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Clinton talks email controversy: "Biggest load of bull"

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At a gathering of the Asian American Journalists Association Bill Clinton defended his wife regarding the email imbroglio:

"First of all, the FBI director said when he testified before Congress, he had to amend his previous day's statement that she had never received any emails that are classified. They saw two little notes with a 'C' on it," Clinton said.

"This is the biggest load of bull I've ever heard."

Clinton went on to say that while the classification system of sensitive emails was "too complicated to explain to people," what is clear is that Clinton and her colleagues were never being careless with national security.

"Do you really believe there are 300 career diplomats because that's how many people were on these emails, all of whom were careless with national security? Do you believe that?" he said. "Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"

Bill Clinton talks email controversy: 'Biggest load of bull' - CNNPolitics.com



He's right. Comey did have to amend his statements, those emails had been improperly marked.

Yet, what we hear played over and over again is sliced up CEC version of a tape that leaves out the only thing marked classified at the time carried "bore markings" (c) on .000001% of all the emails she sent or received. Later Comey states in his testimony they were not properly marked -- and it would have been easy for anyone with knowledge of handing classified documents to miss. The content of the emails were about her making a freakin' telephone call.

We found out later those "bore markings" were not even classified to begin with. [ Daily Press Briefing - July 6, 2016 ]

And even if they were, they originated at State, so she could have declassified them, as she has that power. But they weren't. AND, even if -- they were on such a level of "secrecy" those same two (c) emails could have been sent through the US mail with a simple No. 10 envelope and a First Class postage stamp.

The other part of this which Bill reminds us, is allllll the other career diplomats she exchanged emails would have been just as careless.

"Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"
 
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At a gathering of the Asian American Journalists Association Bill Clinton defended his wife regarding the email imbroglio:

"First of all, the FBI director said when he testified before Congress, he had to amend his previous day's statement that she had never received any emails that are classified. They saw two little notes with a 'C' on it," Clinton said.

"This is the biggest load of bull I've ever heard."


He's right. Comey did have to amend his statements, those emails had been improperly marked.

We found out later those "bore markings" were not even classified to begin with. [ Daily Press Briefing - July 6, 2016 ]

And even if they were, they originated at State, so she could have declassified them, as she has that power. But they weren't. AND, even if -- they were on such a level of "secrecy" those same two (c) emails could have been sent through the US mail with a simple No. 10 envelope and a First Class postage stamp.

FIRST: You are quoting a State Dept. spokesman, NOT Director Comey. That's just State Dept. damage control.

SECOND: This is what Director Comey stated:

Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.
Read Comey's full statement on Clinton email system

He talked about 52 classified issues, not three.

In discussing THREE of those emails he stated:


Mr. Comey said today that there were three documents with the markings, but he did not elaborate on the subject except to say that it also bore the notation (C), indicating that it was classified as “confidential.”
F.B.I. Director James Comey Testifies Before Congress - The New York Times

Your position and that of Mr. Clinton is patently false.
 
FIRST: You are quoting a State Dept. spokesman, NOT Director Comey. That's just State Dept. damage control.

SECOND: This is what Director Comey stated:

Read Comey's full statement on Clinton email system

In discussing THREE of those emails he stated:


F.B.I. Director James Comey Testifies Before Congress - The New York Times

Your position and that of Mr. Clinton is patently false.
Marked classified.

"For example, Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy asked Comey if Clinton was telling the truth when she said that she did not send or receive marked classified material. Comey said she wasn’t.


Gowdy, July 7:
Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails either sent or received. Was that true?


Comey: That’s not true. There were a small number of portion markings on I think three of the documents.


But later in the hearing, Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman asked Comey if he knew that the State Department had said that the emails were marked classified in error. Comey replied, “No.”


Likewise, Rep. Matt Cartwright, also a Democrat, asked Comey if the emails were properly classified, and Comey said they were not. (Executive Order 13526 spells out how documents should be properly classified, including a header on the document clearly identifying the email as classified as “confidential,” “secret” or “top secret.”)


Cartwright asked if Clinton could have missed the improper markings. Comey said that that was possible."

http://www.factcheck.org/2016/07/revisiting-clinton-and-classified-information/


KEY EXCHANGE WITH DIRECTOR COMEY AND REP. CARTWRIGHT:

MATT CARTWRIGHT: You were asked about markings on a few documents, I have the manual here, marking national classified security information. And I don’t think you were given a full chance to talk about those three documents with the little c’s on them.
Were they properly documented? Were they properly marked according to the manual?

JAMES COMEY: No.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: According to the manual, and I ask unanimous consent to enter this into the record Mr. Chairman

CHAIRMAN: Without objection so ordered.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: According to the manual, if you're going to classify something, there has to be a header on the document? Right?

JAMES COMEY: Correct.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: Was there a header on the three documents that we've discussed today that had the little c in the text someplace?

JAMES COMEY: No. There were three e-mails, the c was in the body, in the text, but there was no header on the email or in the text.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: So if Secretary Clinton really were an expert about what's classified and what's not classified and we're following the manual, the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified. Am I correct in that?

JAMES COMEY: That would be a reasonable inference."


https://www.c-span.org/video/?41231...tifies-hillary-clinton-email-probe&start=6685
 
And how about answering that question:

The other part of this which Bill reminds us, is allllll the other career diplomats she exchanged emails would have been just as careless.

"Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"
 
And how about answering that question:

The other part of this which Bill reminds us, is allllll the other career diplomats she exchanged emails would have been just as careless.

"Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"

No it is not conceivable.

Fish rots from the head. SECSTATE sets the standards. Hillary lowered the bar. Clearly either Hillary was not qualified to head the department and all its sensitive matters or she didn't care, rules being an inconvenience, or she was often distracted building the Clinton Foudation slush fund while she should have been focusing on her government responsibilities.

My personal opinion is that Hillary's cognitive functions limited her full participation in her duties. Her staff likely ran the department more so than not. We do know from emails that staff operated with the understanding that Hillary is often confused.

In essence Hillary was asleep at the wheel, perhaps literally.
 
And how about answering that question:

The other part of this which Bill reminds us, is allllll the other career diplomats she exchanged emails would have been just as careless.

"Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"
Do you think she would have set up a private email system and not know that every category of sensitive material might actually need to go to the Secretary of State sooner or later? If she didn't think so, she is beyond incompetent... and if she knew, and how could she not have, what exactly would you call that on your side of the aisle? Presidential material obviously.

She is a joke, but its just not funny.
 
No it is not conceivable.

Fish rots from the head. SECSTATE sets the standards. Hillary lowered the bar. Clearly either Hillary was not qualified to head the department and all its sensitive matters or she didn't care, rules being an inconvenience, or she was often distracted building the Clinton Foudation slush fund while she should have been focusing on her government responsibilities.

My personal opinion is that Hillary's cognitive functions limited her full participation in her duties. Her staff likely ran the department more so than not. We do know from emails that staff operated with the understanding that Hillary is often confused.

In essence Hillary was asleep at the wheel, perhaps literally.
oh what a ride it will be...:boohoo:
 
First, in regards to my point about your position being "patently false;" I apologize.

It was not patently false it was merely not quite true.

The fact remains that there were at least 52 documents with various levels of classification which were on, and should not have been on, her server. As a qualified Cabinet member she should have known this at the time they were being exchanged on her private server. A reasonable mistake might be attributed to a junior staffer without "experience," but isn't one of the arguments supporting her based on all her political knowledge and experience?

There were also 30,000 other emails deleted and scrubbed from her server by her legal team. That should never have happened prior to an examination of their contents under a confidentiality agreement not to disclose truly "personal" information they might have contained.

And how about answering that question:

The other part of this which Bill reminds us, is allllll the other career diplomats she exchanged emails would have been just as careless.

They made mistakes and they should also be held accountable. It's not, "Well other people were doing it too mom!"

Is your argument really that if johnny jumps off a roof that means when you do it must be okay? :roll:
 
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The biggest load of bull I have ever heard did in fact come from Comey and it was in fact about Hillary, but not what Bill said.

Also, is Bill sick? He looks and sounds awful.
 
Do you think she would have set up a private email system and not know that every category of sensitive material might actually need to go to the Secretary of State sooner or later? If she didn't think so, she is beyond incompetent... and if she knew, and how could she not have, what exactly would you call that on your side of the aisle? Presidential material obviously.

She is a joke, but its just not funny.

Yes it would have been better if Hillary had used a .gov email account. She admitted that was a mistake. But still had she used the unclassed server in it's stead, the Russians or Chinese could still have hacked anyway. We know they did.

She used another system for marked classified emails. Called a SCIF.
 
First, in regards to my point about your position being "patently false;" I apologize.

It was not patently false it was merely not quite true.

The fact remains that there were at least 52 documents with various levels of classification which were on, and should not have been on, her server. As a qualified Cabinet member she should have known this at the time they were being exchanged on her private server. A reasonable mistake might be attributed to a junior staffer without "experience," but isn't one of the arguments supporting her based on all her political knowledge and experience?

There were also 30,000 other emails deleted and scrubbed from her server by her legal team. That should never have happened prior to an examination of their contents under a confidentiality agreement not to disclose truly "personal" information they might have contained.
The closest you can come is the idea she "should have known" another agency was going to classify after the fact.

And so should have allllll the other hundreds of career diplomats at the State Department involved in those emails.
They made mistakes and they should also be held accountable. It's not, "Well other people were doing it too mom!"

Is your argument really that if johnny jumps off a roof that means when you do it must be okay? :roll:

So you wanted Comey to single her out. Well, he told us why he wouldn't.
 
The fact remains that there were at least 52 documents with various levels of classification which were on, and should not have been on, her server. As a qualified Cabinet member she should have known this at the time they were being exchanged on her private server.

Odd that you source Comey's statement to support your argument but then reach a conclusion that completely contradicts Comey
MATT CARTWRIGHT: So if Secretary Clinton really were an expert about what's classified and what's not classified and we're following the manual, the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified. Am I correct in that?

JAMES COMEY: That would be a reasonable inference."
Comey, an expert on these matters, says it would be reasonable for Hillary to conclude that there was no classified info in those messages. You, "someone on the internet", says the opposite.
 
Yes it would have been better if Hillary had used a .gov email account. She admitted that was a mistake. But still had she used the unclassed server in it's stead, the Russians or Chinese could still have hacked anyway. We know they did.

She used another system for marked classified emails. Called a SCIF.
Admission of a crime does not absolve one of it. Does not appear she always used SCIF, in fact it seems she would often go outside of it to catch up on emails...do you have a source for saying she did exclusively use this system?
 
Admission of a crime does not absolve one of it. Does not appear she always used SCIF, in fact it seems she would often go outside of it to catch up on emails...do you have a source for saying she did exclusively use this system?

No. Not often. The whole pile of garbage you guys are throwing out account for like.0001% of her emails.

Of which hundreds of other people handled.

And yes, she used a SCIF for classified information. Her entire office at State was a SCIF.

She even had a SCIF at her house.
 
At a gathering of the Asian American Journalists Association Bill Clinton defended his wife regarding the email imbroglio:

"First of all, the FBI director said when he testified before Congress, he had to amend his previous day's statement that she had never received any emails that are classified. They saw two little notes with a 'C' on it," Clinton said.

"This is the biggest load of bull I've ever heard."

Clinton went on to say that while the classification system of sensitive emails was "too complicated to explain to people," what is clear is that Clinton and her colleagues were never being careless with national security.

"Do you really believe there are 300 career diplomats because that's how many people were on these emails, all of whom were careless with national security? Do you believe that?" he said. "Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"

Bill Clinton talks email controversy: 'Biggest load of bull' - CNNPolitics.com



He's right. Comey did have to amend his statements, those emails had been improperly marked.

Yet, what we hear played over and over again is sliced up CEC version of a tape that leaves out the only thing marked classified at the time carried "bore markings" (c) on .000001% of all the emails she sent or received. Later Comey states in his testimony they were not properly marked -- and it would have been easy for anyone with knowledge of handing classified documents to miss. The content of the emails were about her making a freakin' telephone call.

We found out later those "bore markings" were not even classified to begin with. [ Daily Press Briefing - July 6, 2016 ]

And even if they were, they originated at State, so she could have declassified them, as she has that power. But they weren't. AND, even if -- they were on such a level of "secrecy" those same two (c) emails could have been sent through the US mail with a simple No. 10 envelope and a First Class postage stamp.

The other part of this which Bill reminds us, is allllll the other career diplomats she exchanged emails would have been just as careless.

"Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"


To believe Bill about this you have to forget about the fact that Hillary was the person to mark sensitive material as classified.

Are we to believe that during her tenure as Secretary of State no classified material was ever sent to her?

Was the government purposely keeping her out of the loop when it came to what was going on?

Can anybody believe that?
 
The closest you can come is the idea she "should have known" another agency was going to classify after the fact.

And so should have allllll the other hundreds of career diplomats at the State Department involved in those emails.


So you wanted Comey to single her out. Well, he told us why he wouldn't.

That is not the closest.

She was the person to classify, not somebody else down the road.

Why do you always leave that little part out?
 
Marked classified.

"For example, Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy asked Comey if Clinton was telling the truth when she said that she did not send or receive marked classified material. Comey said she wasn’t.


Gowdy, July 7:
Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails either sent or received. Was that true?


Comey: That’s not true. There were a small number of portion markings on I think three of the documents.


But later in the hearing, Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman asked Comey if he knew that the State Department had said that the emails were marked classified in error. Comey replied, “No.”


Likewise, Rep. Matt Cartwright, also a Democrat, asked Comey if the emails were properly classified, and Comey said they were not. (Executive Order 13526 spells out how documents should be properly classified, including a header on the document clearly identifying the email as classified as “confidential,” “secret” or “top secret.”)


Cartwright asked if Clinton could have missed the improper markings. Comey said that that was possible."

Revisiting Clinton and Classified Information


KEY EXCHANGE WITH DIRECTOR COMEY AND REP. CARTWRIGHT:

MATT CARTWRIGHT: You were asked about markings on a few documents, I have the manual here, marking national classified security information. And I don’t think you were given a full chance to talk about those three documents with the little c’s on them.
Were they properly documented? Were they properly marked according to the manual?

JAMES COMEY: No.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: According to the manual, and I ask unanimous consent to enter this into the record Mr. Chairman

CHAIRMAN: Without objection so ordered.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: According to the manual, if you're going to classify something, there has to be a header on the document? Right?

JAMES COMEY: Correct.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: Was there a header on the three documents that we've discussed today that had the little c in the text someplace?

JAMES COMEY: No. There were three e-mails, the c was in the body, in the text, but there was no header on the email or in the text.

MATT CARTWRIGHT: So if Secretary Clinton really were an expert about what's classified and what's not classified and we're following the manual, the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified. Am I correct in that?

JAMES COMEY: That would be a reasonable inference."


https://www.c-span.org/video/?41231...tifies-hillary-clinton-email-probe&start=6685

Obviously you don't understand that information isn't classified due to markings, it's classified in nature. You're confusing "marked classified" with "classified".
 
Bill should know BS when he sees it right? The man has been shoveling it out for years, and respected for it by the democrats.
 
No it is not conceivable.

Fish rots from the head. SECSTATE sets the standards. Hillary lowered the bar. Clearly either Hillary was not qualified to head the department and all its sensitive matters or she didn't care, rules being an inconvenience, or she was often distracted building the Clinton Foudation slush fund while she should have been focusing on her government responsibilities.

My personal opinion is that Hillary's cognitive functions limited her full participation in her duties. Her staff likely ran the department more so than not. We do know from emails that staff operated with the understanding that Hillary is often confused.

In essence Hillary was asleep at the wheel, perhaps literally.

The sheer number of emails would tell any sane person that Hillary was indeed working as SOS and it was not a easy job either. You must be confused by someone in Govt that actually does the things that her job requires. That has become a lost art on the right I'm afraid.
 
To believe Bill about this you have to forget about the fact that Hillary was the person to mark sensitive material as classified.

Are we to believe that during her tenure as Secretary of State no classified material was ever sent to her?

Was the government purposely keeping her out of the loop when it came to what was going on?

Can anybody believe that?

Not true. Many people at State can and do mark items classified or unclassified.

The problem is other intel agencies have different measures for what is classified when items are released for FOIA requests.
 
Obviously you don't understand that information isn't classified due to markings, it's classified in nature. You're confusing "marked classified" with "classified".

She said she never sent anything marked. That is true.

Other agencies classified it after the fact.

The majority of what was public information about the drone program the CIA likes to say we don't talk about, but is public knowledge all over the world.
 
Bill should know BS when he sees it right? The man has been shoveling it out for years, and respected for it by the democrats.

Not to mention a huge majority of Americans. Did you know that Bill Clinton is the most popular former President since JFK?

6a0133f2dd8001970b015391a1754b970b-800wi
 
America's broken classification system...<snip>

"The problem was not so much secrecy itself as bureaucratic disarray; something that contains no obviously sensitive information might nonetheless be reflexively classified, or might be classified because the information at some point passed through someone or something that also handles classified information. Or maybe the information is banal but it was later wrapped into a report or document that is itself classified for different reasons.


The problem, in other words, isn't that the rules for classification are too strict. It's that the rules are unclear, messy, or contradictory, to the degree that the rules exist at all, and individual people and agencies have learned to overclassify to stay on the safe side.


The problem has grown so severe that it has hampered even the ability of American intelligence officials and policymakers to access the information they need to do their jobs. The head of the 9/11 Commission, Richard Ben-Veniste, told Congress in 2005 that "the failure to share information was the single most important reason why the United States government failed to detect and disrupt the 9/11 plot." He warned, "Information has to flow more freely. Much more information needs to be declassified. A great deal of information should never be classified at all."

Good article:

The Hillary Clinton top-secret email controversy, explained
 
Not true. Many people at State can and do mark items classified or unclassified.

The problem is other intel agencies have different measures for what is classified when items are released for FOIA requests.

What do you mean not true?

If something came across Hillary's server and it was classified, but not marked, it was her responsibility to mark it as such.

Apparently she never did that, not once.

Now please explain how the highest ranking official in the department was never sent classified material.

Was she kept out of the loop for a reason?

And before you say that the department of the Secretary of State never has classified material they are discussing, that would be false.
 
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