President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarked on a joint campaign visit to Charlotte, North Carolina aboard Air Force One — on the same day that FBI director James Comey announced he would not recommend prosecuting Clinton for mishandling classified emails.
The joint appearance is only the latest in a string of curious coincidences as the FBI neared its conclusions, including a secret meeting between former president Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch last Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Comey announced that despite “evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information,” including evidence that Clinton and her team were “extremely careless,” he would not recommend that Clinton be prosecuted because, he said, the FBI had not uncovered sufficient evidence of intent to convince a reasonable prosecutor to pursue the charges.
While arguing for “transparency,” and laying out a convincing case against Clinton, Comey did not say exactly how he had arrived at a conclusion that Clinton’s intent had ben insufficient to rise to the criminal standard. No information was given about what Clinton and her subordinates had told the FBI.
Republican rival Donald Trump, who reacted to the FBI’s announcement by reiterating that the system is “rigged,” earlier raised questions about Clinton’s use of Air Force One for campaign travel, and who will pay for it.
While the Clinton camp will partially reimburse taxpayers for the use of the president’s official jet, the use of a highly visible and valuable public asset for the benefit of one campaign alone raises acute questions about fairness.
Trump is also appearing in North Carolina on Tuesday, in Raleigh.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.