Sanders Supporters Hope FBI Will Eliminate Hillary Clinton From the Race

Sanders Supporters Hope FBI Will Eliminate Hillary Clinton From the Race

Supporters of Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders hopes the FBI swoops in and takes out front runner Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server.

An inspector general report found that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke State Department rules when she opted to use a private email server for work. The FBI has an open investigation against Clinton, which has puzzled some supporters of Sanders like Julie Crowell:

Like many of Mr. Sanders’s supporters, Ms. Crowell, 37, said she hoped that Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state would eventually yield an indictment, and she described it as the kind of transgression that would disqualify another politician seeking high office.

“She should be removed,” said Ms. Crowell, of Tustin, Calif., who attended a Sanders rally here on Tuesday and said she planned to vote for a third-party candidate if Mr. Sanders failed to overtake Mrs. Clinton and capture the Democratic nomination. “I don’t know why she’s not already being told, ‘You can’t run because you’re being investigated.’ I don’t know how that’s not a thing.”

It appears the Democrat Party has its own problems bringing together supporters of each candidate. Many Sanders supporters hold Crowell’s sentiment and will not vote for Clinton if she wins the nomination:

Polls show that an increasing number of Sanders supporters say they will not vote for Mrs. Clinton in November’s general election. It’s a position not unlike that held by many of her supporters in 2008 before they eventually rallied around Barack Obama. And while Mr. Sanders has said he will do all he can to defeat Donald J. Trump, the level of vitriol for Mrs. Clinton coursing through Mr. Sanders’s audiences lately — where “Bernie or Bust” signs are commonplace and the mention of his rival prompts boos or shouts of insults like “corporate puppet” — suggests that party unity might be even more difficult to achieve this time. Sanders supporters have also begun to protest at Mrs. Clinton’s events with signs that read, “Where are Hillary’s emails?”

Some even would not mind Trump over Clinton:

Victor Vizcarra, 48, of Los Angeles, said he would much prefer Mr. Trump to Mrs. Clinton. Though he said he disagreed with some of Mr. Trump’s policies, Mr. Vizcarra said he had watched “The Apprentice” and expected that a Trump presidency would be more exciting than a “boring” Clinton administration.

“A dark side of me wants to see what happens if Trump is in,” said Mr. Vizcarra, who works in information technology. “There is going to be some kind of change, and even if it’s like a Nazi-type change. People are so drama-filled. They want to see stuff like that happen. It’s like reality TV. You don’t want to just see everybody be happy with each other. You want to see someone fighting somebody.”

Sanders has avoided attacking his opponent over her emails, instead concentrating on her connections with Wall Street and trade deals. However, it does not mean he has completely forgotten or pushed aside the email fiasco. In March, Professor Jacobson mentioned that her opponent Bernie Sanders has chosen to stay in the race because of the emails:

What is Bernie’s strategy to win? Or in 2016 parlance, what is his “lane” to victory?

I don’t see how he does it. But he has enough money to hang on to the convention, and if he can obtain close to 40% of the vote, he has a credible argument that he should be the nominee if Hillary is indicted or the FBI at least makes a criminal referral to the Justice Department. In either of those scenarios, there will be pressure for the convention to hand the nomination to Joe Biden or someone similar.

But with Bernie sitting there with a large chunk of elected delegates and popular vote, the Democratic establishment will have a hard time pushing him aside.

On May 23, FBI agents said they are close to finishing their investigation. They interviewed her top aide Huma Abedin, but have not sat down with Clinton:

The FBI’s standard practice is to save questioning the person at the center of an investigation for last, once it has gathered available facts from others.

“With a person like Secretary Clinton, the FBI probably assumes they are going to get one chance to interview her, not only because she is a prominent person but because she is very busy right now with the presidential campaign,” said David Deitch, a former Justice Department prosecutor. “It makes sense they would defer interviewing her until late in their investigation.”

Throughout her campaign, Clinton has said she did not break any rules:

• Someone finally asked Hillary Clinton to Get Real About Her Email Server
• Hillary got swagger: Scoffs at FBI investigation, again
• Face The Nation: Hillary Defends Emails and Benghazi

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.