Multiple news reports coming out of the testimony of longtime Clinton associate Sid Blumenthal provide further insight into Clinton’s poor judgment and bad leadership as Secretary of State. For example:
Bloomberg‘s Josh Rogin writes that Hillary Clinton forwarded information about Libya that was “based on often … outright erroneous information”: The e-mail adds to the impression that the intelligence reports that Blumenthal was sending to Clinton about the situation inside Libya – and that she was distributing for comment to top State Department officials – were based on often flimsy or outright erroneous information.
Washington Examiner‘s Sarah Westwood on Clinton forwarding ” demonstrably false” Blumenthal memos: The demonstrably false claim sent by Blumenthal underscores the main concern that lawmakers have expressed in regards to his informal intelligence memos: that Clinton may have relied on his unvetted intelligence as fact.
National Review‘s Joel Gehrke uncovers a previously-undisclosed email sent to Clinton from Blumenthal that shows the two were collaborating on “a most delicate matter”: The e-mail, which Blumenthal provided to Benghazi Committee investigators earlier this week, shows him advising Clinton on a most delicate matter: How she should respond to the fall of Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi.
Perhaps most damaging for Clinton, National Review‘s Gehrke notes the new Blumenthal email “makes explicit the degree to which her advisers misjudged the situation on the ground in Libya and the Middle East, and shows that her team wasn’t above making foreign-policy statements with an eye on President Obama’s looming reelection bid – and her own political future.”
With a record like this, no wonder Clinton spent so little time during last weekend’s 5,000 word campaign re-launch speech talking about her time at the State Department. As The Hill notes this morning, “even people sympathetic to Clinton expressed some concern that there is no signature achievement” at Foggy Bottom.