‘I never want to hear about Hillary’s e-mails again’: Conservative writer lays out why Clinton’s lapses are nothing compared to Trump’s

When President Donald Trump is chastised for being careless with security measures, his supporters often respond, “Yeah, but what about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails?” Conservative Never Trump journalist Max Boot answers that question in his Washington Post column, stressing that when it comes to security precautions, Trump has a much worse track record than the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

“Trump, recall, spent much of 2016 leading chants of ‘Lock her up!’ because Hillary Clinton made the mistake of employing a private server for some of her official e-mails as secretary of state," he wrote. "Trump still routinely refers to the former first lady and secretary of state as ‘Crooked Hillary’ as if she had actually committed a crime. Never mind that the Justice Department decided not to prosecute and that a lengthy State Department investigation, completed during the Trump administration, found ‘no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.’”

Boot goes on to cite some specific examples of Trump being careless with security.

“In May 2017,” Boot notes, Trump “revealed top-secret intelligence to the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador during a meeting in the Oval Office, thereby potentially blowing a source of information about the Islamic State. In 2018, he reportedly discussed with wealthy donors at a Manhattan fundraiser the classified details of a battle between U.S. forces and Russian mercenaries in Syria.”

On top of those things, Boot adds, Trump recently “revealed details about the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that, as NBC News noted, ‘were either highly classified or tactically sensitive, and their disclosure by the president made intelligence and military officials cringe.’ And, according to a White House whistleblower, Trump overruled the opposition of security officials to grant top-secret security clearances to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.”

Boot also mentions “Trump’s promiscuous use of a cell phone to conduct top-secret conversations.”

Security experts, in their critiques of Trump, have stressed that a U.S. president needs to take two precautions when having a phone conversation: only speaking via a secured phone line — and making sure the other person is also speaking on a secured phone line.

“Trump has now at least been persuaded to use a more secure government cell phone,” Boot observes, “but it doesn’t matter if he is routinely conversing with people like (attorney Rudy) Giuliani or (Ambassador Gordon) Sondland, who are employing ordinary cell phones. The security of a call is only as good as its weakest link.”

Boot acknowledges that Hillary Clinton was guilty of “security lapses” — but stresses that they don’t hold a candle to Trump’s.

“The only thing more appalling than Trump’s cavalier disregard for the basic requirements of handling classified information is the complete lack of concern by his followers who were once so exercised by Clinton’s far more innocuous security lapses,” Boot asserts. “They are championship hypocrites too. I never want to hear about Hillary’s e-mails again as long as I live.”