Political Scandals

In the only Thursday evening network newscast story on the 2016 Democratic field, the CBS Evening News chose to make no mention of Hillary Clinton’s numerous scandals as she’s losing ground in polls to Bernie Sanders but provided her a soundbite to self-servingly claim she’s merely “moderate and center” in her political ideology. 

Taking issue with Hillary Clinton’s overdue apology on Tuesday night, Esquire’s Charles Pierce, formerly with the Boston Globe, appeared on the airwaves hours later on MSNBC’s All In to lament that Clinton “didn’t owe me an apology” because “[s]he didn’t do anything to me” with the entire apology being a wash due his belief that “[t]he American people don’t care about” her e-mail scandal at all.

My mother had a saying about heeding warnings from others: "if one person tells you you're drunk, ignore him.  If two people tell you you're drunk, lie down."  So what should Hillary Clinton do when the entire Morning Joe panel tells her that her supposed apology on ABC last night was a total bust? From Joe Scarborough saying it looked like a "hostage video," to John Heilemann saying her apology…

In her third interview in the past week, Hillary Clinton sat down Tuesday with ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir and while Muir pressed her on the e-mail scandal, Muir concluded part one of the discussion with gooey questions about if she ponders why she’s running for president “in your most private of moments” and whether she hears “your mother’s voice in your ear.”

In her "heart?"  Some cynical lawyerly types might say that presupposes a fact not in evidence . . .  Is Harold Ford, Jr. auditioning for an appointment in a hoped-for Hillary administration?  On Morning Joe of late, he's trying out a variety of dubious defenses.  Last week, his line was that although Americans might see her as a "liar" and "dishonest," nobody thinks she's "unpatriotic."  Today…

In the past week, several pundits and alleged "experts" have been on a mission to tell us rubes that Hillary Clinton's email and private-server controversy doesn't rise to the level of being a scandal. They have absurdly argued that even if she "technically" violated State Department protocols and even broke some pesky laws in handling her communications while she was Secretary of State, Mrs.…

In the first few hours after Andrea Mitchell’s interview with Hillary Clinton, reactions poured in on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports and MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts that ranged from Rachel Maddow dismissing the growing e-mail scandal as “kinetic activity” to the Washington Post’s Anne Gearan fawning over her “one-on-one” skills to Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd excusing her non-answers…

In an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton on Friday, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell began by gently wondering if the former Secretary of State was “sorry” about the e-mail scandal: “You said recently that using your personal e-mail while you were secretary of state was not the best choice and that you take responsibility. Are you sorry?”

Despite a combined eight hours of air time, the three networks on Friday allowed a scant one minute and 48 seconds to the latest details of Hillary Clinton's evolving e-mail scandal. This, despite the revelation that a top Clinton adviser announced he will plead the Fifth Amendment. In contrast, ABC, NBC and CBS devoted a staggering 41 minutes and 54 seconds to various rock concerts. 

The CBS Evening News bid farewell on Thursday to Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal as the newscast, unlike ABC and NBC, dodged news that longtime Clinton aide Cheryl Mills testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi plus word late Wednesday night that a former staffer who helped set up her private e-mail server would invoke his Fifth Amendment by not testifying before Congress.

In an interview with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar on Thursday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell fretted that the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal would continue to damage the Democratic front-runner unless it was suddenly shut down: “...now that the FBI is involved and now that these e-mails will trickle out between now and January....unless they close this down quickly and…

On Thursday, NBC’s Today led with breaking news that Hillary Clinton staffer Bryan Pagliano would invoke the Fifth Amendment and not testify to the House Benghazi Committee about setting up the former Secretary of State’s private e-mail server. Savannah Guthrie wondered: “Is there something to hide? And what does it mean for the Clinton campaign?” Today devoted 6 minutes, 20 seconds to Clinton’s…

In his standup-comedy days, Steve Martin did a joke about imposing the death penalty for parking violations. Michael Tomasky suggests that the House Benghazi committee has a similarly disproportionate penalty in mind for Hillary Clinton over Emailgate: wrecking her presidential campaign. Tomasky acknowledged in a Wednesday column that Hillary “screwed up this email business,” but asserted that…

How bad is it getting for Hillary when the best her defenders can come up with is Harold Ford Jr.'s formulation: okay, so the words most associated with her are "liar," "dishonest" and "untrustworthy" but, hey!—she's not "unpatriotic." On today's Morning Joe, after Ford resorted on Hillary's behalf to the last refuge of scoundrels, Joe Scarborough hit him with a killer question: does Ford think…