Just what Democrats needed, another email flap: Laurie Roberts
With Trump bouncing into the lead and all eyes on Philadelphia, nothing could be worse than fresh trust issues.
Hillary Clinton’s long-awaited week in the sunlight begins with clouds overhead, blown in on the force of an e-mail scandal.
No, not that email scandal.
The new one, the one that shows supposedly neutral Democrat Party leaders were in the bag for Clinton and not only that, were actively conspiring to sandbag her competition, Bernie Sanders.
Sanders has long said the party’s nomination was rigged for Clinton and the emails suggest he was right.
Here we are again, talking about trust
And so at the start of the week when Hillary Clinton is about to make history, we are talking about ...
... Emails. And the issue that has long dogged her: trust.
The Clinton campaign on Sunday tried to redirect voters’ attention, blaming the Russians for the leak.
“What’s disturbing to us is that experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails and other experts are now saying that Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump,” Clinton campaign chairman Robby Mook said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
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Russians or not, the emails dealt a blow to the party on the eve of its big party. People tend not to like it when party bosses manipulate them.
The scandal brings the T word — trust — right back to front and center just as the party is getting started.
This is going to leave a mark
That’s potentially going to leave a mark with a sizable number of voters who already don’t trust Clinton but don’t like Trump either — the ones who are faced now with holding their nose and making a choice this fall. A CNN/ORC poll released on Monday shows Clinton trailing Trump, 44 to 39 percent.. Among those polled, 68% said she's not honest and trustworthy. 68 percent.
And now comes this scandal.
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Was Clinton in on shady party leaders' plan for sabotage? She says no. But she also said she never had any top-secret emails on the server in the basement of her house while she was secretary of State.
Just hours after DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned Sunday over the email revelations, Clinton offered her an "honorary" post in her campaign. I'm guessing that'll bern Sanders' supporters, some of whom appear ready to blow up this convention.
Meanwhile, Dem leaders are bracing for more of their emails to hit public view.
I tell you, we haven’t seen drama like this since,.well, last week.
Laurie Roberts is a metro columnist for The Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. Follow Laurie Roberts on Twitter: @LaurieRoberts
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