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Hillary Clinton Tag

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi Thursday. Tuesday, Hillary's daughter Chelsea Clinton joined CBS This Morning to field promote her new book and field softball questions about her mother's upcoming hearing.

At a recent town hall event in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton said America should consider a mandatory gun buyback program like the one that took place in Australia in the 1990's. A former Republican member of the Texas house of representatives named Suzanna Hupp, who survived a mass shooting in 1991, appeared on The Kelly File last night and offered a response. The FOX News Insider has more:
Mass Shooting Survivor: You Never See These Attacks at Gun Shows, NRA Events Suzanna Hupp, a survivor of the 1991 mass shooting in Kileen, Texas, that left 24 people dead, said that there was a law against concealed carry in the state at the time, so she left her gun in her car. Hupp, who saw her parents murdered during the tragic incident, said that you never see mass shooting at gun shows or NRA events, places where there are hundreds or thousands of armed, law-abiding citizens.

According to a new CNN/ORC poll, most Democrats who tuned in for the first Democratic primary debate thought Hillary Clinton won the night---but that "win" didn't translate into boosted poll numbers. Clinton has remained steady at 45%; Bernie Sanders is still in at a respectable 29%...and Joe Biden rounds out the top three with 18%---and he hasn't even declared yet. Clinton hasn't moved the needle much since before this month's debate, but Sanders has managed to gain 5 points since mid-September---the only candidate to do so. More from CNN:
Overall, 31% of registered Democrats say they watched all or most of the CNN/Facebook debate, held October 13 in Las Vegas. More than 6-in-10 Democrats who watched say Clinton did the best job, almost doubling the 35% who thought Sanders had the best performance. On the other side of the coin, 43% of those who watched said Chafee had the worst night, 31% thought Webb did, 12% O'Malley.

Hillary Clinton visited Alabama this weekend and while nearly all of the early media reports are about her absurd claim that Republicans are trying to disenfranchise black voters, it was her remarks about the economy that were truly stunning. In the Associated Press video below, Hillary suggests that it is always Republican presidents who create financial messes which have to then be cleaned up by Democrats. She touts the financial record of her husband before accusing Bush of leaving Obama with a massive debt. She goes on to praise Obama and claim that he never gets enough credit. Clinton conveniently leaves out the role Democrats played in the 2008 financial crisis when they forced banks to give home loans to unqualified borrowers. She also neglects to mention the massive debt accumulated by Obama.

Despite popular opinion in favor of second amendment rights, Hillary Clinton has made gun control a centerpiece of her White House bid. Speaking in New Hampshire Friday, Clinton was asked about gun control. "Recently Australia managed to get away, or take away tens of thousands, millions of handguns. In one year, they were all gone. Can we do that? If we can’t, why can’t we?" Clinton responded saying Australia's eradication of firearms was "worth considering" on a national level.

Last Sunday, we published a post showing how Obama pretty much signaled Justice to lay off their investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. During an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, the President threw the FBI's investigation under the bus when he said---without going into much detail---that he didn't think the server posed a national security threat.
Steve Kroft: Do you think it posed a national security problem?

Today, top-level Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin sat down for a closed-door hearing with Trey Gowdy's (R-SC) Benghazi Committee. Her testimony is just a warm-up act, though---next Thursday, Clinton herself will testify before the panel in a public hearing. (Be prepared for fireworks---covered right here at Legal Insurrection.) The Clinton campaign---on which Huma is a senior advisor---said they are "unclear" as to why the committee wishes to question their latest witness. This next series of hearings is important for Gowdy and the committee; ever since House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) dropped his massive Benghazi gaffe late last month, the Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton, have been on a mission to shut the committee down. They claim that McCarthy's gaffe proves that Gowdy and other Republicans set the committee up as a shell operation, and that their real purpose is to attack and ruin Clinton's chances at the presidency. Gowdy has had to fire back at a barrage of accusations not only from the Clinton camp, but from Democrats and even members of his own party that Huma's testimony, and the overall mission of the committee, is not politically motivated.

The challengers to Hillary Clinton in the debate last night made Republican undercard competitors seem downright impressive. Martin O'Malley has the vocal quality of elevator music. It reminds me of another voice, I just can't place it. But there's not much there there. Jim Webb seemed off-kilter, complaining endlessly about not getting enough time, and not really scoring any points with Democrats by invoking concepts like love of country and a strong military -- that will not fly in today's Democratic Party. What can we say about Linc Chafee? I thought he had the potential to be aggressive. Those of us who know him from Rhode Island know that while he comes across as a doofus, he can be quite nasty and acerbic. I thought we might get that from him when his opening statement emphasized that he's never had a scandal and is honest -- but he didn't take the shot directly at Hillary and seemed lost on stage. In short, none of the three lower-tiered Democrats scored any points and all seemed afraid to confront Hillary. Hillary was, as Mark Steyn puts it, The Alpha Female of a Beta-Male Debate:

Hillary Clinton supporters understandably are happy after last night's debate. The motley crew of challengers on stage were incapable of stringing sentences together, much less taking on Clinton directly. Bernie Sanders' demand that the media leave Hillary alone on her server also was a boost to her narrative of "nothing to see here, move along." But that good night masked the fact that in the real world, the server is a serious problem legally and politically. When Obama was interviewed on 60 Minutes last Sunday, he seemed to be signaling there was nothing to Hillary's server problem, Obama pretty much signaled Justice to lay off Hillary:
Steve Kroft: Did you know about Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server– President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: –while she was Secretary of State? President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: Do you think it posed a national security problem? President Barack Obama: I don’t think it posed a national security problem....
That was a fairly outrageous statement to make considering the FBI is still investigating, and could be seen as an interference in DOJ evaluation of the case. Did Obama know something the rest of us don't know? Were the FBI and DOJ sharing information about the investigation with Obama? Now Obama is walking it back:

That's my reading of this interview on 60 Minutes (emphasis added).
Steve Kroft: Did you know about Hillary Clinton's use of private email server-- President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: --while she was Secretary of State? President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: Do you think it posed a national security problem? President Barack Obama: I don't think it posed a national security problem. I think that it was a mistake that she has acknowledged and-- you know, as a general proposition, when we're in these offices, we have to be more sensitive and stay as far away from the line as possible when it comes to how we handle information, how we handle our own personal data. And, you know, she made a mistake. She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned-up is in part because of-- in part-- because of politics. And I think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. But--

Has anyone noticed that our candidates are a little...sassier...this time around? Maybe we have Donald Trump to thank for this; perhaps it's the advent of social media and the unfiltered nature of digital campaigns. Either way, it's something to be thankful for, if only for its entertainment value. Last week, Hillary Clinton sent copies of her book, Hard Choices, to all of the Republican candidates: Her campaign attempted to play this off as a big PR clown on the GOP---but it didn't work out as well as she thought it would. Ben Carson responded to Hillary's generosity in kind:
Thanks Hillary. Posted by Dr. Ben Carson on Friday, October 9, 2015
Coaster? Door stop? Step stool? Sounds about right. I can't think of a better use for it, at any rate.

Hillary Clinton struggles to get her campaign on track, lurching to the left on a variety of issues near and dear to the hearts of the progressive base and facing the fallout from her decisions as Secretary of State as her poll numbers tank. Here's a chart via Hot Air that shows the trend of her and other Democrat candidates' polling (Real Clear Politics has an interactive version, if you're interested): rcp-dems According to Fox News' Special Report, the coming few weeks will be key to determining the success of these attempts.  Watch:

CNN's Ashleigh Banfield spoke to Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman about the upcoming Democratic primary debate yesterday. They considered the unthinkable possibility that Bernie Sanders will bring up Hillary's email scandal, which Banfield quickly suggested isn't really a scandal. Matthew Balan of NewsBusters reports (emphasis is his):
CNN's Banfield: Hillary E-Mail Scandal 'Not Even A Scandal' On Friday's Legal View, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield did her best to downplay Hillary Clinton's ongoing e-mail scandal. Banfield asked Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman if Bernie Sanders would bring up the issue at the upcoming Democratic presidential debate.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is encouraging those digitally inclined to join their digital grassroots army. The process is pretty simple. The first step to joining the astroturf grassroots gang, entering your email address and zip code: Tweet for hillary clinton campaign grassroots digital media sign up scandal email benghazi 2016 democrat Almost instantly, you'll receive an email promising you all kinds of "goodies." We're not entirely sure what "goodies" we might get and we're afraid to ask.

Hillary Clinton's opponents in the race for the 2016 Democratic nomination are against the TPP deal, unions are against the deal, and now she's against it too although previously she was one of its strongest supporters. It's hard to imagine that a single thinking human being would be convinced that her change of heart on this issue is on the merits rather than merely politically expedient. For example, even Ezra Klein finds himself a mite perturbed by her reversal on this and other matters:
Of late, Clinton is again looking like the kind of candidate who puts polls in front of policy. First, she came out against Obamacare's Cadillac tax — a policy that enjoys wide support among health economists... ...What I have trouble believing is that Clinton and her policy advisers really think the Cadillac tax is a bad idea. Her past policies embrace its theory, her past advisers helped pass it into law... On Wednesday, Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, saying that she's concerned with the provisions around pharmaceuticals and the absence of provisions around currency manipulation. But as Tim Lee notes, Clinton strongly supported early versions of the deal — she called the TPP "the gold standard in trade agreements" — that were worse on pharmaceuticals and identical on currency manipulation...

Back in July, we reported that Hillary's emails revealed a disturbing (but not altogether startling) connection between the former Secretary of State and Sidney Blumenthal. We already knew that Blumenthal was sending Clinton "off the books" intel reports on the situation in Libya, but new emails suggested that he was also offering advice on how to handle the politics of dealing with Iran, China, and Northern Ireland. Now, new reports show that the advisor and Clinton Foundation payee engaged in communications with the Secretary that both raise ethical questions about business practices, and could have endangered national security. In a 13-page letter to ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings, Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy previewed new and troubling details about just what sort of information Secretary Clinton was sharing with Blumenthal via her home-brew server. From the Weekly Standard:

When CNN hosted the Republican primary candidates, the candidates got 3 hours in which to make (or sink) their case for the White House. It was a long affair, but some good came from it---Marco Rubio distinguished himself on foreign policy (whether you agree with his approach is a different story entirely,) Carly Fiorina shifted from "dark horse" to budding household name, and Ted Cruz was afforded more of an opportunity to get in on the conversation. The Democrats won't be afforded that same luxury. Next week's CNN debate---this time, hosting the Democratic primary contenders---will afford the Dems' 5* candidates just two hours to make their initial splash in the primetime media pond. *Will Joe Biden debate? We're still not sure: