Both Democrats and Republicans should fully invest in resolving the Hillary Clinton email controversy


Photo courtesy of nbcnews.com

Photo courtesy of nbcnews.com

A week ago, The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton, during the time that she served as secretary of state, corresponded exclusively through a personal email rather than through the government provided system. The extent of her usage of a personal account for government business is unheard of for her position, and should be worrying for the American people.

In order to satisfy record-keeping laws, 55,000 pages of emails were turned over to the State Department. These emails, however, were reviewed and provided by Clinton’s advisers, leaving a litany of questions regarding her reasons for creating a personal account in the first place and the importance of the information that was omitted. It is unclear how many regulations Clinton violated through her actions, if any, but it is by no means unreasonable to be concerned about the motives of her actions.

As a result of this report, Democrats have immediately started trying to minimize the scandal, suggesting that Hillary’s actions were neither unusual or of concern. This is the wrong approach.

Democrats as well as Republicans should be probing into these emails, expecting to find that important information was omitted and being surprised if none is found. One of the greatest checks on governmental power in our system is public outcry.

For instance, during the Watergate Scandal, representatives in Congress were given a strong signal by the American people to prosecute the President, and were therefore given strong political support for their persistent probing into the Nixon White House tapes. This investigation changed the way that presidents were expected to act and created a new standard to which they were to be held accountable.

We should demand a similar inquiry into Clinton’s emails. Though one would hope and expect there to be no incriminating information, a full scale investigation should be staged and supported across party lines. There are few things in this country that can unite the American people. Holding our government officials accountable for their actions should be one of them.

Sarah Green is a sophomore majoring in economics. Her column, “Power Politics,” runs Mondays.  

1 reply
  1. tahoegeminii
    tahoegeminii says:

    like ALL other politicians don’t have a private email or 3 going on-ninja pleassssee-this is like when they put Martha Stewart in prison for insider trading-ALLL the good old boys were doing much much worse but if a woman is threatening the old boys club they want to crucify her for doing the same things they are doing–and since boner the guy who sent his penis pic to the world while trying to illicit a minor with it is still the house speaker or something then the GOP needs to think twice on this witch hunt

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