Expecting a straight answer was too much too hope for, but basically I asked the Senator something very simple: In light of the fact that the State Department asserted that Hillary clearly broke the rules and mishandled classified information through setting up a private, unauthorized, and non-secure email account to conduct official business, did the Senator condone or condemn her actions?
That’s pretty straightforward.
Below is the Senator’s response. Notice the admirable job he does of not answering the actual question:
Thank you for contacting my office. It’s an honor to represent you in the United States Senate and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
As Secretary Clinton herself has said, her use of a private email server was “a mistake… if I could go back, I would do it differently.” I take her at her word when she said that she is sorry.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has primary oversight responsibility for the Department of State, has worked in a bipartisan manner to assure that the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) had the necessary resources and support it needed to undertake its independent assessment reviewing email practices and recordkeeping of the past five Secretaries of State under both Democratic and Republican Administrations. In its summary, the IG report found that under Secretaries Albright, Powell, Rice, Clinton and Kerry “[A]s is the case throughout the Federal Government, management weaknesses at the [State] Department have contributed to the loss or removal of email records, particularly records created by the Office of the Secretary. These weaknesses include a limited ability to retrieve email records, inaccessibility of electronic files, failure to comply with requirements for departing employees, and a general lack of oversight” and that multiple Secretaries and their staff used personal email accounts while in office.
The systemic weaknesses identified by the OIG report regarding Department of State email practices, including the use of personal email by several Secretaries in the conduct of business, are of course, a concern. I take my oversight responsibilities as Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee with the utmost seriousness, and have been working with my Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate to ensure that the State Department addresses the structural weaknesses in Departmental practices that the OIG identified, and that all State Department employees, from the Secretary on down, adhere to the proper guidelines for sending electronic communications and preserving their records moving forward.
Uh, Senator? Can’t you at least include your signature block when replying to an inquiry from one of your constituents?
Anyway, my response is below, and I contacted the Senator’s office once again and asked for a straight answer. Not holding my breath…
The View From The Trenches 