Are accusations enough to convict a person of guilt? They shouldn’t be, but they can certainly smear a persons reputation enough to cause serious damage to their reputation.
Just look at what we’ve witnessed this week leading up to the election with the FBI Director announcing they were reopening the investigation into Clinton’s emails, only to end the week with an official letter stating they have once again determined there was “no criminal wrong-doing.”
As of now, the current “Scandals” Secretary Clinton is accused of are:
- Emails – There’s been no proof of wrong doing, only poor judgment. Even if she did accidentally send “classified” information on a private server, it doesn’t mean there’s criminal wrong-doing. In the absence of evidence showing her personal server was hacked or the information fell into the wrong hands, this entire email “scandal” is nothing more than a Witch Hunt. The entire weight of the FBI has now been brought to bare on it twice, and both times they’ve concluded “no criminal wrong-doing”. End of story.
- Benghazi: This has been investigated already. And concluded… nine times in fact. And at a cost of over $20-25 million dollars to the American tax payer. And never once has wrong-doing by Clinton been uncovered. The real story lies in the fact funding for security at the embassies was denied by the Republican controlled congress, and Jason Chaffetz himself admitted he and others blocked requests by the State Department to increase funding for security because they “had to prioritize”. https://youtu.be/Y6BLMz1chEM
- Clinton Foundation – Again, there’s no evidence of wrongdoing by Sec Clinton. She’s not even involved in the day to day operations of the Foundation. The Clinton Foundation is a legitimate global charity that’s 86% efficient, and has already directly improved the lives of millions around the world. It’s highly respected and rated by charity watch dogs and has been rated “four stars” from Charity Navigator, an “A” from Charity Watch, and “Platinum” from Guidestar. Trump’s own foundation donated somewhere in the neighborhood of $250K to the Clinton Foundation, so if you want to talk about “Pay for Play”, let’s be real. So, accepting donations from foreign governments is by no means a controversial issue.
If you want to talk about how money and donations influence a politician’s actions, then get off your hypocritical horse and show the same blood-lust over Citizens United, the #1 greatest threat to our democracy… not to mention the thousands of Lobbyists who influence your Senators, Representatives, Governors, and legislators on a daily basis.
And if you want to delve into the world of conspiracy theories and UFO’s, you might get more satisfaction by looking into Trump’s financial debts owed to some of the most powerful Billionaire Oligarchs on earth, most of whom are Russian.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/02/politics/eric-schneiderman-attorney-general-trump-university-fraud/
Unlike Clinton, Trump is actually under current indictment for fraud (Trump University).
Trump’s been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by countless women over the years and is currently facing allegations from as many as 10+ women who’ve gone public (despite his personal threats to sue them).
He’s been charged two times prior in public trials, including one by his former wife who accused him of rape while they were still married, and another in Federal court for forcible sexual assault during a business meeting with the wife of a partner. Both cases were settled for cash, with non-disclosure agreements.
Trump is currently a named defendant in a civil case accusing him of raping a 13-year-old girl at a sex party where she was promised a modeling career in exchange for sex. Keep in mind, his co-defendant in this lawsuit is accused and convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein, a Level 3 registered sex offender (the most dangerous kind).
For those of you who would dismiss this case out of hand, be aware it’s filed with an independent eye-witness testimony corroborated by Epstein’s former party planner who specifically states she witnessed the girls having sex with both Epstein and Trump.
Trump himself is on record admitting to attending the parties at Epstein’s penthouse in the 90’s and said “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Trump’s financial ties to the Russians are currently under investigation by the FBI, and according to him he’s paid no taxes in years and claims he is currently being audited by the IRS (which some people believe is a lie).
Trump’s charity is proven to be egregiously mismanaged after getting caught using tax-exempt donations to settle his legal battles ($250K+), and was caught red-handed buying a self-portrait of Trump, which was then hung in a Trump-owned property.
We’ve all seen the videos of him bragging about getting away with sexual assault then downplaying it as locker room talk (I might agree if we were talking about a high school locker room, but it’s not normal for a sixty-year-old “billionaire”), then we’ve seen him verbally attacking the women who have accused him, publicly berating and denigrating them.
And when confronted with the accusations of one woman, his response was to point out the fact she’s ugly, and he couldn’t possibly have sexually assaulted her: “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you. Man, you don’t know. That would not be my first choice.”
Then consider the entire list of terribly questionable things he’s said and done during the course of his campaign against Muslims, Mexicans, migrants, refugees, Gold Star families, sitting judges of Mexican decent (born in the USA), Prisoners of War, over-weight women, inciting violence, and so many more deeply disturbing offenses (any one of which would have disqualified a past candidate).
Add all that to the thousands of times Trump’s been sued for non-payment by his business partners.
Stir this all up, and in my view you have one giant orange mess.
So on one hand I have Secretary Clinton:
Other than allegations and accusations, she’s never been found guilty of of a crime, yet in the face of constant hateful allegations and investigations, she’s persevered. On the subject of her guilt or innocence, I’ll stick with the Rule of Law – Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat.
On the other hand, we have a man who has proven for decades to have questionable judgment, Donald J Trump:
He consistently screws over his business partners and doesn’t pay his bills (public record), he’s been sued thousands of times including twice for rape (both settled for cash and non-disclosure agreements), he hasn’t paid taxes for over two decades and refuses to release his tax returns because he knows it would sink him, he’s currently under indictment for his fraudulent Trump University, he’s currently named in a lawsuit accusing him of raping a child, and he repeatedly says and does things that make most level-headed people cringe.
This is what the media means when they talk about “false equivalency”.
There is no reasonable argument for Trump if the reasons you’re against Clinton have anything to do with her integrity or character.
Disagree on the issues all you want, but in a battle of wits and mettle Secretary Clinton wins every time.
CHRIS BURNS MCBETH 