OPINION
Clinton Carries Baggage into the Campaign
Hillary Clinton continues her campaign in spite of consistent involvement in scandal. BY PAIGE DUSSOLD REPORTER
In the heat of the presidential campaign, candidates are using any information they can get to combat their opponents and better their own chances. A popular topic among the Republican candidates is Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal which surfaced in March of 2015, although new information is still surfacing regarding the incident. The incident is also linked to the 2012 attack on government property in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans. E-mails regarding the attack were sent from her personal server that contradicted statements made by the Obama administration. Her careless actions of using her personal server to send official government e-mails, full of sensitive information, are unacceptable. It is baffling that she can still be in the running for the presidency after exposing top secret government
information that hackers across the it is a matter of national security. This is not the first time Clinton globe could access, putting American has been surrounded by scandal. lives and homeland security at risk. As a person with a long-term On Sept. 11, 2012, while Clinton connection to the government, was still Secretary of State, the U.S. Clinton should have known better, diplomatic compound in Benghazi, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if Libya was attacked. Four Americans she broke a law or violated something lost their lives and countless others on the technical level. A capable were evacuated. The story favored by the Obama member of the Administration, and government should be able to recognize Emails deemed too classified to repeated multiple be released. times by Clinton, stated what information that the violence was is sensitive even 4 sparked by an antiif it hasn’t been the 2012 Benghazi Islamic video created formally labeled as People Killed in attack. by the U.S. and carried such. According 2+ out by fighters who to the New York Times, 22 of the benefited from NATO Stories released by the Obama Administration regarding the logistical aid, according emails are too topBenghazi attack. to the Washington secret to release to the public, and now that they have Times. According to the Washington been compromised their classification Post, 10 or more different agencies has upgraded. While campaigning in Iowa, began investigations into the attack, Senator Marco Rubio said that if during which it was discovered that in Clinton was under his authority Clinton’s private emails to family and she would be fired and prosecuted other world leaders that the attack on immediately. Senator Rubio’s the Benghazi compound was in fact sentiments should be shared by a terrorist attack. But Clinton and everyone, regardless of political the Obama Administration denied affiliation. This is beyond the level of any claims that this was Al Qaeda, petty attacks on campaign opponents, and according to the Washington
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Post, their story has changed at least twice. Just weeks before the incident, Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens requested more security in and around the compound but was denied. Clinton insists that she did not make that decision. Stevens died in the attack. Despite ongoing investigations, Clinton is still campaigning. She beat Senator Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Caucus elections on the flip of a coin. In the New Hampshire Primary, Sanders defeated Clinton by a significant margin. However, although Sanders is often the popular winner, Clinton holds the favor of many superdelegates who do not have to follow the popular vote. The South Carolina primary on Feb. 27 saw Clinton beating Sanders with 39 delegates to his mere 14. With so many superdelegates in her favor, it is possible that she will travel far in the race. Clinton is not afflicted by bad fortune, and is never just ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. It is no coincidence that one person has been the center of multiple controversies. Clinton should do her country a favor and drop out of the running. Scandal and fallacy follows her. How can she possibly run a country? The answer is simple, she can’t.
Senate Shouldn’t Block Obama’s Nominee
The death of Supreme Court justice causes panic among Republicans. BY TAYLOR SPIES REPORTER
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died Feb. 13 in his sleep. Scalia was well known for his conservative views, dedication to the Constitution and loudly voicing his opinions in court. His death has caused the government to panic because now the Supreme Court is split evenly between conservatives and liberals. President Obama now has the chance to change the majority of the court to liberals. Even so, he should be able to nominate a candidate, and the Senate should agree to consider the candidate and take a vote. Obama’s opportunity to change the balance of the court concerns many people because the Supreme Court will address many controversial issues in the coming years including abortion and immigration, according to CNN. If a conservative judge replaces Scalia, it could swing the votes one way, while if a liberal judge is the
replacement, the votes could swing the other way. Therefore, it is a crucial time to have a full court. It is likely that President Obama will want to fill the empty spot with a liberal judge, but the mostlyconservative Senate will not want this to happen. President Obama has a little over 300 days left in office and most Republican senators have vowed to avoid making any decision until after he leaves office, in the hopes that a more conservative president will be elected and will nominate a new conservative judge, according to CNN. If the Senate chooses to block the Supreme Court candidate, it could break the record for longest time the Senate has taken to vote for a nominee, according to the BBC News. This mirrors the new level of partisan politics at play in the Supreme Court, where politics should ideally play a minimal role. This refusal to make a decision will likely lead to split votes from the Supreme Court, leading to little progress on real issues, according to BBC News. Since 1900, there have been six Justices that were confirmed in a
presidential election year. The Senate has typically confirmed the President’s nominee whether or not it was an election year. There’s never been a block on the same scale that the Senate is considering now. For example, in 2005 President Bush nominated Samuel Alito to be the Supreme Court Justice after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired. The senate panicked, much like they are doing now. Some were determined to block the nominee, although it was the Democrats rather than the Republicans that were worried. However, the Senate voted after around 60 days and Justice Alito was voted into the Supreme Court. This shows that politics are starting to play a bigger and bigger role in the Supreme Court. If Americans are striving for an unbiased judicial system, politics shouldn’t be the deciding factor on important decisions like judges for the Supreme Court. Ideally, politics should play a minor role in the judicial system to preserve justice. This is no exception. The sharp reactions from the Senate are part of a political revenge cycle that needs to stop. It seems if a
candidate is from a certain party, the Senators from the opposing party immediately panic and jump to drastic decisions like refusing to vote or even holding hearings. In fact, Obama hasn’t even nominated anybody, people are only talking about his short list of candidates he’s likely to nominate for the position. However, the Senate is already determined to block them, according to CNN. This process takes an average of 25-35 days but the longest time it has taken to vote was 125 days, according to the New York Times. The Senate should not need to take any longer than 125 days, at the most, to vote for the Supreme Court nominee. People should be less concerned with what party the nominee is, and be more worried about if they can do the best job as a Justice of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is too important to be made into “political football,” and turning this decision into another game of politics is disrespecting the Supreme Court, judicial system, and everything it stands for. LE JOURNAL March 2016
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