Hillary’s “Multiple Devices” Excuse Crumbles

After days of silence regarding evidence that she had not only used a private email account for her business as secretary of state, but also a private server, Hillary Clinton offered a flimsy excuse. According to her, she did not want to carry around “multiple devices” to juggle between business emails and personal emails. For the sake of convenience, she made up her own rules on State Department communications.

That weak excuse is now crumbling. The Associated Press says that Clinton used an iPad to email her staff as well as her BlackBerry while serving as secretary of state. Her spokesman admitted Tuesday that Clinton used the iPad, though he said it was primarily for reading the news. Regardless, it puts the “multiple devices” excuse to bed, since she could have easily separated her work and private email accounts with the two devices. That would have allowed her to revert to an official government email address, keeping within the spirit of the law and preserving transparency.

The AP also found at least one instance where the line between “business” and “personal” was blurred. While replying to an adviser’s story on a Pakistani drone strike, Clinton accidentally wrote back with an email about decorations. This alone shows the dangers of playing so loosely with the rules. The effect in this instance is hardly catastrophic, but what if there were others? Can we seriously consider a presidential candidate who took such a cavalier approach to national security?

It’s terrifying – though predictable – that this has turned into just another right vs. left issue. This should be of the utmost concern to all Americans. It is the responsibility of our public servants to keep their dealings above board. That responsibility has been abdicated by the current administration, and if Hillary’s email scandal is anything to go by, she will continue to shroud her public service in secrecy should she be elected president.

Americans deserve the truth about what happened in Benghazi. The fact that every inquiry ends up hitting a brick wall of obstruction is a clear sign of a coverup. Journalists who pursued this obvious story – like CBS reporter Sharyl Atkisson – were marginalized by their own news organizations, likely under pressure from the Obama administration. This kind of thing doesn’t happen unless there’s something to hide. The further Congress digs into the attacks, the more clear it becomes how important it was to this administration to hide the truth.

Instead of putting politics aside in the interest of the public good, Democrats have circled the wagons in support of Obama and their only real choice for 2016, Hillary Clinton. That alone should be enough to tell the American people what this party is all about. Unfortunately, according to the polls, most voters who supported Clinton before this scandal see no reason why they should stop now. Thus, she and others like her will continue to write their own rules with political impunity.