The persistence of mendacity
Power Line - Thursday June 9, 2016
by Scott Johnson
Hillary Clinton took a few questions from Bret Baier in an interview that played on FOX News Special Report last night. The interview runs eight minutes (video below). Baier only got in a few questions about the Clinton email scandal. From word one falsehood and evasion have provided the order of the day. Last night was no exception.
Even though the interview ran true to form, it is nevertheless almost shocking. The woman lies with pathological abandon. There is no subtlety here. It does not depend on the meaning of “is.” The lying is rampant and obvious.
This interview is the first in which Clinton has been asked about her refusal to answer questions in connection with the State Department Inspector General’s report on her email arrangement. Through her lawyer, Clinton refused the IG’s request for an interview. Clinton’s senior aides also blew off the IG’s request for an interview. (John culled the report for highlights and posted the full text here.)
Why so shy with the State Department Inspector General? When the report came out, Clinton left the talking to campaign flack Brian Fallon. According to Fallon, Clinton and her inner circle figured it was more important to talk to the FBI, which is also conducting an investigation, than to work with her former department’s Inspector General.
“To our mind, it made sense to prioritize the review being conducted by the Justice Department,” Fallon told CNN. Ben Wolfgang drily observed in the Washington Times: “He did not explain why Mrs. Clinton and her team couldn’t do both.”
Last night Clinton had a variation on Fallon’s fallacy. She didn’t talk to the FBI because she had already spoken publicly about her email arrangement, as in her testimony to the House Benghazi committee.
This is a lie that fails the laugh test. The rest of her talking points are just lies. Note that she also denies any memory of signing the non-disclosure agreement that destroys one of her talking points.
Salvador Dali gave us “The Persistence of Memory.” Clinton gives us the persistence of mendacity.
Clinton’s struggle with Baeir’s question about Clinton’s economic plans failed the laugh test in a different way. Mediaite’s Sam Reisman handles this part of the interview in “In interview with Fox’s Bret Baier, Clinton deliver’s rambling non-answer on economy.”
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