Rosen says again "no harm/no foul" and Turley points out the Russians wouldn't be publicly bragging if they did. Allegations are there may have been "jumping the gap" between the "secure vs non-secure" systems, and that is so egregious -- "you're gone!"

Someone writes in saying they are okay with everything because "poor Hillary wants privacy". Then Rosen says Hillary has been using this email account since Bill left office, which we all know is a lie. Lichtblau points out "red herring" because no one cares about her personal emails; it's the work ones that are a problem. Then the FBI Director stuff gets brought up -- nothing new. Comey gets accolades for being trustworthy. The State Department was looking at procedures, and everything was clear. This will impact the criminal investigation.

2nd Caller: everybody knew she was using a private email, and it only became a big deal when she started running for president. Lichtblau says "untrue!" It was kept to her inner circle, and the damming part is when two staff were told "never speak of this again". Rosen says people should have said something to her in person.

Tweeter: how is it going to impact her in California or in the General? Answer: it depends what the DOJ says.

3rd Caller: Trump and Bernie are getting traction because of the trust issues and how she keeps lying. Rosen says "I don't understand accusations of her not being responsive."

4th Caller: 13 minutes of Hillary lying video is a sound byte against her. She's a woman, and being overly scrutinized. Poor Hillary!

Turley says stuff Hillary says is UNTRUE. He gives examples. Diane Rehmes says it's true she changes positions. Rosen says she's a lesbian and she doesn't like that Hillary is being held to account for "twenty years ago" and plus Hillary is smart.

Lichtblau says he'll stay away from policy, but he can say that Hillary's story has changed about email - aggressively "did no wrong" went to "everybody did it" to "maybe I made a mistake" to "aren't we all just sick of it?"

5th Caller: She doesn't handle these issues well; she just didn't want to have a trail. Trustworthy and character matter - voters need to know whether illegal stuff happened to disqualify her.

Turley says "intent to harm the nation" doesn't matter about INTENT because you don't play with classified information on a non-secure system. He also says Hillary is hurting herself by using "legally nonsensical" arguments ("it wasn't classified at the time&quot which just infuriate investigators who know better. Rosen feels sorry for the people at the campaign; the media is being mean when she needs to give the investigators space because "voters don't care - at least Democratic primary voters".

It ends with Bernie's quote about "let's forget about the damn emails" taken out of context.



It's not going away. Told you so.

[ucrdem]

1. Heard this too. To me it sounded like Turley was trying way too hard

to make this molehill into a mountain. The best part was the royal smackdown he got from Hilary Rosen starting at about 42:20: "I'm a lesbian and how dare you."



She didn't leave much skin on the poor guy's bones but basically he was pushing a RW line and deserved it.


http://thedianerehmshow.org/audio/#/shows/2016-05-31/hillary-clintons-emails/112626/@42:20

[IdaBriggs]

3. Disagree. Rosen tried to use lesbian as cover, but Hillary has changed

Her position much more recently than 20 years ago. As an ally, I have had the courage to stand up for marriage equality far longer than Hillary's recent conversion. She did t have anyone's back and that's not what a leader does.

And Rosen was lying several times; I am personally highly offended with the "no harm/no foul" bullshit defense when it is well known by the nature of their jobs any HARM caused to national security over this can't be made public. It is disingenuous spin, and it is shameful.

[ucrdem]

8. If harm had befallen any US person, property, program or plan, we probably

would have heard about it long ago via the intel industry's unofficial State Secrets Broadcasting System. On the other hand, any exonerating info Clinton would like to get out to the public, well, that's another story. She can't. So I'm pretty confident no harm came as a result of whatever protocols she breached.

On the point of changing with the times, I see that as a good thing.

[dragonfly301]

2. Good job summarizing!

I have no idea why Hillary Rosen was on the panel other than needing another Clinton loyalist to play Rehm's wingman. There were callers who added more to the discussion than Rosen.

[oberliner]

4. This is the woman who said Bernie was a dual Israeli-American citizen

Her source was reading it somewhere on Facebook.

Also, Bernie never said "let's forget about the damn emails" - he said he was sick of hearing about them.

[pmorlan1]

5. Trying to Bury It

I found this passage to be interesting.

FALLONAnd what we find, in general, is that after a year's worth of discussion on this topic, that the voters would really prefer that we focus on the issues that matter most to them, general election matchup between her and Donald Trump so that's what we're going to do.

We know on DU that Hillary supporters have tried to shut down discussion on this topic and I haven't seen a great deal of discussion on this topic in the media until recently. Nothing to see here folks move along. This is all old news that has already been discussed NOT. He actually said this a couple of times.

[JudyM]

6. Great summary, thanks for doing it!

I used to listen to Rehm all the time but had to stop because she was another Clinton surrogate. I was disgusted with the lack of even a semblance of balance on issues regarding Bernie. And the news reporting was so slanted against Bernie that I had to stop listening to it too... Not because he's my candidate (although the there's that) but because I knew that it was loaded with inaccuracies. That was around the time of the "unqualified" brooha. I listen to NPR about an hour a week tops, now.

[Skwmom]

7. The spokesman Brian lied, Hilary Rosen - Clinton does not have a trust issue.