Jerry Brown: Hillary Clinton’s Email Scandal ‘Like a Vampire’

California Gov. Jerry Brown told NBC News’ Chuck Todd that Hillary Clinton’s ongoing email scandal is full of “dark energy” that she must address. “It’s almost like a vampire,” Brown said. “She’s gonna have to find a stake and put it through the heart of these emails, in some way.”

The full interview is set to run on NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, where Todd may ask the California governor, once again, if he himself intends to run for president for the fourth time. Todd first posed the 2016 question to Brown in his appearance on Meet the Press in March.

On that occasion, Brown said that he would certainly run if he were ten years younger (he is 77 today), and laid out a three-point plan that looked intriguingly like the beginnings of a presidential platform: balancing the budget, dealing with climate change, and investing in science.

Indeed, a perfect political storm is brewing that could see Brown enter the race–and win the nomination. One factor is the emergence of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is running as a Democrat against Clinton and is drawing capacity stadium crowds despite also being in his 70s.

Another factor is Clinton’s ongoing struggle with questions about her State Department e-mails and her private e-mail server, which have now reached the level of an FBI investigation. Even if Clinton is not charged with a crime, questions about corruption will haunt her campaign.

Finally, there is the Donald Trump factor. If Trump wins the GOP nomination, and Clinton is unavailable, Democrats will need a larger-than-life personality to fill the void. Brown is a political icon who hovers “above the fray,” in his own words. He also has the most experience in office of any candidate–Democrat or Republican–in the field. He mixes utopianism with economic pragmatism, spending billions on high-speed rail but refusing to ban fracking or legalize marijuana. Once derided as “Moonbeam,” he is now seen, in California politics, as the adult in the room.

Brown represents the activist style Democrats say they want–and has done the financial rescue conservatives say the country needs. He could even peel off support from moderate Republicans.

As El Niño brews over the Pacific, a perfect political storm may be brewing for Jerry Brown