Emailgate????

Calm Down Hillary Haters, Colin Powell Used His Personal Email Too, So Your ‘Emailgate’ Is Just A Sham

Author: Ryan Denson

The Republicans, in anticipation of Hillary Clinton’s announcement to run, have already started the smear campaigning. First it was her organization receiving contributions from foreign governments, and now it’s something so trivial that it makes Travelgate and Filegate look like actual scandals: her email address during her tenure as Secretary of State.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that Hillary Clinton, while serving in the State Department, exclusively used her personal email for correspondence and official business instead of a government email. Yes you read that right. Republicans are outraged because Clinton (who has handed over every email she sent) used a personal email. My god, hang her for high crimes (or in this case, not even a misdemeanor).

Now Republicans are hypocrites. We know this. Over the past few months, we have seen their hypocrisy shine bright when it comes to the handling of infectious diseases (Ebola) and immigration action. Well now we can add a trivial issue like email outrage to their list of hypocrisy.

Can anyone recall just when the Republicans flew into a hissy fit when Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State and a Republican, used his personal email during his tenure?

Oh that’s right. You won’t find the outrage. Because Powell isn’t running for President of the United States and the GOP isn’t scared of him.

Powell, who is the only honorable person to have ever served in the Bush Administration (except maybe Robert Gates), jumped to the aid of Hillary Clinton and admitted that he too had used his personal email, and that there was nothing wrong in doing so. In a statement released by the Powell camp, the former Secretary that he was not aware of any such breach of protocol:

“He [Powell] was not aware of any restrictions nor does he recall being made aware of any over the four years he served at State,” the statement says. “He sent emails to his staff generally via their State Department email addresses. These emails should be on the State Department computers. He might have occasionally used personal email addresses, as he did when emailing to family and friends.

He did not take any hard copies of emails with him when he left office and has no record of the emails. They were all unclassified and mostly of a housekeeping nature. He came into office encouraging the use of emails as a way of getting the staff to embrace the new 21st information world.

The account he used has been closed for a number of years. In light of new policies published in 2013 and 2014 and a December 2014 letter from the State Department advising us of these polices, we will be working with the department to see if any additional action is required on our part.”

Now Republicans are screaming WHAT ABOUT CONDI RICE!? SHE DIDN’T USE HER PERSONAL EMAIL!! Well, yes, that is true. Condoleezza Rice never used her personal email during her tenure as Secretary. But that’s because she “barely used email at all.”

In a statement, Hillary camp responded, saying:

“Like Secretaries of State before her, she used her own email account when engaging with any Department officials. For government business, she emailed them on their Department accounts, with every expectation they would be retained. When the Department asked former Secretaries last year for help ensuring their emails were in fact retained, we immediately said yes.”

Republicans are in an uproar over the “scandal” that is Hillary Clinton using her personal email during her tenure as Secretary of State. But what a shock…they didn’t raise hell when Colin Powell did it. I can’t wait to see them back away from Emailgate when the public doesn’t buy it.