Question: Now that it’s being reported that Donald Trump revealed top secret information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a meeting at the Oval Office, held without American press right after Trump fired the FBI Director who was leading the investigation into the Russians’ interference in our election and his campaign’s possible involvement, is anyone still worried about Hillary’s emails?
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly stated that Hillary Clinton couldn’t be trusted due to her mishandling of State Department emails.
And, undoubtedly, Clinton exercised some poor judgment when she chose to use a private email server. But her technological ineptitude would’ve been unlikely to affect her as president.
Trump, however, has been a factory of scandal, distrust, and poor judgment. Some examples:
1. Having a high level security meeting in front of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a host of guests at Mar-a-Lago.
2. Stating that we were sending an “armada” toward North Korea when our ships were actually headed to Australia.
3. Never releasing his tax returns, which may very well show foreign entanglements.
4. The White House meeting with Devin Nunes, the head of the House Intel committee that should be thoroughly investigating Trump.
5. Michael Flynn.
6. After firing FBI Director Comey in a most bizarre fashion, he publicly threatened him on Twitter.
7. Persistently violating the Emoluments Clause (e.g. his new Washington, D.C., hotel, his failure to divest himself of foreign interests).
8. Firing Sally Yates.
9. He baselessly accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of wiretapping his phones, causing resources to be used to disprove the nonsensical claim.
10. In order to convince himself that he didn’t really lose the popular vote (he did), he baselessly said that 3 to 5 million undocumented workers voted illegally, and is now seeking government resources to investigate this completely fictional problem.
11. He hung up on the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
12. Had the State Department promote Mar-a-Lago.
13. Bragged about not having to read daily briefings (maybe he shouldn’t).
14. He called out a federal judge, James Robart, who placed a hold on Trump’s Muslim ban order. Trump told the public to blame Robart if a terrorist attack occurred, obviously putting Robart in danger and threatening our system of checks and balances.
15. He admitted to Lester Holt that he considered “this Russia thing” when he fired James Comey, and that he had made the decision before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentstein’s recommendation, despite the fact that his subordinates had consistently contradicted such an assertion.
16. According to a Comey memo, Trump asked the FBI director if he could “let this go,” in reference to the Michael Flynn investigation. Sure! Just forget the whole thing! Give Flynn a mulligan.
Need more? There are plenty.
And may I remind you that Trump called for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton.
In fact, he said that, as president, he would seek one. He also repeatedly praised the FBI and Comey for reopening the Clinton email case.
But a special prosecutor to look into Russia’s interference: No.
Cooperating with the FBI: No.
Firing James Comey: Yes.
At what point do the people who were supposedly so worried about Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness give ground?
Ross Rosenfeld is a political pundit who has written for Newsday, the New York Daily News, Charles Scribner’s, MacMillan, Newsweek.com, Primedia and The Hill.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.