Tipsheet

Is Hillary Clinton's Op-Ed A Signal Flare That She Might Run Again In 2020?

She just cannot walk away. She just cannot do it. She cannot accept that she lost. She cannot tolerate Donald J. Trump as president. Alas, you can’t always get what you want. Hillary will never be president, but that doesn’t mean she can’t cause trouble. With Special Counsel Robert Mueller releasing his long-awaited report on alleged Russian collusion, the evidence was clear. There was none. No collusion. Zero. Everything the media reported was wrong on this subject. The breadth of this failure is biblical. But back to Clinton, she wants congressional hearings built on what the Mueller report found. She outlined what she wanted in an op-ed for The Washington Post (via WaPo):

Our election was corrupted, our democracy assaulted, our sovereignty and security violated. This is the definitive conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report. It documents a serious crime against the American people.

The debate about how to respond to Russia’s “sweeping and systematic” attack — and how to hold President Trump accountable for obstructing the investigation and possibly breaking the law — has been reduced to a false choice: immediate impeachment or nothing. History suggests there’s a better way to think about the choices ahead.

Obviously, this is personal for me, and some may say I’m not the right messenger. But my perspective is not just that of a former candidate and target of the Russian plot. I am also a former senator and secretary of state who served during much of Vladi­mir Putin’s ascent, sat across the table from him and knows firsthand that he seeks to weaken our country.

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First, like in any time our nation is threatened, we have to remember that this is bigger than politics. What our country needs now is clear-eyed patriotism, not reflexive partisanship. Whether they like it or not, Republicans in Congress share the constitutional responsibility to protect the country. Mueller’s report leaves many unanswered questions — in part because of Attorney General William P. Barr’s redactions and obfuscations. But it is a road map. It’s up to members of both parties to see where that road map leads — to the eventual filing of articles of impeachment, or not. Either way, the nation’s interests will be best served by putting party and political considerations aside and being deliberate, fair and fearless.

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Second, Congress should hold substantive hearings that build on the Mueller report and fill in its gaps, not jump straight to an up-or-down vote on impeachment. In 1998, the Republican-led House rushed to judgment. That was a mistake then and would be a mistake now.

Oh please, lady. First of all, thanks for fanning the flames of conspiracy around AG Barr. Most of the report is not redacted and most of the redactions are in there because they’re related to ongoing investigations. This is not unprecedented. Only 36 of the 446 pages in the report contain redactions. Everyone needs to stop sniffing glue.

She’s right that she isn’t the right person to say this: Lady, go away. Yet, this op-ed could have another motive. Is this a signal flare that she might be mulling another 2020 run? Is this a way to say, “Hey, look at me” to the Democratic base and operatives base? Whether we like it or not, Hillary Clinton is still a prominent figure in American politics. A lot of Democrats still like her. She can fill a war chest, get solid people to run her campaign, and has a national constituency. She may say that she’s done, but with a 2020 Democratic clown car that is devoid of talent, I still won’t say that we should count her out, especially if things turn south for Democrats with this field. Yes, Bernie Sanders is running, but she handily beat him. Biden's past two chances were lackluster, to say the least as well; Hillary is a two-time loser but she at least won the nomination the second go-around. If she wanted to, the infrastructure would be there. Now, I hope she stays out and I think that will be the case, but we’ll have to see how these debates go. Right now, Clinton’s chances of entering the 2020 fray are as slim as the New York Giants making the postseason last year, but there’s a chance nonetheless. She’s not done, as evidenced by this op-ed, her whine book tour, the super PAC she created to combat the Trump agenda, and her overall inability to just retire.