Prominent liberals are criticizing Hillary Clinton for using a personal email account on a private server to conduct work while Secretary of State.
{mosads}Lawmakers, pundits and even Saturday Night Live have skewered Clinton’s alleged secrecy and efforts at damage control.
Clinton allies have defended the former secretary of State, but she has stayed largely silent. Last week, in a late-night tweet, she said she had asked the State Department to make her emails public.
But questions remain over the level of the White House’s knowledge of Clinton’s use of a personal account and whether emails have been lost from the public record.
Those concerns have many on the left sounding critical notes about the Democrats’ likely 2016 standard-bearer.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — “What I would like is for her to come forward, and say just what the situation is because she is the preeminent political figure right now,” Feinstein said Sunday, March 9 on NBC’s “Meet the Press. “She is the leading candidate whether it be Republican or Democrat to be the next president and I think that she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is.”
Chris Matthews — “I’m just asking, do you think it’s OK for a public servant at the level of secretary of State to carry on correspondence — official correspondence — but keep it to themselves, if they choose to,” the MSNBC “Hardball” host asked on his March 4 show. “Because that’s the option she has now, since it’s all her account.”
David Axelrod — “And it would be good to get out there and answer these questions. Why did she use a separate email? How did she secure that email? Was there another email for which she communicated with people?” the former top Obama strategist asked on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on March 4. “By not answering these questions, they’re allowing the story to fester in ways that are unhelpful and so, you know, lack of speed kills in this case.”
Jon Stewart — “The Daily Show” host suggested on March 4 the controversy wouldn’t change voters’ views, but also delivered a jab, saying that “future President Hillary Clinton may have to pardon former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
“Saturday Night Live” – Comedian Kate McKinnon portrayed Hillary in a sketch March 7, depicting her as obsessed with becoming president.
“Recently it was revealed that while I was secretary of State I did not use a government email. I used a personal one, leading many to believe I was hiding scandalous or incriminating emails,” said McKinnon in the skit. “And to those people I’d like to say, ‘Nice try!’ Those emails are clean as a whistle. This is not how Hillary Clinton goes down!”
Lawrence O’Donnell — “This email system was set up obviously to defy the Freedom of Information Act,” said the MSNBC host on “Morning Joe” on March 6.
Mika Brzezinski — “This wasn’t honest,” said Brzezinski, the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” on her program March 6 about Clinton’s handling of the private emails.
Eugene Robinson — “Hillary Clinton will have many questions to answer. I just don’t understand the how or the why of this whole thing,” said The Washington Post columnist in an online chat on March 3.
Dana Milbank — “It is a needless, self-inflicted wound, and it stems from the same flaws that have caused Clinton trouble in the past — terminal caution and its cousin, obsessive secrecy,” the Post columnist wrote on March 6.
Bill Press — “This email situation is the latest scandal for the Clintons, but I can tell you this…… It won’t be the last,” the radio host and columnist for The Hill tweeted on March 6.
Juan Williams — “Well, I must say first of all, Hillary Clinton seems to me to be very entitled and privileged and she broke the rules,” said Williams, a columnist for The Hill, on “Fox News Sunday” March 8. “So, I don’t think there are any questions. As to whether or not she broke the law, that’s not clear.”
David Corn — “I was told by a Clinton advocate working for her that everything was preserved by the State Department. It turns out it wasn’t, they lied — stuff that went to people outside the State Department were not preserved,” the journalist for Mother Jones told Chris Matthews on MSNBC on March 8.
Robert Gibbs — “I think this is another one of those things the Clinton campaign, such as it is, is going to have to explain,” the former Obama press secretary said March 3 on NBC’s “Today.”
Hilary Rosen — “What you don’t have is a proactive message about the direction she’s going to take the country,” the Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter told the Wall Street Journal March 5 about Hillary’s difficulties responding without a campaign in place.
Zephyr Teachout — The former New York gubernatorial candidate on March 5 called for Clinton to hold a press conference. “I don’t think a tweet is a press conference. I think, honestly, all elected and appointed and executive branch officials make mistakes. I’m not going to slam her on this if it’s a genuine mistake, but I think we have the right to know more about it,” she said.