Hillary Clinton claims that what cost her the presidency was then-FBI Director James Comey’s revelation 11 days before the election that a new batch of Clinton emails were found on Anthony Weiner’s computer, which his wife, a top Clinton aide, unfortunately also used for official messages.
That’s only half the truth, but it begged this question from ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos: Why didn’t Comey check out the relevance of those emails before notifying Congress of their discovery and then learning they were not relevant? Comey’s curious answer — that it would have been “deeply irresponsible” if he did that — was left unexplained even though it made no sense.
Now, for the second half of the truth. Clinton, while she had the governing experience Donald Trump lacked, ran a deplorable campaign with no message to win just a small (but significant) enough piece of Trump’s base for her to prevail. So Comey and Clinton herself, possibly with some help from Russian trolls on social media, assured her defeat. Comey wasn’t wrong in declaring Trump morally unfit to be president, but that didn’t quite even the score.
— Ed Stone, Northbrook
Submit a letter to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
