The Clinton Foundation is back in the spotlight for their precarious ties to Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, released e-mails suggesting major Clinton foundation donors bought access to the department. While the Clinton campaign insisted “the e-mails don’t relate to the foundation’s work,” email scandals appear to be a perpetual monkey on the back of the Clinton campaign. Thursday on Morning Joe, the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward said what most Americans are thinking: the revelation of Clinton’s e-mails is “a ticking time bomb.”
Though the liberal co-host is an avid Clinton supporter, Mika Brzezinski has been frustrated with Clinton’s rudimentary apologies for the recurring e-mail scandals. She pressed Bob Woodward on whether or not they should brace themselves for an untimely “October surprise.”
BRZEZINSKI: So, Bob Woodward, the Wall Street Journal has an editorial today saying that Hillary Clinton has left herself wide open for an October surprise. From what has been uncovered so far and from the answers that she has provided so far, how realistic is the possibility of an October surprise or some sort of damning revelation?
BOB WOODWARD: Well, it may come in September or this month in August. If you talk to anybody in the security business, talk to somebody in the white house recently who knows the reality. Everything is hacked. There is no security. And, so, it's not just e-mails from the DNC or the private server that Hillary Clinton had. It is everywhere
The Clinton camp appears to be unconcerned by the potential for disaster if these e-mails are in fact released. Brzezinski zeroed in on the issue, asking Woodward whether or not the Clinton campaign is “confident nothing is going to be revealed that could be extremely damaging?”
WOODWARD: Well, look what the FBI director Comey said. That they found thousands, not hundreds, but thousands of e-mails that were not turned over in all of this process. That some of these involved e-mail chains of top secret special access programs. These are real secrets. These are the kinds of secrets that normally do not come out in the media. So, it's a ticking time bomb. There's no question about that.
BRZEZINSKI: Whoa.
Bob Woodward undoubtedly knows a thing or two about “real secrets” that “normally do not come out in the media.” Brzezinski’s “whoa” was drawn out by the inevitability in the air of Woodward’s answer: it’s not a matter of if, but when.
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08-11-16 MSNBC Morning Joe
07:10:54 AM – 07:15:20 AMMIKE BARNICLE: You know, Mika, one quick thing. In an odd way Willie Geist right here, our own Willie Geist, defined what Trump means many, many months ago when you factor in what happened in 2008, the winter of 2007/2008. People losing jobs, homes, incomes, hope. And Willie said, and here's Donald Trump basically giving a big middle finger—
BRZEZINSKI: Right.
BARNICLE: —to the establishment around all of these people and all of us. And that clicked.
BRZEZINSKI: On both sides of the aisle, for sure. It did click. But he hasn't risen up. He’s actually lowered the bar in a way that I've never seen in my lifetime. But here's the problem. There's a problem on the Democratic side, as well. E-mails from Hillary Clinton's state department staff are, once again, putting her family's foundation in the spotlight. NBC’s Kristen Welker has the details.
KRISTEN WELKER: State department emails obtained by a conservative advocacy group raising fresh questions about the relationship between the Clinton family foundation and secretary Clinton's state department. One dated 2009. A Clinton foundation executive e-mailed secretary Clinton's top advisors Huma Abedin and Sheryl Mills requesting they set up a meeting between a billionaire donor and the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. “This is very important,” he said. Critics have pounced on foreign donations to the foundation, questioning whether that bought donors access to the state department.
DONALD TRUMP: It's called pay for play.
WELKER: Last year Bill Clinton defending the foundation to Cynthia Mcfadden.
BILL CLINTON: We have never done anything knowingly inappropriate in terms of taking money to influence any kind of American government policy.
WELKER: The Clinton campaign telling NBC news “These new e-mails don't relate to the foundation's work” and they say the donor never met with the ambassador.
BRZEZINSKI: So, Bob Woodward, the Wall Street Journal has an editorial today saying that Hillary Clinton has left herself wide open for an October surprise. From what has been uncovered so far and from the answers that she has provided so far, how realistic is the possibility of an October surprise or some sort of damning revelation?
BOB WOODWARD: Well, it may come in September or this month in August. If you talk to anybody in the security business, talk to somebody in the white house recently who knows the reality. Everything is hacked. There is no security. And, so, it's not just e-mails from the DNC or the private server that Hillary Clinton had. It is everywhere. And, so, if you want to project out the people who have this. The Russians, the Chinese, God knows can kind of deal it out in a way that could be quite damaging, not just to the political climate and the candidates, but to the security of the country. There is no security.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. No, I understand that. I understand more will come out. What I'm asking you and it's a tough question. I have my kind of point of view about it, but is this a campaign and a candidate that is confident that nothing is going to be revealed that could be extremely damaging?
WOODWARD: Well, look what the FBI director Comey said. That they found thousands, not hundreds, but thousands of e-mails that were not turned over in all of this process. That some of these involved e-mail chains of top secret special access programs. These are real secrets. These are the kinds of secrets that normally do not come out in the media. So, it's a ticking time bomb. There's no question about that.
BRZEZINSKI: Whoa.
WOODWARD: I don't think anyone knows. And you talk to the security experts and they say the people who are hacking this, in some cases, are so good they leave no fingerprints and no trails so you don't know whether you've lost these e-mails or the material.
BRZEZINSKI: Right.
