Thread by @20committee

Time for a brief thread on Hillary, who's back in the news BIGLY (as Donnie would say).

First, she's been sort-of cleared in an internal DoS look into the mishandling of classified information in EmailGate, which I published a lot about in 2015-16.

/1

apnews.com/14b14afc5d8647…

BLUF: DoS investigators found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”

This is now spun as vindication by Team Hillary, which it really isn't. Efforts to dismiss EmailGate as FAKE NEWS (Donnie again, #sorrynotsorry) still fail. /2

Neither is DoS's conclusion surprising to anyone in earth orbit. Nobody sane ever suggested that HRC & Co put classified in "UNCLAS" emails by design. That was the inevitable outcome of her decision to skirt Federal record-mgmt laws & regs by conducting official DoS business.../3

In "private" emails. Whitewater lesson learned!

Regrettably, we know where that logic ultimately led. Hillary's inability to address EmailGate in a direct and honest way undermined her campaign in 2016, and in the end that was nobody's fault but hers.

Oh well .

Coda. /4

The interesting lingering question about EmailGate -- how did Sid Blumenthal get his uncleared hands on YUGELY classified NSA SIGINT to email it to HRC back in 2011? -- seems too hot to touch by anyone, so it will remain mysterious in perpetuity.

/5

observer.com/2016/09/emailg…

Hillary's in the news also this week for her comments on Jill Stein and (by implication) Tulsi Gabbard as "Russian assets" acting on Kremlin orders to sabotage Dems in 2020.

This statement has caused a political firestorm, and rightly so.

/6

cnn.com/2019/10/18/pol…

HRC's on decently firm ground with Stein. Whatever her ties to the Kremlin actually are, she sat at Putin's head table for RT's 10th anniversary bash in Moscow (along with Mike "Moscow Misha" Flynn, our 24-day APNSA).

Subtle. Normies don't do that.

/7

nbcnews.com/news/world/gue…

Gabbard is another matter. There's no doubt that she pushes Kremlin lies & agitprop, and is utterly unapologetic about it when called out, plus she's alarmingly cuddly with the blood-drenched Assad dictatorship. Tulsi needs to be asked about all this, directly, frequently. /8

However, calling her out as a "Russian asset" is a different matter. Espionage terms have meanings & this one implies that she has a witting clandestine relationship with Kremlin intelligence.

Which, make no mistake, Tulsi may have. But there's nothing in the UNCLAS realm.../9

Showing that any such relationship with RIS exists. Furthermore, a leading pol publicly denouncing another pol as an HoIS asset is a significant claim. This really is McCarthyite stuff that HRC's playing with, what's accurately termed SpyMania. Its political hazards are real. /10

Either Hillary went out on a limb here and smeared Tulsi as a Kremlin spy based on little-to-no evidence, or she really does know something from her cleared USG days -- which she just divulged to the public. Not the best look given EmailGate lingering in the background. /11

In any case, Hillary is hardly the best messenger for denouncing Gabbard's weird Putin-&-Assad-hugging. She has too much baggage and is too polemical. She's far from an unbiased observer, given the unfortunate events of 2016. She needs to leave the amateur CI stuff to others. /12

Gabbard's weird pro-Kremlin takes definitely need examination by the MSM -- there's a real story lurking there -- and fellow Dem 2020 candidates should be all over this too. Hillary, however, should leave it alone. What she's done is make Tulsi front-page news. Was that wise? /13

To conclude, Hillary's public attack on Tulsi should have been handled by others, while SpyMania is cancerous and must be contained before it further erodes our already ugly politics. HRC reminded us again this week, in 2016 redux, that she's just not very good at politics. /14X