Live from Council Bluffs, it’s Hillary

As the Iowa caucuses approach, Nebraska attorney David Begley continues his series of reports for us on the appearances of the presidential candidates in the state. Yesterday Hillary Clinton appeared in Council Bluffs. The Omaha World-Herald report is here (with video). Dave’s is below:

Secretary Clinton was 40 minutes late for her appearance at Iowa Western Community College. Before she came on stage, a party official claimed that the roads were “icy” and bad. This was false. The roads were clear. Mrs. Clinton did not apologize for her tardiness.

There were no protests, no hecklers and no questions from the public.

Her stump speech was a combination of her last one in Omaha (I wrote about it here) and a fall appearance in Council Bluffs (I wrote about it here).

I could only detect two new items from her stump speech. One was her statement that she would take on “the gun lobby” and that she was “so touched by” Obama’s televised remarks earlier that day. The other matter was her claim that the Republicans were using “reckless rhetoric” regarding American Muslims. “Words matter. Be careful what you say.” She received a standing ovation.

My trip to the Bluffs was not without value. I learned something that had mystified me for some time. I asked my seatmate — in a neutral fashion — what she made of this whole email thing and Hillary. The woman was middle-aged, very pleasant and intelligent. We know some of the same people in the Bluffs. She is interested in the candidates; had seen Bernie Sanders at the community college. Her response was, in essence, that Mrs. Clinton would not have used her private email server if she knew it was prohibited by law or policy.

This gave me the opportunity to discuss the movie Legally Blonde and the famous Harvard Law School classroom scene on the difference between malum in se and malum prohibitum (video below). I asserted that there is considerable evidence showing Secretary Clinton had been grossly negligent in her handling of our country’s secrets. I further told her that there was a strong likelihood that foreign countries have hacked the private server and could later blackmail President Hillary Clinton and the United States. This opportunity for blackmail is blindingly obvious to me. Apparently many people don’t understand or acknowledge the gravity of this problem.

The magnitude of this problem only reinforces the need for the FBI to inform the public of the results of its investigation and the conclusion it reaches regarding prosecution. Is there credible evidence that crimes have been committed and has the FBI referred the case for prosecution? Am I the only person in America that thinks that this is a big deal?

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