In the wake of FBI Director James Comey’s untimely decision to announce his intention to conduct an investigation into newly discovered emails related to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server, Democrats are up in arms about what seems to be a politically-charged action that some believe could change the course of the election.
The hoopla surrounding the reignited controversy, though, is overblown. Those who detest Clinton won’t detest her any more than they already do, and those who support her will continue to stand by their candidate.
According to Comey’s critics, the announcement directly violates a long-standing unwritten rule that states the FBI must abstain from making these types of disclosures within the last two months of an election unless charges are imminent. This is in place to remove the possibility of such a disclosure influencing an election outcome, as critics contend will be the case in this situation.
However, Donald Trump supporters who were salivating over the thought of a letter rife with evidence of Clinton’s savage criminal intent were disappointed.
The FBI was not even sure “whether or not this material may be significant,” and left open a very real possibility that these emails, contained on a computer belonging to former United States Representative and serial sexter Anthony Weiner, could be nothing more than duplicate emails that have already been examined.
So why the fuss? To those who viewed Clinton as a corrupt career politician, she remains a corrupt career politician. To the huge number of begrudging Clinton supporters, she’s still better than Donald Trump.
As part of his testimony after the initial investigation into Clinton’s doings, Comey pledged to inform Congress of any new developments in the case. In doing so he made it explicitly clear the new material may or may not be utterly useless. During the investigation, the FBI failed to identify evidence of a criminal motive on the part of Clinton. There’s no reason to believe this will change with the new findings.
To those who whine of Comey’s adherence to his pledge, what was the alternative? Waiting until after Clinton is inaugurated in January to announce the new developments or, worse, having details of the renewed investigation leak to the public? Were either of these scenarios to occur, the reaction would be magnified — even the possibility that incriminating evidence was discovered prior to the election would enrage conservatives, who would rally behind a perceived liberal conspiracy to elect a criminal.
Republicans in Congress would refuse to cooperate, and what started out as a probably harmless examination of new evidence has now become a huge scandal that seriously undermines Clinton’s ability to lead.
According to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll taken this weekend, Clinton’s and Trump’s shares of support proved to be largely unchanged by Friday’s revelations. Clinton’s 3-point lead in the four-way race remained the same, and her lead in a head-to-head matchup with Trump shrank from 5 points to 3 points. The poll’s margin of error is 2 points.
Nearly 40 percent of all voters said the events had no effect either way on their vote. Around one-third said it made them much less likely to support Clinton, but many voters in this group already despised her to begin with.
This late in the game, it’s doubtful an issue like this will change the election’s outcome. Comey’s nebulous letter to Congress was not rich with detail, but I’m able to extract a few certainties — those who stood by Trump and Clinton will probably continue to do so.
dkilcull@indiana.edu
@daniel_kilc_
