Howard Fineman indicated that because “other serious news organizations like NBC and The New York Times, et cetera,” are looking at Hillary’s emails, the story will not “burn out any time soon.”
Fineman, Editorial Director for the Huffington Post, joined “The Rundown With José Díaz-Balart” Wednesday and said this email controversy will have a “big effect on Hillary’s standing with the public,” yet downplayed the role Fox News and Representative Trey Gowdy, Chairman of the House Benghazi Committee.
José Díaz-Balart: So Hillary Clinton says this who thing about emails will burn itself out. It’s been nearly six months and we’re still talking about it. What do you see burning out?
Howard Fineman: Well, I think the story isn’t over and it’s not going to burn out any time soon. There was a time, I think, when this was viewed primarily as part of what Hillary would refer to as the vast right wing conspiracy out to get her. And this was just another talking point, an attack instrument of the conservative Republican base and Trey Gowdy in the House and Fox News on cable et cetera, but I think it’s jumped the track a little bit, because I think serious, other serious news organizations like NBC and the New York Times, et cetera, are looking at it carefully. And it’s also true that the story on ongoing has had a big effect on Hillary’s standing with the public. So far most Democrats are sticking with her, but overall their view, the public’s view of her trustworthiness, her candor and so forth, those are toxic numbers at this point and it’s going to make it more difficult for her going forward.
Díaz-Balart: Well let’s say Howard, the FBI comes back and says they didn’t find anything classified or top secret in the other e-mails they found. I mean, does that story end there?
Fineman: Well, for some people it’s never going to end, and the fact that the server was wiped clean of the personal e-mails, don’t forget, we’re talking here of around 65,000 e-mails or so. About half of them were turned over by the State Department and are being gone through now. The others were deemed by Hillary herself to be personal, and, therefore, of no use to anybody except her. And those were the ones that were wiped clean. And so there are always going to be depending on what the FBI can do to reconstruct that server on the personal side, there are always going to be people who are going to question what was there and what wasn’t there. But yes, if they do recover them and they are all personal and even cringingly so, which is quite possible, because Hillary talked about how they were about scheduling events with her family and so forth and so on, I think it will help a lot. But that process is going to be ongoing for quite some time. This is going to be sort of like a low to midgrade fever she’ll have to deal with for quite some time to come as we head into the fall. There’s just no doubt about it now.