On Tuesday’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC’s Joy Reid continued her vigorous defense of Hillary Clinton despite her ongoing problems surrounding her use of a private e-mail server.
The former MSNBC host dismissed a new report that revealed Clinton’s server was not completely wiped and multiple work-related e-mails were recovered and maintained that “because there's no other underlying story to it, it is still a process story.”
Reid continued to complain that Clinton’s e-mails continued to make news and insisted that only the media and those that already dislike her actually care about this issue:
I think that it's an area until you find that she did something that’s demonstrably and specifically wrong, like she e-mailed a then-classified at the time document from her personal e-mail then I think you’d have something. Unfortunately now it just seems like a swirling sort of process story that is of more interest to the media and people who already dislike Hillary Clinton than there is an underlying scandal here.
This was not the first time Reid has dismissed the significance Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server. During an appearance on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes in August, the MSNBC contributor admitted that she was “utterly bored” by the scandal and argued that Clinton’s e-mails might have been safer on a private server than one operated by the State Department.
While Reid was quick to once again downplay the importance of the ongoing investigation into Clinton’s e-mail usage, Sam Stein of the liberal Huffington Post was much less lenient on the former Secretary of State. Stein admitted that this latest report might not change things that much, he pointed out that Clinton created this problem for herself by deciding to establish her own private e-mail server:
There is an element of self-inflicted wound here, too, right? She made some decisions that have come back to look relatively wrong headed I want to say in retrospect. And she even admits it and so she’s kind of created her own bad narrative.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
September 22, 2015
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: We have a report in Bloomberg today about Secretary Clinton's e-mails when she was secretary of State. The report saying that the FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from the private computer server used by Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State, according to a person familiar with the investigation. And so, Sam Stein, the drip drip continues on the e-mails. It turns out that the server does have recoverable material on it.
SAM STEIN: Yeah, beyond, I think there’s a meta-story here which is that this story isn't going away. That there will be developments however incremental or large they may be in the months ahead. And as this FBI investigation goes on, it could go on for a couple of months, we should expect to see more stories like this. On the flip side I'm not sure on the substantive matters how much this changes things. As much as I would love to see these personal e-mails as a reporter, I think on legal grounds there is no apparent obligation for Hillary Clinton to make the determination that she has to turn over personal e-mails. Now, someone might come in and say this is of public interest, it should have been FOIAble, you made an overly sensitive determination that it was private. But I don't think this changes that dynamic. I thin it does change, it does go to show you, as you reference, that this is a drip, drip, drip type of story.
O’DONNELL: Well Joy, just to clarify, the report indicates that the FBI also found work related e-mails in addition to the --
STEIN: Well, that changes things.
JOY REID: And the other complicating factor in addition to what Sam said is that the Department of Justice has already made a finding that Hillary Clinton was well within her rights to delete whatever e-mails she wanted whether she deemed them to be private or otherwise. So I think because there's no other underlying story to it, it is still a process story.
O’DONNELL: She's only within her legal rights to delete personal e-mails.
STEIN: Correct.
O’DONNELL: She’s not within her legal rights to delete any work-related e-mails.
REID: But she was also according to the DOJ finding able to determine on her own what e-mails were personal and what were not. So I think that it's an area until you find that she did something that’s demonstrably and specifically wrong, like she e-mailed a then-classified at the time document from her personal e-mail then I think you’d have something. Unfortunately now it just seems like a swirling sort of process story that is of more interest to the media and people who already dislike Hillary Clinton than there is an underlying scandal here.
O’DONNELL: Yeah, and Sam, that's one of the challenges of the this for Hillary Clinton, is defending against it is extremely difficult because of basically of the complexity of description of what's involved here.
STEIN: Yeah. I totally agree with that. It's very arcane. It's tough to follow. I have difficulty following it sometimes, and I'm the smartest person ever.
O’DONNELL: Exactly.
STEIN: There is an element of self-inflicted wound here, too, right? She made some decisions that have come back to look relatively wrong headed I want to say in retrospect. And she even admits it and so she’s kind of created her own bad narrative.
