On Tuesday, as every eye in the news media was trained on President Trump’s first State of the Union address, Hillary Clinton responded quietly to allegations that she protected a campaign adviser in 2008 from credible allegations of sexual misconduct.
It’s immediately obvious that her Johnny-come-lately Facebook statement was timed precisely to coincide with a much bigger event that was already underway. It’s a shrewd political move, responding just as everyone is distracted elsewhere. It’s cynical, it’s calculating, and it’s 100 percent the sort of thing we’ve come to expect from the former secretary of state.
After giving it more thought, however, her statement is worse than originally thought. The timing alone is sleazy, but it’s made all the worse by what the statement actually says, as well as a related tweet Clinton published following Trump’s address.
First, it’s important to note her 1,500-plus-word statement contains no actual apology. She doesn’t apologize for downplaying the seriousness of the allegations against Burns Strider. She doesn’t apologize for making the victim sign a nondisclosure agreement. She doesn’t apologize for making the victim move to a different position. Clinton merely acknowledges that things could’ve been handled differently.
Secondly, the statement contains a petty and vindictive swipe at the New York Times, which broke the story last week.
“[W]hile we are revisiting whether my decision from a decade ago was harsh enough, many employers would be well served to take actions at least as severe when confronted with problems now – including the very media outlet that broke this story,” she wrote in reference to the scandal involving Times reporter Glenn Thrush, who was reinstated recently after being suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct. “A decade from now, that decision may not look as tough as it feels today.”
Here’s a thought: If you find yourself publicly responding to allegations of wrongdoing, resist the urge to lash out at those who exposed you. It looks cheap and malicious. Also, before we move onto the next point, let’s appreciate that her score-settling swipe at the Times includes one of the Clintons most oft-deployed methods of deflection: The “this is old news” argument.
Lastly, Clinton tried to deflect from the scandal Tuesday evening by pointing an angry finger at President Trump, who stands accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct.
“I wrote a Facebook post about a decision I made 10 years ago, what’s changed, & on an issue you didn’t hear a single word about tonight,” she said in a tweet.
I wrote a Facebook post about a decision I made 10 years ago, what’s changed, & on an issue you didn’t hear a single word about tonight. Take a look. https://t.co/itPfGtIMOM
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 31, 2018
Just to recap: Clinton’s statement, which was released quietly during a major political event, includes no apology, it takes a shot at the newspaper that exposed her and it dismisses the allegations as old news. Clinton also tried to make her response about Trump.
Between the timing of the statement, the content of what she wrote, and her follow-up after Trump’s address, it’s as if Clinton is hell-bent on reminding everyone that she can be just as cynical and insincere as the president himself.
