The Republican National Committee is pressing the offensive following what it is calling former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “Deceptive Press Conference.”
An RNC research memo issued Wednesday morning argues Clinton left Americans “with more questions than answers” about her use of a private email account rather than a government account during her time at the State Department, and a list of discrepancies.
Namely, the RNC takes issue with Clinton’s excuse that she opted for a personal account out of convenience so that she would not have to carry two phones. Especially since she recently she said she used both and iPhone and a BlackBerry.
Further, the RNC is pointing out that although she claimed the private email server was created for her husband, former President Bill Clinton’s spokesman recently said he does not use email.
“She said that the server was needed for her husband’s email. But President Clinton’s aides told the Wall Street Journal he hasn’t emailed since leaving office,” the memo’s author, RNC research director Raj Shah writes. “The server was also set up just as she was starting her job as Secretary of State. Curious timing.”
The RNC also slammed the Clinton for claiming that her private email account did not violate the rules, when reports have indicated she did, and argued her personal email usage is unprecedented.
“Hillary Clinton’s questionable and risky behavior was, to use a word from her press conference, ‘unprecedented,’” Shah wrote.
Further, the RNC argues, concerns about hacking remain as do the fact that while it was reported that they turned over 90 percent of Clinton said Tuesday that just 50 percent were turned over.
“She offered the public no assurances beyond a Trust Me argument,” the RNC argued. “We have no idea if she’s telling the truth, and Hillary Clinton has done little to earn the public’s trust. After all, she only gave this press conference out of pressure from the media, not out of any personal desire to be honest and transparent.”
Shah concluded with a list of questions the RNC says remain:
Did the State Department approve of her email scheme?
Did anyone at the White House approve of her email scheme?
Did she send sensitive but unclassified information over her personal email?
Did she email about official matters with top advisor and State Department official Huma Abedin who also had an address on Clinton’s private server?
Did she actually email with her husband whose aides tell the press he doesn’t email?
Does she find the two devices she uses today inconvenient?
And what about the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of foreign donations while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, a question she substantively ignored?
Did she ever use her personal email to solicit donations to the foundation? Did she do so as Secretary of State?
When is the next press conference to answer all the remaining questions?
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