Ignore them, they’re lying again

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

No, the investigation into Clinton’s emails hasn’t “re-opened.” The FBI is trying to fuck with the election.

FBI Director James Comey alerted Republican members of Congress on Friday that bureau investigators would review some additional emails that might relate to Hillary Clinton’s email server. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee who has already vowed to spend the next several years investigating Clinton should she be elected president, quickly rushed to announce the news, falsely claiming that the case had been “reopened.”

https://twitter.com/jasoninthehouse/status/792047597040971776

And other Republicans followed suit, and news outlets took the bait, and Trump  gloated, and yadda yadda.

Though nothing in Comey’s letter said the case was being reopened, an array of news outlets repeated Chaffetz’s incorrect characterization. NBC News initially posted a story with this framing, later changing the headline and ledeto drop the claim. USA Today tweeted, falsely, that the FBI director had said the probe was being reopened. The Hill and Bloomberg also got the facts wrong.

But hey, that’s ok – it’s no big thing. It’s only whether or not the lying thieving sexually assaulting narcissist gets access to scary levels of power or not. No worries.

Despite the initial overreaction to the news, NBC’s Pete Williams has already reported that the newly found e-mails were not originally withheld by Clinton nor her campaign, the emails are not from Clinton, and the letter was sent to the Congressional leaders “out of an abundance of caution.” The AP reported that the emails did not come from Hillary Clinton’s private server. NBC’s sources called the story less than a game-changer.

But that did not stop Clinton’s critics from trying to turn it into one.

Because an exciting, though false, news item is always worth risking the fate of a country of 350 million people.

Comments

6 responses to “Ignore them, they’re lying again”

  1. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    I am so fucking done with this… this crap has got to end. The only bright point here is that early voting has been under way for a while…

  2. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    So, Hillary Clinton didn’t send the emails, they weren’t about her, she didn’t try to delete them, and they weren’t found on her server?

    Lock! Her! Up!

  3. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    Goodbye Senate majority (maybe Atheismo will smile upon us and that won’t happen)…

  4. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    Right now it’s all innuendo (“Where there’s smoke there’s fire, am I right?”), but I’m afraid that’s enough to do damage.

  5. John the Drunkard Avatar
    John the Drunkard

    Well, using a ‘news’ platform to pass along unchecked publicity statements? There’s your Free Market at work! Who needs to pay actual journalists, to do actual journalism?

  6. Lady Mondegreen Avatar
    Lady Mondegreen

    the investigation into Clinton’s emails hasn’t “re-opened.” The FBI is trying to fuck with the election.

    I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Comey didn’t say the investigation was being “reopened,” that was Chaffetz. From the New Yorker piece:

    “I don’t really blame Comey,” another former Justice Department official said. “But it’s troubling.” This official thought that Comey “didn’t want to look tainted. This new information comes to him, and he’s afraid if he doesn’t make it public until after the election he’ll be impeached. People will say he lied to Congress. But in the end he did the self-protective thing. Was it the right thing? Put it this way: it isn’t what previous Administrations have done.”

    It’s Republicans who are trying to fuck with the election. What a surprise.

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