Hillary’s Empty Head

Vincent J. Curtis

3 Sept 2016

“I can’t recall.”

Where have I heard that statement before?  I can’t recall.

Oh, yes I can!  It was Bill Clinton in his deposition in the Starr investigation!  It has also been used by every Clinton acolyte since the halcyon days of Bubba’s Administration whenever one of them was deposed before an investigating body for one of their many transgressions of righteousness, propriety, and decency.

It’s a great lawyerly expression because it commits you to nothing.  And no lawyer follows up the answer with, “why can’t you recall?”  when that answer is given by another lawyer.  It’s a professional courtesy, you understand.

Hillary is lawyer.  So are the FBI agents who questioned her.  Hillary used the “I can’t recall” formulation a lot in her three and a half hour interview on July 2^nd.  The lack of follow-up, followed by a recommendation not to indict, means that the FBI didn’t just drop the ball in this case, they spiked it.

The emptiness of Hillary’s head thus goes unexplained.  The reason Hillary did not understand the security markings or know the proper handling of secure documents is either:

(a)    She once knew, and forgot;

(b)   She never knew.

By saying that she can’t recall having received training in understanding security markings, she leaves both options (a) and (b) open. 

Hillary told the FBI that she could not recall having received training in handling secure documents, an arduous process if done in three hours.  And the FBI simply accepted that as an answer.  Never mind that Hillary signed a document saying that she had received training, and that she understood how to recognize and handle classified information.

Apparently, Hillary didn’t recall that, and the FBI never brought it up.

Hillary claimed that she paid no attention to the level of classification, even though Special Access material was delivered to her on paper in her office she knew it had to be handled with extraordinary care.  She said she treated it all the same - carefully.

Hillary was named as an Original Classification Authority by President Obama, and admitted to having used that authority on occasion.  That means that she personally assigned a level of classification to some documents or information as Secretary of State, despite not knowing anything about levels of classification!

Hillary was not only Secretary of State, but had for eight years been a Senator serving on the Senate Armed Services committee, which receives and handles classified material on a routine basis.  When asked what she thought a (C) marking meant at the beginning of a paragraph in a document containing classified material, she said she thought it was part of a series of bullet points, such as (A), (B), and (D) – despite there being no (A), (B), and (D) at the beginning of the paragraphs above and below the one marked (C).  And the FBI didn’t follow up.

Hillary said that she did not consider whether or not emails exchanged on future U.S. drone strikes should be classified.

She said no one ever raised concerns with her about her use of a private, unsecured email server.

She lost her Blackberry and had it replaced at least 13 times.

Hillary said she received no direction or instruction from officials at the State Department regarding the preservation or production of records as she departed the position of Secretary.

Hillary said that she relied on the judgement of the permanent officials at the State Department concerning whether or not the content of an email sent to her private, unsecured server was classified properly or not.  She claimed that her use of a private, unsecured server was “public knowledge.”  (Aside, the proper term is ‘common’ knowledge among those who emailed her.  If it were ‘public’ knowledge, then the public would have known about it, including President Obama.)

The question of how permanent State Department officials were supposed to use their judgement concerning emails they did not know existed was never asked by the FBI.  The question of whether Hillary told those officials of the unsecured nature of her private server and to be cautious therefore, was never asked by the FBI.

The question of how Hillary expected these trusted officials to assume the responsibility she delegated to them – whether they knew it or not – when they lacked vital information to discharge that responsibility properly was never asked by the FBI.

Because of the “I can’t recall” formulation, we cannot be sure whether Hillary’s empty head is due to having a memory like a sieve or that she is utterly lacking in diligence – diligence in filling gaps in knowledge she has in order to perform her job up to standard.  You can have “people” to perform routine tasks, but you have to be able to blow your own nose.

So, is Hillary that mentally addled or is she that incompetent?

What Hillary is counting on in this election is that her supporters assume that she is simply cleverly lying to the FBI to avoid an indictment.  She outsmarted the FBI.  Therefore, she is neither mentally addled nor incompetent.

And she is hoping that her supporters never think more deeply than that, such as what kind of character does it take to do all that?  Can I trust this person with my safety as president?

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