There has been a sharp divide over Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign since she made her aspirations known. While generally supported by her Democratic Party, she has been at the scrutiny of the opposing Republican Party. The GOP has been essentially mimicking the tactics used by the party against her husband, Bill Clinton, during his presidency, which involved the over exaggeration of the Whitewater case and bringing up past incidents of infidelities until something stuck. However, the party’s allegations of Hillary’s misconduct during her tenure as Secretary of State has already begun to stain her presidential hopes, all of which surrounds supposed confidential emails sent on a private account used by Hillary to communicate to her staff and Middle Eastern representatives, which violates transparency laws within the government.
Now until Jan. 2016, on a 60-day cycle, a new packet of emails from Clinton’s private account will be released as per stating from the State Department. Clinton has given full cooperation, stating that she does “want people to be able to see all of them.” The former First Lady does not want these emails to hinder her from returning to the White House, and wants to emphasize that she had turned over all emails and documents, not just a select few. The first batch were released May 22 and the next are due June 30.
The first emails showed greater detail into the Benghazi attacks on Sept. 11, 2012, which resulted in the death of Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens. The emails essentially tell the state of the nation from an unknown source after the fall of Dictator Moammar Gadhafi, as discussed between Clinton and her top advisor, Jake Sullivan. A spokesperson from the State Department, Marie Harf, has stated that these released emails “do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks.”
Whether Hillary Clinton did or did not release confidential materials on a private email account is the least of her problems with this story. With the last emails being released in 2016, her presidential campaign has the chance of being tainted with accounts of her putting national security at risk and dodging proper governmental protocol, something that her husband struggled with during his presidential run. This also opens up the chances of another Democratic candidate stealing her lead for the party’s nomination, one without such a lingering public controversy.
