Trump won’t pursue charges against Clinton
Conway says that Trump will not pursue charges against Clinton:
I think when the president-elect who’s also the head of your party … tells you before he’s even inaugurated he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone and content, to the members. Look, I think, he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign are not among them. I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest or trustworthy, but if Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing.
Black and Brown Forum debate
Sanders and Clinton debate policy issues during the Iowa Black and Brown Forum, hosted by Drake University. At specific issue were gun control, Wall Street reform, tax policy and immigration issues. Clinton’s campaign released a statement during the forum, related to questions asked during the event:
Our immigration enforcement efforts should be humane and conducted in accordance with due process, and that is why I believe we must stop the raids happening in immigrant communities.
Clinton ‘Two Faced,’ ‘Liar,’
In an interview with Klein, Jones criticizes Hillary Clinton’s statements about standing by the victims of sexual assault.
And how dare her. You know what? She don’t care nothing about women. Because if she did she would believe what I had to say. She would believe what the other women had to say. It’s really a sad, sad day if Hillary becomes president, because she has allowed her husband to get by with this type of stuff. Why does he have a right to be back in the White House, the people’s house? Why is he allowed to be back there with the track record that he has and his wife and the lying that she does and how she tried to discredit all of these women that her husband abused and sexually harassed? [She’s] such a liar. And she’s so two faced. I never once was contacted by her. Not one time and apologized about what her husband did to me.
She also says the treatment of the Clintons in the media differs from that of Bill Cosby:
There are so many people, I think, in the media, and so many people out there protecting them for whatever reason. I don’t know if they are scared of them, or what? If Bill Cosby, I mean, even if what he did was somewhat different, he still abused these women sexually and so did Bill Clinton. I’m not going to speak for all of them. But I know about me and what I heard about Kathleen Willey and different ones. I mean, he is a predator. I just don’t understand how he can get by with it.
Proposes $2 billion Alzheimer’s cure program
Clinton proposes the government spend an extra $2 billion a year to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease before 2025. A briefing on her website says she came up with a proposal to find a cure after consulting with “leading physician-scientists to understand what it would take to rapidly accelerate the progress we are making.”
Top researchers have noted that this is achievable if we make the commitment, marshal the resources, and provide the needed leadership…[Clinton] knows that reaching the goal will involve investments across the drug development cycle, from basic research to applied and translational research to public-private partnerships for clinical research.
Demands Clinton apology
Trump demands an apology from Clinton over her remarks that he is being used for ISIS recruitment.
I demand an apology from Hillary Clinton for the disgusting story she made up about me for purposes of the debate. There never was a video.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2015
Clinton’s comments ‘terrifying’
In response to Clinton’s debate comments about tech and national security:
I would hope that, given the extraordinary capacities that the tech community has and the legitimate needs and questions from law enforcement, that there could be a Manhattan-like project — something that would bring the government and the tech communities together to see they’re not adversaries, they’ve got to be partners…Maybe the backdoor is the wrong door, and I understand what Apple and others are saying about that. I know that law enforcement needs the tools to keep us safe.
Snowden says:
Aaaaaaaaand Hillary just terrified everyone with an internet connection. #DemDebate
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 20, 2015
Calls Clinton a liar
In an interview on Meet the Press, Trump calls Clinton a liar.
It’s just another Hillary lie. She lies like crazy about everything — whether it’s trips where she was being gunned down in a helicopter, or an airplane. She’s a liar and everybody knows that.
Later he tweets:
Hillary Clinton lied when she said that "ISIS is using video of Donald Trump as a recruiting tool." This was fact checked by @FoxNews: FALSE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2015
Says Trump is ‘ISIS best recruiter’
During the Democratic presidential debate Clinton says Trump is hurting the U.S. fight against terrorism with anti-Muslim rhetoric.
He is becoming ISIS’ best recruiter.They are going to people, showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists…The first line of defense against radicalization is in the Muslim American community — people who we should be welcoming and working with…I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, is sending a message to Muslims here in the United States and literally around the world that there is a clash of civilizations, that there is some kind of Western plot or war against Islam, which then, I believe, fans the flames of radicalization…If you’re going to put together a coalition in the region to take on the threat of ISIS, you don’t want to alienate the very countries and people you need to be part of the coalition.
Testifies to Benghazi committee
Clinton testifies about her role in the 2012 Benghazi attack, in an 11-hour congressional hearing. An email to her daughter was shown, where Clinton said the attack was by Al-Qaeda, despite telling the public the attack was a result of the video. She acknowledged that she couldn’t recall having talked to Ambassador Stevens after having sworn him in as ambassador, though she believed they had spoken. She said he did not have her email. At another point, clinton laughed when she said she spent the night alone after she left the office on the night of the attack.
I came here because I said I would. And I’ve done everything I know to do, as have the people with whom I worked, to try to answer your questions. I cannot do any more than that.
CNN interview
Clinton is interviewed by Tapper on State of The Union. Tapper:
With all your experience, why wouldn’t you anticipate that over the course of four years, handling very sensitive diplomatic negotiations, overseeing military interventions and surveillance, why wouldn’t you anticipate that something classified, whether about North Korea or Iran or drones or an informant for the CIA, that it wouldn’t be emailed to you? And why wouldn’t you consider that having it on your personal account with some server in Colorado might be a personal risk
Clinton:
It was allowed under the rules of the State Department…No, no, it was allowed. You know, one of my predecessors did the same thing
FBI focuses on ‘gross negligence’
An intelligence source tells Fox News that FBI is now focused on whether there were violations of an Espionage Act subsection pertaining to “gross negligence” in the safekeeping of national defense information. It is a violation for the “lawful possession” of national defense information by a security clearance holder who “through gross negligence,” such as the use of an unsecure computer network, permits the material to be removed or abstracted from its proper, secure location. The section also requires the clearance holder to report any loss, theft or destruction to their superior. The penalty is a fine and/or no more than ten years in jail. The source also says that the FBI are investigating possible obstruction of justice:
If someone knows there is an ongoing investigation and takes action to impede an investigation, for example destruction of documents or threatening of witnesses, that could be a separate charge but still remain under a single case.
Defends Clinton on emails
At the first Democratic debate, Sanders defends Clinton over her email controversy.
Clinton: I’ve taken responsibility for it. I did say it was a mistake. I have been as transparent as I know to be, turning over 55,000 pages of my e-mails, asking that they be made public. [I’d rather spend my time talking about] the issues that matter to the American people
Sanders: Let me say — let me say something that may not be great politics. But I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.
Clinton: Thank you. Me, too. Me, too.
The two then exchange a friendly handshake.
Opposes TTP
In an interview with Woodruff on PBS NewsHour, Clinton says she opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, a deal she backed while she was Secretary of State. She says it fails to create good jobs, raise wages and advance national security.
What I know about it, as of today I’m not in favor of what I’ve learned about it…I still believe in the goal of a strong and fair trade agreement in the Pacific as part of a broader strategy both at home and abroad, just as I did when I was Secretary of State. I appreciate the hard work that President Obama and his team put into this process and recognize the strides they made. But the bar here is very high and, based on what I have seen, I don’t believe this agreement has met it.
Claim: Most transparent person in US history
At a town hall in Iowa, Clinton claims she is the most transparent person in U.S. history.
I have gone further than anybody that I’m aware of in American history. Now it’s not a long history since we haven’t had emails that long–as long as we’ve had them, I’ve gone longer and farther to be as transparent as possible. Nobody else has done that. [I’m] a little embarrassed that the emails are so boring.
Republican claims are ‘conspiracy theory’
During an interview with Todd on Meet the Press, Clinton is asked if she decided to use a homebrew server to keep her emails out of the hands of Republicans, congressional investigators and those filing Freedom of Information Act requests.
Another conspiracy theory? It’s totally ridiculous…I have, as you’re rightly pointing out, been involved from the receiving side, in a lot of these accusations,’ Clinton continued. ‘In fact, as you might remember during the ’90s there were a lot of them. All of them turned out to be not true. That was the outcome.
Clinton tells Todd that despite earlier allegations, she was able to win voters over anyway when she ran for U.S. Senate in 2000.
They overlooked all of that and they looked at my record and they looked at what I would do for them and I was elected Senator, after going through years of this kind of back and forth,’ she said. ‘And it is regrettable. But it’s part of the system.
Clinton also says that the discrepancy in the Petraeus emails was due to a “transition period”. She also talks about her changing views on gay marriage and the Keystone XL pipeline.
More emails found
Despite Clinton saying she had provided all work emails from her time as secretary of state, the Department of Defense uncovers a chain of emails between Clinton and General Petraeus. The exchange of ten emails, which mainly covers personnel issues, starts shortly before Clinton enters office and continues during her first days as the top U.S. diplomat in January and February of 2009. The Petraeus exchange also shows she started using the clintonemail.com account by January 2009, contradiciting her campaign’s claim that she used a private BlackBerry email account for her first two months at the department before setting up her clintonemail.com account in March 2009. The campaign gave her use of the Blackberry as the reason for not handing over any emails from those two months to the State Department.
Dunham interview preview
During a preview of an interview with Dunham, Clinton urges young women make pragmatic political choices even when they can’t get excited about candidates.
Whenever I’m talking to young women about politics, I always say, look, you don’t have to run for office, you don’t have to be actively involved, but you do have to exercise your brain in deciding what you believe and who you will support. And sometimes, it is choices between people that none of whom excite you, but study it enough to figure out, OK, if I vote for this person over that person, I’m more likely to see progress on something I care about.
Clinton also urges young women to not get turned off by negativity in today’s politics.
You kind of can cut through that and say, look, I not only have a right, I have an obligation to make a choice. That’s part of the service I pay for living in our country. So I’m going to vote for X or Y. Not because I think that person is perfect, but it’s going to be better than the alternative. If you can’t get excited, be pragmatic and do it anyway.
Approved Abedin’s special status
Documents obtained by Judical Watch say that despite denials, Clinton approved paperwork that changed her top aide Huma Abedin’s job status to “special government employee” — a classification that allowed Abedin to work for an outside consulting firm and the Clinton Foundation at the same time she was advising Clinton at State. The Clinton Campaign says the document wasn’t the actual approval of the SGE status but only approved the title change that came with Abedin’s transition. Abedin’s lawyers have maintained that she did nothing wrong, noting that government workers have moved to SGE status before. Clinton, in an interview with MSNBC on Sept. 4, said she “was not directly involved” with Abedin’s job arrangement.
Reporter: Do you think [Donald Trump] had a point in raising the question of whether it was appropriate for her to be taking a State Department salary and also be paid by an outside company closely associated with your husband, by you?
Clinton: Well, I was not directly involved in that, but everything that she did was approved under the rules as they existed by the State Department.
Proposes $250 monthly prescription drug cap
Clinton proposes a $250 monthly cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs as well as a plan to encourage the development and use of generic drugs and to end pharmaceutical companies’ ability to write off consumer-directed advertising as a business expense. The monthly cap would limit what insurance companies could ask patients to pay for drugs that treat chronic or serious medical conditions. She also wants Medicare to be able to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and require more generous rebates. Consumers would also be allowed to purchase drugs from other countries, where medicine is often less expensive, so long as sufficient safety standards are in place.
We need to protect hard-working Americans here at home from excessive costs. Too often these drugs cost a fortune…That is bad actors making a fortune off people’s misfortune.
Opposes Keystone pipeline
Clinton says she opposes the Keystone XL pipeline:
I don’t think we need to have a pipeline bringing very dirty oil, exploiting the tar sands in western Canada, across our border…I don’t think it’s in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change…I thought this would be decided by now, and therefore I could tell you whether I agree or disagree. But it hasn’t been decided and I feel now I’ve got a responsibility to you and to voters who ask me about this.