Thread by @frodofied

Sigh.

I've already taught this class.

@HillaryClinton was never "unpopular," and this is especially true when compared to leading Republicans who almost always have net negative ratings.

Believe it or not from 2008 til mid 2015 @HillaryClinton was, the most popular.

1/

https://twitter.com/AndrewHarbison1/status/1027966723125858304

From 2008 - mid-2015 Clinton's approval rarely sank below 63% for long stretches of time superceded her boss in popularity.

In terms of the rest of DC no one came close to either of them.

The narrative you've embraced is fiction.

@AndrewHarbison1

This popularity was a mixed blessing, however. The Republicans, already anxious about 2016, began to realize that if Clinton decided to run that they had no chance of regaining the White House.

Polls throughout 2013 and 2014 we're clear about this.

@AndrewHarbison1

Not only did the majority of Americans want her to run, she was beating every named Republican contender by huge margins, sometimes double digits.

Why do you think it all shook out the way it did?

Why do you think half the world joined forces to stop her?

@AndrewHarbison1

If Clinton had actually been unpopular, or as weak as they tried to suggest, then there would not have been such an effort to stop her, because it wouldn't have been necessary.

The Benghazi Committee was not formed to examine Benghazi. That had been done.

@AndrewHarbison1

Four other separate investigations had already been completed and all ended with nothing. As the prospect of 2016 loomed, however, a panicked Republican leadership all but forced House Speaker Boehner to form the committee. One he had said publicly many times was unnecessary.

The Benghazi Committee was formed for one reason only. To weaken or cripple @HillaryClinton and give the Republicans a fighting chance at 2016.

Almost exactly a year after it had been formed they fired a warning shot across the bow with their second fake controversy.

What is NEVER discussed is that the whole "secret" email server story which @TGowdySC announced had recently been "discovered" by the committee was neither a secret nor a discovery.

Everyone in DC had known about it for a long time. Afterall many had received emails from her.

Even the media knew about it. When Guccifer hacked Sid Blumemthal's account in 2013, you know those famed Blumenthal memos that were newsworthy for about five minutes?

Those exchanges to and from Clinton were all sent from the server & all carried the private address.

But again, it was never a secret. Tens of thousands of emails were exchanged on that thing, to many people, from all over the world and certainly DC.

I'm not sure who realized the server could be exploited as a new angle of attack, but it's likely to have come from Russia.

So, it is no coincidence that Gowdy withheld "announcement" of the "discovery" of the "secret" server until two weeks before Clinton would announce she would make her second attempt at the Democratic nomination for President.

It was a contrived srory borne of necessity.

They were sending a signal to her that they were going to make it as hard as possible for her. Some probably hoped that she would just say fuck it, it's not worth it and decide against a run.

Which shows how little they understood the woman they most truly feared.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Republican manufactured outrage.

How important, I've asked many time, was the private server? I mean really?

So important that they introduced it when it would get them the most political benefit and do her the most harm.

They stretched it out for as long as possible, again for as long as it could do her real harm. It would have gone on much longer had she not called their bluff and agreed to testify.

She ruined them and completely destroyed the committee's chance to go on much longer.

The Benghazi Special Committee quietly closed up shop merely one month after the election having successfully completed it's task of destroying Hillary Clinton's reputation.

This was shortly after leaving their final on someone's front porch and tiptoeing away.

They had found nothing new, again.

Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.

But the damage had been done because assholes who couldnt think logically fell for it hook line and and sinker.

And this is why her approval ratings seem artificially low.

Clinton is as popular as ever among her base. Democrats love her. Independents swing up and down, but among Repugs she is barely more popular than Trump is w/ anyone outside of his base.

But to call her unpopular is a lie. Clinton has never lost the popular vote in any contest.

I want to apologize for the delay between tweets on this thread. I'm helping my bestie @Solutioneer72 w/ a home improvement project.

Speaking of which, going to send a tweet outside of this thread.

If you just started following me I often insert pointless interludes in threads.

I don't know why I do these things, but I do, and they often get away from me, like this one is right now.

BRB.