One of the constant refrains during the US election campaign is that Hillary Clinton‘s email scandal was more than just an enormous act of stupidity on her and her staffer’s part – it was also deeply criminal and worthy of prosecution. Trump was a fan of giving his most fervent supporters sly hints he’d prosecute if he were President.
And not so sly hints:
To most people it was pretty clear this was bluster. Trump and Clinton are cut from the same cloth, they moved in the same elite New York circles before the election – seriously, folks, he was never going to prosecute her. In his wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview he signalled as much, saying that he didn’t want to “hurt” the Clintons, as they are good people.
Now, it’s confirmed that prosecution of Clinton is thoroughly off the table. An MSNBC report suggests that Trump now believes Clinton “has been through enough,” which was cautiously confirmed by campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.
“I think he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States and things that sound like the campaign aren’t among them,” Conway said.
She continued. “And I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest or trustworthy, but if Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing.”
Help her heal, nice. His more right-wing fans aren’t particularly happy about this development, with Breitbart News splashing ‘BROKEN PROMISE’ across their homepage and conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch demanding he stick to his guns:
Donald Trump must commit his administration to a serious, independent investigation of the very serious Clinton national security, email and pay-to-play scandals. If Mr Trump’s appointees continue the Obama administration’s politicised spiking of a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton, it would be a betrayal of his promise to the American people to ‘drain the swamp’ of out-of-control corruption in Washington DC.
Look, they’ll all get over it. They always do.
