The recent, totally unsurprising news that President Donald Trump is wont to discuss official business in a totally unprofessional way over totally unsecured private cellphones that could be easily monitored by the intelligence services of unfriendly nations, done on purpose, moreover, so that his staff won’t know what he’s been up to, has been met with a totally unsurprising total lack of indignation, or even awareness, on the right. The president was talking on his cellphone, you say? Well, that’s what they’re for!
A few brave souls, like Jonah Goldberg, and Charlie Sykes, have the good taste, not only to disapprove of what Trump has been doing, but to note that when Hillary Clinton did something similar when she was secretary of state (so they believe) the entire right exploded with prolonged and incandescent indignation. Opines Jonah in a recent issue of the “G File”
Even if the content of the conversations wasn’t vital national security information, it’s not unimaginable that Trump said things to his attorney—or lord knows who else—that would make useful fodder for blackmail.
We demand—on penalty of prison or dismissal—that rank-and-file national security officials follow secure protocols for a reason, but the president doesn’t seem to think those reasons apply to him, even though they are more necessary for him than any other government official.
And yet, I somehow doubt we will see .0001 percent of the outrage we saw from countless “national security conservatives” when it was Hillary Clinton flouting the rules.
Actually, I would make that .00000000000001 percent, but otherwise I think Jonah is spot on on this one. And Charlie Sykes makes a similar point more briefly, though you’ll have to scroll down to the “But her emails” subhead to find it.
So this is definitely progress on the right. Still, I’d note that both Jonah and Charlie have a long way to go. Because the fuss over Hillary’s emails, which both believe was entirely justified, was in fact 1,000,000,000,000,000 percent unjustified, as Fred Kaplan explained in excellent detail in “real time” in his piece for Slate “The Hillary Clinton Email Scandal Was Totally Overblown”. As Fred pointed out, what Hillary did was not illegal, did not compromise U.S. security, would not have resulted in criminal penalties if a “lesser” person had done the same thing, and that FBI Director James Comey’s comments said as much, despite his censorious tone, which led “everyone” to believe he had said the exact contrary. The right exploded with rage, not because Hillary had committed any sort of serious infraction, but because they detested Hillary Clinton.
Afterwords
It was also Jonah, or Charlie, or, you know, one of those guys, who recently recalled his outrage when President Obama’s “private” comment to Vladimir Putin, “I’ll have more flexibility after the election,” was made public. As if every elected politician in the history of the world has not said the same thing a hundred times or more.
