President Obama has dealt another blow to his credibility and deepened Americans’ lack of trust in government with his handling of the Hillary Rodham Clinton email scandal, analysts say, with the White House simultaneously ducking tough questions about the former secretary of state while passing the buck to the State Department and other agencies.
The administration this week has alternated between defending Mrs. Clinton — by stressing that her critics haven’t produced firm evidence that she deleted relevant emails or transferred classified information via her personal account — and distancing itself from her email use while in office.
But by seemingly trying to insulate himself should it turn out that Mrs. Clinton violated protocol or possibly broke the law, Mr. Obama once again has fed the growing belief that he is often ignorant of operations inside the federal government, said Lara Brown, a political science professor at George Washington University.
“The problem is — and this is what I think rests underneath the fact that the American public says government is the No. 1 problem — how can the president have had emails back and forth with Hillary when she was secretary of state but then not notice her email address wasn’t an actual government email?” Ms. Brown said. “There’s this problem with his distancing himself from Sen. Clinton’s actions. While it helps to protect him from any fallout that may come it also continues to keep this narrative that the president doesn’t know what’s happening in his own administration.”
Indeed, a Gallup poll released Thursday shows that 18 percent of Americans say dissatisfaction with government is the most important problem facing the country, outranking the economy, health care and other issues.
Analysts say Mr. Obama’s approach to the Clinton email saga only amplifies that dissatisfaction and harkens back to the Veterans Affairs scandal, the failed launch of HealthCare.gov and other instances in which the commander in chief distanced himself from serious problems in his administration.
Although the White House maintains there is no proof that Mrs. Clinton violated federal record retention requirements — she says she has turned over all 55,000 emails relevant to government business — officials admit that they aren’t keeping track of email policies inside every corner of the administration.
“The individual agencies are responsible for maintaining their email systems and for maintaining those records,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. “For questions like that, about how individual Cabinet members handle their email, I’d encourage you to contact the agencies that they lead.”
Meanwhile, Republicans continue to demand that Mrs. Clinton turn over her personal email server to an independent third party who can assure the American people that she followed all federal guidelines.
The former secretary of state said this week that she has no intention of turning over the server but asked the public to trust that she disposed of only personal emails.
“I chose not to keep my private, personal emails — emails about planning Chelsea’s wedding or my mother’s funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes,” she said at a New York City press conference.
On that key point, the administration has steered clear and avoided flatly stating that Mrs. Clinton did indeed follow all rules and did not delete official emails.
Mr. Earnest said Wednesday that the White House hasn’t reviewed any of Mrs. Clinton’s personal emails and any questions on the matter should be directed to the Clinton camp.
Although such statements may make the White House appear disengaged from the inner workings of government, some analysts say Mr. Obama is giving himself appropriate wiggle room.
“They shouldn’t go too far out on the limb until they get more definitive information on what she did,” said Darrell M. West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “In the short run, their best strategy is to stand by her but not be too specific in what they say. That will protect them from ending up in a bad situation down the road.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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