It’s not the vast right wing conspiracy ramping up rumors and hearsay into a perfect storm of lousy press for Hillary Clinton. Americans themselves are tracking the unfolding controversy over Mrs. Clinton’s use of private emails during her time as Secretary of State: 65 percent say they are “closely” following the story; 78 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats agree, says a new YouGov poll.
Another 54 percent deem the situation a “serious” problem. That’s where the partisan reactions kick in: 81 percent of Republicans and 32 percent of Democrats concur. Some are just tired of it all, apparently.
“If you, Hillary Rodham Clinton, are willing to cite your mother’s funeral to get sympathy for ill-advisedly deleting 30,000 emails, it just makes us want to sigh: O.K., just take it. If you want it that bad, go ahead and be president and leave us in peace. (Or war, if you have your hawkish way.) You’re still idling on the runway, but we’re already jet-lagged,” writes Maureen Dowd, a columnist for The New York Times, which first exposed the email situation. “It’s all so drearily familiar.”
And the complete poll numbers:
65 percent of Americans are closely following reports about Hillary Clinton’s email controversy; 78 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of independents and 66 percent of Democrats agree.
56 percent overall say the private email account is a “serious problem”; 81 percent of Republicans, 55 percent of independents and 32 percent of Democrats agree.
43 percent overall say media coverage is “making too big a deal about it”; 15 percent of Republicans, 38 percent of independents and 71 percent of Democrats agree.
27 percent overall say the press is not emphasizing the story enough; 51 percent of Republicans, 30 percent of independents and 5 percent of Democrats agree.
20 percent overall say the coverage is “about right”; 24 percent of Republicans, 20 percent of independents and 18 percent of Democrats agree.
15 percent overall say the email issue is “not serious at all”; 3 percent of Republicans, 15 percent of independents and 24 percent of Democrats agree.
Source: A YouGov poll of 995 U.S. adults conducted March 11-13.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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