re: #111 Belafon

Taking a good thing from Republicans, our response should be “So? People in an airport can’t talk?”

Let the NY Times article explain exactly what I am talking about…

Bipartisan Disapproval Follows Bill Clinton’s Meeting With Loretta Lynch

A strange thing is uniting Democrats and Republicans in Washington: the widespread disapproval of a meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac in Arizona.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton Met Amid Email Investigation
Lynch told reporters that the impromptu conversation on her government aircraft in Phoenix on Monday centered on social issues, from talk of grandchildren and Clinton’s golf game to their recent travels. Nothing came up, the attorney general said, about any ongoing Justice Department investigations.

But the chat took place in the midst of an FBI investigation into the security of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which she used to conduct government business as secretary of state. And that’s creating a major appearance problem for the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House and the top federal prosecutor in the country.

Democratic political strategist David Axelrod tweeted:

David Axelrod ✔ @davidaxelrod
I take @LorettaLynch & @billclinton at their word that their convo in Phoenix didn’t touch on probe. But foolish to create such optics.
8:19 AM - 30 Jun 2016 * Chicago, IL, United States
250 250 Retweets 444 444 likes

On CNN, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., praised the attorney general for her law enforcement bona fides but offered this advice: “I think she should have said, ‘Look, I recognize you have a long record of leadership on fighting crime, but this is not the time for us to have that conversation. After the election is over, I welcome your advice and input.’”

Clinton’s political opponent in the race for the White House was less measured. Republican Donald Trump told radio talk show host Mike Gallagher the meeting was “terrible.”

“I think it’s the biggest story, one of the big stories of this week, of this month, of this year,” Trump declared. “I’ve been talking about the rigged system, how it’s rigged and, you know, this is terrible … You see a thing like this and even in terms of judgment, how bad of judgment is it for him or for her to do this? I mean, who would do this?”

The No. 2 Republican in the U.S. Senate, John Cornyn, had been calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton email setup since last September. In congressional hearings since then, Cornyn has pushed the attorney general about the independence of the inquiry and whether the White House was receiving updates on the status of the case.

Cornyn said the disclosure of the meeting between Bill Clinton and Lynch only heightened his concerns. “‘This incident does nothing to instill confidence in the American people that her department can fully and fairly conduct this investigation, and that’s why a special counsel is needed now more than ever,” Cornyn said in a statement.

- - CUT - - more of the story at the link