The FBI, after recommending that the Department of Justice not bring criminal charges against Clinton over her “careless” use of a private email server, has brought the issue of her deleted emails back into the spotlight a mere two weeks before the presidential election.
The agency announced last week in a letter to Congress that emails pertinent to the closed investigation on Clinton’s use of a private email server were discovered on former Representative Anthony Weiner’s computer during an investigation into his texts to a fifteen year old girl. The Director of the FBI, James Comey, refused to specify if any pertinent or significant news related to Clinton would be announced before the election date, angering both Democrats and Republicans for different reasons. Naturally, Republicans are seeking conclusive evidence against Clinton before the election while Democrats are upset to see this controversy brought back to life. Even President Obama criticized Comey for releasing partial information at such a critical time, claiming that “we don’t operate on innuendo and we don’t operate on incomplete information”. Some Democrats even see this move as highly suspicious; Comey was once a registered Republican that supported both Romney and McCain. Their suspicions only grew when the FBI later released declassified information on President Bill Clinton’s highly controversial pardon of Marc Rich, a former hedge-fund manager indicted of tax evasion that fled arrest for several years, onto their public database.
To Donald Trump, this news is delightful. After all, the GOP nominee has spent the last six months labeling Clinton as a corrupt and scandalous candidate and now has an opportunity to direct attention toward her emails right before the election. Trump, while slowly recovering from his dismal performances at the national debates, is still behind Clinton in several battleground states and national polls; the latest polls see Clinton at 45 percent support of likely voters with Trump at 42 percent. Surrogates seem to be playing a major role in both campaigns; Melania Trump has been sent solo to campaign in Pennsylvania for Trump while Senator Bernie Sanders and President Barack Obama have been visiting several swing states to make the case for Clinton. Meanwhile, several powerful Republicans including Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan have announced that they have already voted for Trump while others, such as several members of the Bush family, have already said or hinted at voting for Clinton instead.
Regardless of your political beliefs, please vote if you can this election day! This is one of the most important elections of our time and this is your opportunity to have your vote heard.
