For me, it has nothing to do with Trump.
I may have used a bit too broad of a brush there.
Comey's statements were very damning towards Clinton's behavior. The only shining light about his statement was that he wouldn't be recommending prosecution to the Justice Department. Everything else was a full on scathing rebuke.
I agree with all of the above. It is a shining light because we don't need any more chaos in this election cycle. HRC may not be our favorite choice, but blowing up the Democratic party while the Republican party is in full melt-down would not be good at all.
HRC is not my first choice for Democratic candidate either. I also think we could have done much better - as Democratic candidate and likely first female president.
But this email thing isn't the reason why, and I simply do not think this email thing matters. I do not think it reflects on HRC's trust-worthiness or competency at all.
Comey said she was extremely careless and that a person in her position should have known her personal email server was not the place to have the discussions she was having. In my opinion that directly addresses her competency, or lack thereof.
Meh. Hindsight is 20/20. Even she has said that if she could go back and do it differently, she would
The server was secure. The FBI confirms there were no signs anyone hacked into it.
No, it wasn't secure. Comey did confirm that they didn't find evidence of hacking but then followed right up by saying that given the potential hackers and nature of her system he didn't think they'd be able to find direct evidence even if it had happened.
And the same can be said about every system, including the State Departments
If there was no evidence of a breach, we can't claim there was a breach and call HRC "careless" because of a breach there is no evidence of.
HRC did not give classified information to anyone lacking proper security clearance.
I don't think that was part of the investigation. Comey said they were looking to see if classified information was stored or transmitted on her personal server.
That was the only part of the investigation that actually mattered
The federal government protocol for email was (and still is) evolving - usually in response to breaches rather than in anticipation of them.
She sent/received work-related email on her private/personal email account. So did Condaleeza Rice and Colin Powell.
Firstly I don't find the argument that other people did it too particularly convincing and secondly Rice and Powell aren't currently running for president with all the attendant access to even more classified information that position entails.
First, you are assuming I think Condi and Colin did anything wrong. I don't. I think they, and HRC, handled an evolving technology as they saw fit, and nothing bad happened. I don't think any of it is a reflection on the people themselves.
And I think that the Republicans have - true to their usual hypocritical ways - have create a tempest in a teacup, but only as to the Democrat... not to the two Republicans preceding her.
And I sure as heck do not for a single second believe that HRC is going to be setting up private email servers in the White House.
Even if we want to believe that she didn't learn from this, the security protocol has evolved further since she was last in a government position.
I don't think her judgement is always great. She did vote for the Iraq invasion, for instance*. But I don't think her judgement is worse than (for instance) Bush II, Nixon, Reagan, or her own husband's. And it is a million miles better than Trump's
* though
even that has layers of nuance that aren't often examined