In a scathing editorial, The Washington Post called on presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to stop “stonewalling” on her use of a private email account for government business as secretary of state.
The Post writes Clinton “has given the department 55,000 pages of messages in response to a request, but those were selected by her and her staff, not by government archivists or officials. All of this reveals a cavalier attitude to the public’s legitimate claim on government records.”
The editorial board noted Clinton’s only comment on the matter thus far has been one tweet, 26 words in length:
The tweet also does not address a number of questions that Ms. Clinton should answer: Why did she use a private account? What discussions did she have with advisers and other State Department or White House officials about it? How many messages, if any, have been omitted from those turned over to the department? Will she permit a neutral arbiter — say, from the National Archives — to examine any withheld messages?
Clinton surrogates and allies have attempted to stave off criticism by playing the “this is a Republican witch-hunt” card. The Post addressed that too.
Some have portrayed the e-mail story as a conflict between Ms. Clinton and members of Congress who are investigating the attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, while she was secretary. But this is not primarily about Benghazi. Instead, it is about how Ms. Clinton responds to legitimate questions about her judgment and her record; it is about how she would function as president. Dispatching friendly politicians and former aides to television news shows to dismiss the issue as just politics does not help her cause. If she is elected president, can Americans expect a similar response when she faces difficult questions — one 26-word tweet and a cloud of obfuscation from her friends? (Emphasis added.)
The conclusion of the Post editorial was simple and unequivocal: it’s time to come clean, Hillary.
If she wants to demonstrate the strength of character and judgment required to be president, Ms. Clinton should hold a news conference and answer all the unanswered questions about her e-mails.