Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invoked the need for personal privacy during her press conference on why she flouted federal policy by using a personal email account exclusively, even for government work, hosted on on a personal server that she is refusing to reveal to anyone outside her team.
“No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy,” Clinton said.
Does that sound familiar? “I answered their questions truthfully, including questions about my private life, questions no American citizen would ever want to answer,” then-President Bill Clinton said in 1998 when he admitted that previously he had given “a false impression” of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Of course, it’s true that “no one wants their personal emails made public,” just as it’s true that Bill Clinton had to discuss topics that no one would want to discuss with an interrogator. The Clintons history of scandals might make it harder for Americans to give Hillary Clinton the “benefit of the doubt,” as Hilary Rosen predicted they would on CNN. And some people might wonder why she used a private email account for government work, exclusively, if she didn’t want to put her private emails at risk of disclosure.
In any case, having to explain to people why they don’t get to know more information that they might want to know is a terrible way to start a presidential campaign (her announcement is expected next month) — at least, that’s what former Governor Martin O’Malley (D., Md.) seems to think.
“Part of what I’d hope to offer, if I decide to [run for president], is a return to the politics of principle,” he said this week.