The next months are highly critical for presidential aspirants seeking the confidence of the public, the backing of their parties, and the favors of financiers. At a time like this, previously bankable contender Hillary Clinton struggles to maintain her lead amidst the advancement of her opponent Bernie Sanders and the heightening of the top-secret email issue plaguing her.
Email Controversy
Clinton confronted a crisis on Aug. 11 and 12. The email server she wiped clean is headed to the Justice Department. Some of the emails she already had turned over to the state contained materials deemed highly confidential, MSN reported.
The inspector general for the U.S. Office of the Intelligence Community told the members of Congress that two of the four classified emails retrieved on Clinton's server contain highly sensitive information.
Going back, while serving as the secretary of state, Clinton was expected to use the government's email account. Excusing herself from the protocol, she did her work correspondence on her private email account connected to a commercial server at her residence in upstate New York. When the State Department requested her correspondence, her team divided her emails into work and personal messages. Those classified as work emails were sent to the State Department while the rest were wiped out from her server. The deletion was deemed by critics a questionable act.
For months, Clinton did not heed the request of her political adversaries and the media to surrender the server for examination by the authorities.
However, as the server controversy progressed on Tuesday, Clinton's spokesperson Nick Merril spoke out. Merril said that last spring Clinton requested the Department of State to release the 55,000 pages of the work emails that she provided the office last fall. Clinton hopes that the state and the other agencies involved in the review process will be able to quickly identify which emails are appropriate for public release. Meanwhile, her team cooperated with the State Department to ensure the safety and security of her files.
According to Merril, Clinton ordered her team to provide the Department of Justice her email server and a thumb drive containing copies of her emails. The same objects were already given to the State Department. Clinton pledged her cooperation to the government's security inquiry.
Bernie Sanders
Leaving aside legal matters, it remains politically difficult for Clinton to defend herself from being lax on highly classified information as she runs for president.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, one of the leading Republican presidential contenders, said Clinton's actions were serious and potentially criminal offenses.
Meanwhile, her lead in the 2016 presidential elections is starting to dwindle, Breitbart reported.
While Clinton was under fire for the email issue last Tuesday, she also received the update that she fell behind Sanders in New Hampshire in a poll from the Boston Herald and Franklin Pierce University.
Sanders leads Clinton 44-37 percent among likely Democratic primary voters, according to the poll of 442 Granite-Staters.
Vice President Joe Biden bagged 9 percent of the support in the test primary matchup. The other announced Democrats in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Virginia Gov. Jim Webb, barely registered at 1 percent.
