Analysis: An apology at last for Clinton over her email use

[webfact]

Analysis: An apology at last for Clinton over her email use
By JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) — It took three interviews and five days for Hillary Rodham Clinton to say "I'm sorry."

After resisting apologizing for using a personal email account run on a private server to conduct government business as secretary of state, Clinton shifted course Tuesday.

"That was a mistake," she said of her email practice. "I'm sorry about that. I take responsibility," the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination said in an interview with ABC News.

Clinton's late-arriving mea culpa came just 24 hours after she insisted in an interview with The Associated Press she didn't need to apologize because "what I did was allowed." That comment came after a sit-down with NBC News on Friday, in which Clinton said only that she was sorry if her actions had caused voters any confusion.

The apology evolution is the latest chapter for an issue that has dogged Clinton's presidential campaign for months. Despite a big fundraising advantage and a slew of endorsements from party leaders, Clinton's standing with voters has slipped — multiple polls show a majority of Americans don't find her honest and trustworthy.

After the shaky summer, Clinton's advisers say she'll more fully address the email saga as the campaign presses into the fall. Top campaign officials have started emailing memos to anxious supporters and convening late-night conference calls with prominent Democrats.

Clinton's string of national interviews around the Labor Day weekend was supposed to be part of that process — a signal that the candidate herself was on board with the idea of being more forthcoming. Or, as Clinton told AP, to take responsibility and "be as transparent as possible."

Yet in that same interview, while offering a more contrite tone when pressed about her decision to work outside the State Department's email system, Clinton also rejected the idea that an apology was necessary.

"What I did was allowed," she said. "It was allowed by the State Department. The State Department has confirmed that."

While Clinton's campaign offered no immediate explanation for why she changed her mind on an apology, the fact that she did suggests an acceptance that it was untenable to continue avoiding saying the words "I'm sorry."

Clinton isn't the first politician take their time reaching that conclusion.

It took 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney weeks to disavow his comments suggesting 47 percent of Americans believed they were victims and entitled to government services. President Barack Obama at first resisted apologizing to Americans who lost their existing health insurance after adoption of the Affordable Care Act despite his promises they would not. He, too, ultimately said he was sorry.

While Clinton's apology may ease the anxiety among some Democrats, it's unlikely to end the political fallout.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Allison Moore suggested Tuesday that Clinton was only apologizing because "she got caught and is dropping in the polls."

Republican presidential candidates see the issue as a way to discredit Clinton for the general election. GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill are using questions about whether Clinton withheld pertinent emails to bolster a congressional investigation into the deadly 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

At the State Department's request, Clinton did turn over 55,000 pages of work-related emails last year. The FBI has also taken possession of the server, which Clinton resisted giving up until last month.

For months, Clinton's advisers insisted the email saga was little more than a Washington obsession, meaningless to voters. After a testy news conference last month, Clinton told reporters, "Nobody talks to me about it other than you guys."

Clinton's defense has largely centered on the argument that she wasn't violating any rules by exclusively using a private email account run via a server located at her New York area home. And, in fact, it wasn't until after she left the State Department that Obama signed changes to the Federal Records Act asserting that government officials could use personal email only if copies were also sent to their official accounts.

Still, the White House and agencies including the State Department had previously issued guidelines to employees making clear that government email should be used for official business.

Clinton's campaign now says it's clear their strategy of arguing technicalities hasn't worked. Early polling shows her losing ground in key early states to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent running for the Democratic nomination. The opening has also sparked speculation that Vice President Joe Biden could be a late entry into the Democratic contest.

But it's the surveys showing voters have questions about Clinton's integrity that are the most troubling for her campaign.

In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 61 percent of voters said they did not consider Clinton honest and trustworthy compared to 34 percent who did ascribe those qualities to her. Similarly, an Associated Press-GfK poll from July found 66 percent of Americans said the word "honest" described Clinton only slightly well or not well at all.

"We've had some headwinds particularly around the email question," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta acknowledged last week. "There's been a lot of noise that's made it more difficult to break through."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-09-09

[capcc76]

Lame butt weak arse.

[Hayduke]

Okay...I give up...what is so magical about an apology?

Especially one which is purely the result of public relations pressure. Insincere and self-serving.

Put a gun to someone's head and they'll apologize for anything.

Don't see where this is really any sort of change.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Hayduke

[Halion]

As someone with zero credibility how does she expect that the public will pay any attention to an apology from a woman with her track record.

She is truly delusional.

[kamahele]

I don't like the fact that she had a private server for her emails as it give the impression she was trying to hide something, but it wasn't illegal and it wasn't against policy. Other Secretary of States like Colin Powell also used a private email address. The Bush White House conveniently "lost" 5,000,000 emails. So far, there is no evidence of wrong doing by Clinton. That may change but this is the truth for the time being.

[quandow]

[quandow]

I don't like the fact that she had a private server for her emails as it give the impression she was trying to hide something, but it wasn't illegal and it wasn't against policy. Other Secretary of States like Colin Powell also used a private email address. The Bush White House conveniently "lost" 5,000,000 emails. So far, there is no evidence of wrong doing by Clinton. That may change but this is the truth for the time being.

Colin Powell has quite publicly announced he had two servers, one for personal use, and another for official business that was physically protected by government IT employees. Hillary was one of a handful of people who were authorized to assign clearance levels. To date, the FBI has publicly announced she had two Top Secret documents on her unsecured, unencrypted server. No matter how you spin it - either she knew, which means intentional illegal activity; or she didn't know, which means gross negligence and ignorance of a responsibility at the highest level - she messed up in a HUGE way and has been lying and back pedaling to cover up since. What she did WAS illegal and if it had been anybody else, they would have felt the cold steel of handcuffs on their wrists and be spending time in the grey bar hotel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/15/us/fbi-tracking-path-of-email-to-hillary-clinton-at-state-department.html

[Ulysses G.]

Other Secretary of States like Colin Powell also used a private email address.

The situations were quite different and the rules were tougher when Hillary was in office. Powell generally sent emails to State Department employees by way of their official government accounts and he did not take any hard copies of emails after he left office. He claims that he was never warned not to use private email for government business.

Hillary used her private server almost exclusively and she sent memos to her employees telling them that it was against the rules, so she knew.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Ulysses G.

[chuckd]

I don't like the fact that she had a private server for her emails as it give the impression she was trying to hide something, but it wasn't illegal and it wasn't against policy. Other Secretary of States like Colin Powell also used a private email address. The Bush White House conveniently "lost" 5,000,000 emails. So far, there is no evidence of wrong doing by Clinton. That may change but this is the truth for the time being.

You keep reporting this nonsense and I keep giving the facts.

The fact is that it was not 5,000,000 lost emails in the Bush administration, it was 22,000,000.

Of those 22,000,000 lost emails, they later found 22,000,000. They had been misfiled.

Hillary made a total of some 60,000 emails, of which only 30,000 have been recovered. She chose to delete 30,000 from her private server.

The final score in lost emails?

Bush ---- 0

Clinton - 30,000

[stevenl]

It doesn't really matter.

She knows politics better than anyone here, and should realise that a lot of damage has been done, and that more damage will follow. But she'll want this over with as soon as she can, the longer it drags on the worse if is for her.

[johnny49r]

Hillary Rotten Clinton was up against the ropes and getting the crap kicked out of her. What else could she do? Maybe bite off the ear of her opponent?

Her honesty rating was already negative. But admitting to a mistake was a bigger mistake.

She has no more business being president than the pope does being a porn star. Neither can perform.

Just one Yankee expat's humble opinion...

[capcc76]

Yep, as some have pointed out her apology is a veiled attempt to save face and has. Little or nothing to do with actual remorse. Her political advisors are scrambling to figure out the best way to deal with this and get it behind her.

This is why politicians like her make me sick. Everything they do is about public perception. They are nothing but whimsy little butt kissers. At least with Trump he would be like, "yes, I did it. Move on if you don't like it."

Hillary is first deny, then when that does not work a slobbering, emotional apology.

Does anyone really want a snotty nose, wimpy, slobbering women with no integrity as a President?

[capcc76]

It doesn't really matter.

She knows politics better than anyone here, and should realise that a lot of damage has been done, and that more damage will follow. But she'll want this over with as soon as she can, the longer it drags on the worse if is for her.

Exactly, nothing she does is about honesty or integrity. It is all about politics and damage control.

[Andaman Al]

Hillary Rotten Clinton was up against the ropes and getting the crap kicked out of her. What else could she do? Maybe bite off the ear of her opponent?

Her honesty rating was already negative. But admitting to a mistake was a bigger mistake.

She has no more business being president than the pope does being a porn star. Neither can perform.

Just one Yankee expat's humble opinion...

There are no Politicians with any form of positive honesty rating. It sounds like you want honest politicians yet you say 'admitting to a mistake was a bigger mistake'....Huh! ?

With all the huge issues affecting the Domestic US and Global US policy, I find the obsession with the source of a senior politicians emails completely weird. If people are changing their voting strategy because someone used their own computer to send an email whilst at home then the country concerned has lost all grip on reality.

Anyway it sounds like the old Gal is working hard. 60 000 emails sent working from home. I am not sure I have sent 60 000 in my life time.

[Ulic]

Do I like Hillary, not particularly, but I also think this is much ado about nothing, the same as

Obamas birth certificate. The same people who are hot and horny about this issue are the same

people who are in denial about Obamas American citizenship.

[Chicog]

Okay...I give up...what is so magical about an apology?

It stops every single Fox personality bleating "But she hasn't even apologised!".

And spares its viewers the incessant whining.

Worth doing just for that.

[capcc76]

Okay...I give up...what is so magical about an apology?

It stops every single Fox personality bleating "But she hasn't even apologised!".

And spares its viewers the incessant whining.

Worth doing just for that.

I watched equal Fox and CNN this morning. Fox did not say squat about her apologizing whereas that was a specific topic of a panel discussion on CBN.

Some of you guys just make cheap up as you go along.

Edited September 9, 2015 by capcc76

[quandow]

Hillary Rotten Clinton was up against the ropes and getting the crap kicked out of her. What else could she do? Maybe bite off the ear of her opponent?

Her honesty rating was already negative. But admitting to a mistake was a bigger mistake.

She has no more business being president than the pope does being a porn star. Neither can perform.

Just one Yankee expat's humble opinion...

There are no Politicians with any form of positive honesty rating. It sounds like you want honest politicians yet you say 'admitting to a mistake was a bigger mistake'....Huh! ?

With all the huge issues affecting the Domestic US and Global US policy, I find the obsession with the source of a senior politicians emails completely weird. If people are changing their voting strategy because someone used their own computer to send an email whilst at home then the country concerned has lost all grip on reality.

Anyway it sounds like the old Gal is working hard. 60 000 emails sent working from home. I am not sure I have sent 60 000 in my life time.

Senator Bernie Sanders has been faithful in his voting record for DECADES. He is a very rare bird - an HONEST politician. The most important thing to know about him is that he is a DEMOCRATIC socialist, an important distinction. Socialism is a dirty word, Democratic Socialist is something we all are at heart, we just don't know it.

[Srikcir]

Hillary should have done what Prayut does when confronted with a misstatement - blame the news media

[capcc76]

If Sanders is a man of integrity, I am all for him. Hillary has no integrity, nor does Biden if he could sit by and watch what Obama has done for the last couple of years.

Would live to have a Democrat with integrity.