Bernie Sanders, after meeting with President Obama. Obama has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.by Gaius PubliusThis is another installment in our occasional series "The Clinton Server Story for Progressives." Sorry to bring this news to you via a right-wing source, but for some reason, it's not appearing in more mainstream outlets. Yet the gist is simply a report of something said by White House spokesman Josh Earnest. (I'm editing out the right-wing cackling in the piece, to leave just the factual parts.)
White House calls FBI probe into Clinton's classified emails a 'criminal investigation'...
- Within an hour of Barack Obama's endorsement of Hillary Clinton, his spokesman acknowledged that she faces a 'criminal investigation'...
- Clinton faces the possibility of prosecution for housing classified documents on a private email server...
- White House press secretary Josh Earnest insisted that the endorsement wouldn't be interpreted inside the FBI as a signal to let her off the hook
Barack Obama's spokesman described the FBI's probe into Hillary Clinton's classified email scandal as a 'criminal investigation' on Thursday, less than an hour after the president endorsed his embattled former secretary of state to succeed him.Josh Earnest told reporters during a White House press briefing that Obama was committed to keeping his hands off the investigation, trusting career investigators and prosecutors to follow evidence wherever it leads.'That's what their responsibility is,' Earnest said. 'And that's why the president, when discussing this issue in each stage, has reiterated his commitment to this principle that any criminal investigation should be conducted independent of any sort of political interference.'
Just reporting it. Obama endorses Clinton. An hour later the White House says she's being criminally investigated by the FBI (as opposed to undergoing a "security review," as Clinton has previously characterized it). And Obama assures us that the intersection of those two facts — the endorsement, the investigation — don't affect each other in any way. Which means, if you think it through, that the investigation didn't affect the endorsement. Just reporting it. Also, I can report that Bernie Sanders is still in the Democratic primary contest.GP