Only minutes after MSNBC’s MTP Daily host Chuck Todd proclaimed on Thursday that Republicans may have “inadvertently helped Hillary Clinton” concerning her e-mail scandal with the FBI Director James Comey’s hearing, Todd brought on Republican Congressman Jim Jordan (Ohio) to question whether or not Clinton “is being over-targeted” by Republicans.
The interview began with the hearing itself and how Jordan perceived what Comey had to say, but it soon devolved into Todd rehashing his opening commentary to Jordan and if Clinton has faced additional scrutiny by those not backing her because of her last name.
“Is it possible she’s being over — would you ever sit here and say she is being over-targeted because of who she is? Would anybody else have had a second congressional hearing? For instance, what you guys did? What other person who have had after the FBI director made the decision he made, you guys said, no, we're going to call another hearing,” Todd complained.
Needless to say, the conservative Ohioan was not amused and shot back:
Chuck, what other person gets to make false statements to congress and not be investigated for that? What other person gets to set up an authorized email server situation that nobody else had and keep her personal, work-related, Clinton Foundation information, and now we know classified information on the server and, then when she is caught, house her legal team decide which one she keeps and which ones they keep and which ones they give to us...Now, that sounds an awful lot to me like they were trying to hide something there. No one else gets away with it in this country.
Two questions later, the testiness remained pervasive wanted to know what Jordan thought Clinton “was hiding” on her private server and expressed that perhaps it may have come to “a point where there is too much innuendo” and by that he exclaimed about how “everything is politically motivated here.”
Before allowing Jordan to answer, Todd added: “What you're saying what she did is politically motivated? What the Clinton campaign is saying is that you guys are politically motivated. What does the public see?”
Jordan finally was able to respond and he did by speaking in a series of rhetorical questions about whether Clinton’s conduct square with what “innocent people” would have done in her situation:
Do innocent people — do innocent people wipe clean their devices? Do innocent people make sure they get to decide up front what they keep and then delete those — that information? Do innocent people start off by saying, look, I'm going to set up this server and Huma Abedin, in her deposition, said it was set up so that personal information could never get public so that no one can see what we’re doing and she kept everything there. Do innocent people get to do that? I think it's a logical inference and this principle of conscience of guilt. That seems to be in play here as well.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s MTP Daily on July 7 can be found below.
MTP Daily
July 7, 2016
5:08 p.m. Eastern
CHUCK TODD: Is it possible she’s being over — would you ever sit here and say she is being over-targeted because of who she is? Would anybody else have had a second congressional hearing. For instance, what you guys did? What other person who have had after the FBI director made the decision he made, you guys said, no, we're going to call another hearing. We can make a case. Who else goes under that?
REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN JIM JORDAN: Chuck, what other person gets to make false statements to congress and not be investigated for that? What other person gets to set up an authorized email server situation that nobody else had and keep her personal, work-related, Clinton Foundation information, and now we know classified information on the server and, then when she is caught, house her legal team decide which one she keeps and which ones they keep and which ones they give to us.
TODD: Well, let me ask you this, though, on the —
JORDAN: But wait a minute. The ones — the ones they kept, they then deleted and her legal team — her lawyers scrubbed every device so that no forensic recovery could take place. Now, that sounds an awful lot to me like they were trying to hide something there. No one else gets away with it in this country. Why does she get away with it?
(....)
5:10 p.m. Eastern
TODD: What do you believe she was hiding?
JORDAN: I don’t know.
TODD: I mean, is there a point where there is too much innuendo? I mean, this is sort of like he seemed to — you know — at what point do we get to — nobody — everything is politically motivated here, right? What you're saying what she did is politically motivated?
JORDAN: No, no, no.
TODD: What the Clinton campaign is saying is that you guys are politically motivated. What does the public see?
JORDAN: Do innocent people — do innocent people wipe clean their devices? Do innocent people make sure they get to decide up front what they keep and then delete those — that information? Do innocent people start off by saying, look, I'm going to set up this server and Huma Abedin, in her deposition, said it was set up so that personal information could never get public so that no one can see what we’re doing and she kept everything there. Do innocent people get to do that? I think it's a logical inference and this principle of conscience of guilt. That seems to be in play here as well.
