On Monday, NBC’s Today show was the only network morning show to cover the State Department reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. However, the entire report was designed to immediately discredit the probe and even touted Clinton telling CBS Sunday Morning’s Jane Pauley that Donald Trump was an “illegitimate president.”
“On her case. The State Department resurrects the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Why career diplomats are suddenly in the cross-hairs,” co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed at the top of the broadcast. Minutes later, she introduced the story by telling viewers that “a topic that dominated headlines during the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton’s email” was “back in the headlines.”
Chief foreign affairs correspondent and Clinton apologist Andrea Mitchell began her report by warning: “The State Department has revived an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and is now expanding it to include career diplomats who have never even sent her messages directly....The new probe striking fear among many in the diplomatic corps.”
After deriding the email scandal as “a favorite attack line by President Trump against his former opponent,” Mitchell highlighted one former diplomat hinting at a Trump administration conspiracy: “One of those involved, former assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman, who left the State Department in 2012, told NBC News, ‘I’d like to think this is routine, but something strange is going on.’”
The reporter further hyped “Another former State Department official telling NBC, ‘They’ve now expanded the investigation beyond Clinton’s aides to career diplomats – who could lose their jobs – or never get confirmed for another post.’”
At that point, Mitchell featured a soundbite of Clinton recklessly pushing the conspiracy theory that Trump was not legitimately elected president, telling CBS’s Pauley:
He knows he’s an illegitimate president. He knows. He knows that there were a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out the way it did. So of course he’s obsessed with me. And I believe that it’s a guilty conscious in so much as he has a conscience.
Rather than fact check those wildly irresponsible claims, Mitchell concluded the slanted segment with this declaration:
The State Department has not responded to our request for comment, but some veteran diplomats tell NBC News they see the apparent reopening and expansion of the Clinton email probe as an attempt to resurrect the issue to damage Democrats in 2020. The move could also sully the reputations of some of the most highly respected career diplomats.
It’s amazing how uninterested a supposed “journalist” like Mitchell has been in the Clinton email scandal. When it first broke in September of 2015, she hoped the FBI would “close this down quickly.” After ex-FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress in late October of 2016 notifying lawmakers of further investigation into the scandal, Mitchell was inconsolable.
Here is a full transcript of the September 30 report:
7:07 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And in the meantime, a topic that dominated headlines during the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton’s email. Well, it’s back in the headlines this morning, now at the center of a resurrected probe by the Trump administration. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell joins us with that story. Andrea, good morning.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Good morning, Savannah. The State Department has revived an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and is now expanding it to include career diplomats who have never even sent her messages directly. The President attacking Clinton for her emails again overnight, tweeting that she, quote, “deleted and acid washed them so they can never be found.” The new probe striking fear among many in the diplomatic corps.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Clinton Email Probe Back in the Spotlight; Dozens of Former Aides Contacted by Investigators]
Hillary Clinton’s emails, a favorite attack line by President Trump against his former opponent.
DONALD TRUMP: She did a lot of bad things, folks. 33,000 emails.
MITCHELL: A charge he made again just last week.
TRUMP: Frankly, I think that one of the great crimes committed is Hillary Clinton deleting 33,000 emails after Congress sent her a subpoena.
MITCHELL: Now, State Department investigators are intensifying their probe into email records of at least 130 senior State Department officials, both past and present. Their messages ended up in then-Secretary of State Clinton’s private email server, according to several former diplomats involved who spoke to NBC News. The story first reported by The Washington Post.
The diplomats were told their emails, some from a decade ago, had been retroactively classified. According to those targeted, the department first reached out to them 18 months ago, but then notified them in August that it is now examining more emails from that same time period.
One of those involved, former assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman, who left the State Department in 2012, told NBC News, “I’d like to think this is routine, but something strange is going on.” Another former State Department official telling NBC, “They’ve now expanded the investigation beyond Clinton’s aides to career diplomats – who could lose their jobs – or never get confirmed for another post.”
Clinton lashing out at the President on CBS Sunday Morning.
HILLARY CLINTON: He knows he’s an illegitimate president. He knows. He knows that there were a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out the way it did. So of course he’s obsessed with me. And I believe that it’s a guilty conscious in so much as he has a conscience.
MITCHELL: The State Department has not responded to our request for comment, but some veteran diplomats tell NBC News they see the apparent reopening and expansion of the Clinton email probe as an attempt to resurrect the issue to damage Democrats in 2020. The move could also sully the reputations of some of the most highly respected career diplomats. That could result in them being fired or make it more difficult for them to ever get confirmed for a future administration. Savannah?
GUTHRIE: Andrea Mitchell in our Washington newsroom. Andrea, thank you very much.
