On Sunday, October 11th President Obama called Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server a "mistake." He denied that the United States national security had been jeopardized as a result.
Obama made these comments during an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" program where he also defended his policy in Syria. "She made a mistake. She acknowledged it. I do not think that the way it's been ginned up is in part because of politics," Obama said in the interview. The email scandal has been "ginned up" into a political attack by Republicans eager to keep her from being President.
Clinton's use of the email server has played a large role in this presidential political season. She will definitely face questions about the emails during Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate and later this month when she will appear before the House committee.
Obama stated he did not initially know that Clinton was using a private email server. The server was kept at her home in Chappaqua, New York instead of a professional data center. The 60 Minutes interviewer, Steve Kroft pointed out that the Obama administration has prosecuted people for having classified material on their private computers. He responded by stating he did not get the impression that there was a need to "hide something."
Currently, Clinton's server is being investigated by the FBI to determine if the information that was passed through her sever was mishandled. In addition, the State Department is releasing 30,000 emails that Clinton declared "work related." Clinton deemed another 30,000 emails to be "personal" and therefore deleted them. Republicans are eager to know if any of those emails were work related emails that should have been handed over to the State Department.
In addition, Senate investigators discovered that China, South Korea and Germany attempted to hack her server in 2013.
President Obama exclaimed that the email scandal is not a situation where the United States national security was endangered. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
If you were in Clinton's position as a presidential candidate, how would you address the email server?
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/us/politics/obama-tells-60-minutes-hillary-clinton-made-email-mistake.html?ref=politics&_r=0
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/12/obama-says-clinton-email-server-mistake-but-denies-national-security/
3 comments:
After reading this article, I would have to agree with President Obama's statement that the email scandal does not threaten our national security. I agree with his position mainly because if you look at the facts of this controversy, it seems meaningless in the big scope of things. To elaborate, when the State Department found out Clinton had been using a private email account, they wanted her to hand over everything work related. Clinton turned in over 30,490 messages to the agency that she and her team deemed to be possibly work-related. Clinton and her staff also destroyed 31,830 messages that they decided were personal. The private server was then subsequently wiped clean. The last two parts are what people debate is the controversy mainly because deleting over half of the other information on the network is a bit sketchy to most people. As for the second question, if I were in Hilary Clinton's shoes, I would be handling the situation exactly how she is handling it. What I mean by this, is Clinton is showing that she wasn't trying to hide anything by using a private server, it may have been more for conveinience not so much secretive. Moreover, last Tuesday after an interview as Clinton was walking toward the exit, a reporter shouted one final question about the controversy, this time about its staying power. A clearly annoyed Clinton, still walking towards the door, tossed up her hands. “Nobody talks to me about it,” she shouted back, “other than you guys.” This is the type of attitude I believe she must approach the issue with because getting upset about it makes it seem like she actually is nervous and frustrated about what she did, having an apathetic approach is much less concerning.
I believe that President Obama's statement about Hilary Clinton's email scandal has some truth to it, but is also a political move. Her emails may not have threatened our national security, but we are not sure. Because it is not obvious that these emails were insignificant, I think that President Obama is trying to settle citizens down so that they can focus on the politics of the upcoming presidential elections, rather than Hilary Clinton's mistake. I believe that Obama would have said the exact same thing even if the emails truly threatened our national security. First of all, he would not want the public to panic about our safety. Secondly, this dilemma is not only making Hilary Clinton look bad, but also the entire Democratic party. With the presidential election campaign in full swing, Obama and the Democrats cannot have this issue do significant damage to the polls. On the other side, I do not blame them. This could very well be a minor problem that the media has blown way out of proportion. If this is the case, the Democrats need to do everything they can to help the public move on from this issue and dismiss it during the elections.
I believe that social media blows many things out of proportion. I don't believe Hilary's emails are that significant. I think social media focuses on many things that are not that important because they are trying to stir up drama and make their articles interesting. I feel they are continuously talking about her email because they are trying to increase ratings. I think this is a problem that is prevalent in society today. People are more concerned with the affairs of celebrities than getting involved in politics or things that are actually beneficial.
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