As careless emails sent by Mrs Clinton surface, voters may have no choice but to start getting doubts over her competence as leader of the US
In the run-up to the 2016 General Election, candidates go through their fair amount of public scrutiny but while in recent days, the focus has been on the race to become Republican candidate, in the last 12 hours, it has emerged that Democratic Party candidate, Hillary Clinton has used an unsecured personal email to send ‘top secret’ information, especially during her time as Secretary of State.
Despite Clinton now having handed over her personal email server to the the justice department, it is very rare that a high profile politician would use personal email, often using those supplied through the government. According to the Washington Times, at least two of Clinton’s emails contained information deemed to be top secret by the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, while others are still being inspected.
Even though these emails were sent during Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, it is still a massive blow to her presidential campaign. Knowing that sensitive information has been exchanged without the proper security will raise concerns about the suitability of Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.
Furthermore, the fact that Clinton denies wrongdoing in relation to these emails and has been found to have deleted up to 30,000 emails back in March, this, even if we do not know the full details, could have been an attempt to cover her tracks.
Nevertheless, the reaction by the public on social media has been very negative. In fact, I would have to say that with the rise of Twitter and other similar social media platforms, this presidential race has probably been the most active and engaged on Twitter that I’ve ever seen.
While it is a blow to her campaign, I think that having the decency to voluntarily hand over your email server for investigation will regain Mrs Clinton some credit. After all, while it may have been that she would be forced to do this eventually anyway, it does save a lot of time (and unnecessary debate) that could otherwise be spent campaigning.
Clinton has a big legacy to live up to if she is to become president, as she would be following in the footsteps of her husband, Bill, whose popularity seemed to rise as he was elected for a second time. Additionally, filling the boots of Barack Obama, she may have a lot to live up to.
This incident will no doubt do damage to Clinton’s reputation, however, it is not a death sentence for her campaign. If she can gather some momentum, it may still be possible for her to redeem herself. Of course, there will be voters who will not forgive her for such a mistake but unfortunately, that’s just the way that elections go.
For Clinton, this mistake was made in two specific emails and she will now just have to wait for the results of further investigations which could, if they are negative, do more damage to her campaign and prospects of winning. On the other hand, at least the Democratic Party has selected their candidate. This is something that the Republican Party is still in the process of doing.
Overall, it is still unknown whether this will have an impact on Clinton’s long-term reputation but one thing is clear, at least for now, it is a blow to her bid for the White House and will no doubt get voters thinking.
This is probably the most interesting presidential race I have ever seen, with even the little things having a big impact on the reputation of candidates. This is going to be the one to watch in the next few months and I will be keeping an eye out for anything that could change voters’ minds. At this stage, that could be anything.
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