What Does "Smoking Gun" Mean Anymore?

This article was first published in Eagle Rising.


The term smoking gun became very prominent during the Watergate days when an audiotape emerged in which President Richard Nixon was instructing his aides to have the CIA call off the FBI from the investigation on the grounds that it was all "national security". Once that tape emerged, Republicans members of Congress walked down to the White House to tell Nixon that it was over. If he didn't resign, he would be impeached and removed from office. That is when Nixon resigned.

As we watch these Wikileaks documents come out on a daily basis, we learn more and more of the inner workings of the Hillary Clinton campaign and her efforts to hide information from us. Now we learn that according to an FBI investigative report (form 302, Patrick Kennedy, who was undersecretary of state during Clinton's tenure and who was very close to Clinton, reportedly tried to make a deal with the FBI in which they would lower the classification of one of Hillary's emails (in which the Benghazi attack itself was discussed) in return for DOS approving additional FBI positions overseas. (All US Government agency personnel  assigned overseas work in an embassy or consulate under the State Department umbrella and report to the ambassador.)

This is illegal. Smoking gun?

We are also  now seeing emails in which people in her campaign are discussing whether to have Obama keep her emails to and from him under executive privilege. This confirms that there were email communications between the two while she was secretary of state and using a private, unsecured server. Obama publicly stated that he was not aware of her private server, an astonishing statement at the time and now known to be false.

We now know that right after receiving a subpoena for her emails from Congress, thousands were deleted. That is illegal. Smoking gun?

We are also now seeing the transcripts of her speeches to Wall Street fat cats, the ones she rails about in her campaign. We are seeing the difference between her campaign promises and the reassuring words she told the investment people. Smoking gun?

Here is the problem: While smoking gun after smoking gun emerges about Clinton, her foundation and her emails, the media is all but ignoring them (notable exception being Fox News). Instead, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS and ABC are pounding away at Donald Trump, the Billy Bush tape, and the issue of 9 women who have come forth accusing Trump of groping them years ago. Once again, we are treated to the spectacle of famed Hollywood attorney, Gloria Allred, attorney to women who don't need attorneys, sitting side by side with women who tearfully recount their experiences with Trump. This is not the first time she has publicly injected herself into an election.

Let me be clear: I don't know the facts of any of the allegations brought forth by these women, and if any are true, Trump isn't fit to be president.

But either is Hillary. Her use of a private server was illegal. It should disqualify her from the White House.  The Clinton Foundation is nothing more than a money laundering organization designed to enrich the Clintons at the expense of the foreign policy interests of the United States. The ongoing revelations  show that she is corrupt and not fit to be president.

And if you want to talk about Trump as sexual predator, why did Hillary organize a  squad of political goons to go out and savage the reputation of every woman linked to her husband? Every time I hear Hillary even bring up the subject, I recall her laughter telling an interviewer years ago of how she got the rapist of a 12-year-old girl off with a few months in jail by savaging this girl's reputation implying she wanted to have sex with the man. This is the great champion of American women?

In the end, what does it all mean when our media won't talk about it? As I write, Hillary's lead becomes more comfortable because of the bad news and missteps by Trump. Hers are swept under the rug. What does it mean to be a smoking gun anymore?