OPINION:
Hillary Clinton may not be running for any particular political seat right now, but she sure does know how to sling a political punch — and boy, is she taking advantage of this Paul Manafort indictment thing.
She’s like that kid that hangs with the playground bully, coming in after the beating’s been administered with a sharp kick to the guy on the ground, a “take that” jab when the guy’s rendered defenseless.
Impeachment, anyone? That’s what Clinton seems to now be suggesting in a thinly veiled appeal to Congress delivered during her book tour. And just when you thought the Russia talk had turned Clinton’s way. What impeccable timing; these indictments couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment for Clinton.
“We know everything we need to know,” she said during a tour to promote her “What Happened” book, CBS News reported. “We just have to make sure that members of Congress do their jobs and hold the president accountable.”
Catch that, Congress?
Robert Mueller’s knocked Paul Manafort and Richard Gates to the ground with a 12-count indictment. Now comes Clinton to deliver the blow to the head — the tie-in to President Donald Trump.
And this, despite the fact the indictments have nothing to do with Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia — what Mueller is actually being paid to investigate.
“I’ll leave it to the investigators to decide whether or not there was collusion or conspiracy,” Clinton went on, The Hill reported. “But we don’t need a lengthy investigation to tell us that Trump is ignoring the intelligence community about an urgent threat, refusing to stand up to an adversary who has already attacked us, and abdicating his responsibility to preserve, protect and defend our national security interests.”
Trump, along with every sane person who has eyes to see the political writing on the wall, has denied engaging in any type of collusion with Russia to steal the election from the Democrats, from Clinton.
But the left, ever ready to impeach — in fact, vowing to impeach before the elected Trump was even seated in the White House — can’t accept the loss of its heir apparent, Clinton. Their steady drumbeat messaging has been that Trump is not a valid president because somehow, through someone, he worked with Russia to hack into the Democratic National Committee’s servers and steal damaging information to use against Clinton.
And that’s how he won. No evidence, mind you. But that’s the left’s insistent cry.
Manafort and Gates, meanwhile, have pleaded not guilty to their charges, which include evading foreign lobbying disclosure rules. A third low-level associate tied to the Trump team has pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his own contacts with Russian officials — though again, this has nothing to do with the collusion clatter the left’s been slinging Trump’s way for months.
But now comes Clinton, on cue, to deliver her first extensive remarks since Manafort and Gates were indicted — and of course, she’s throwing darts Trump’s way.
More to truth, she’s already moved to convict, sending a subtle warning Congress’ way that the ball is now in their court — that it’s time to deal with the president.
“[The facts are] more than alarming,” she said, “it’s a clear and present danger to Western democracy.”
That’s funny. The facts certainly are alarming. But up until the indictments — up until the last couple days, when the whole Russia investigation was taking a turn into uranium territory and ties to the Clinton-run State Department and Clinton Foundation — the facts seemed to be pointing Clinton’s way, and the “clear and present danger” line was exactly what was being said about Clinton. Good thing those indictments came when they did to get the investigation back on Trump Attack Track. Clinton can once again breathe easy.
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