If Hillary Clinton really wanted the public to see her emails, she'd be showing them instead of evading the question, and her "latest public relations trick" should be viewed with skepticism,
National Journal senior political columnist Ron Fournier said in a condemning opinion piece Thursday.
"If she wants to be transparent, she'd be transparent," Fournier said. "If she wants to be a modern, forward-looking leader who earns the trust of a disillusioned public, she'd call off her attack dogs, stop spinning, and do the right thing."
Wednesday night, Clinton, who remains the frontrunner in many polls about the upcoming 2016 election,
took to Twitter to answer criticism about her exclusive use of a private email account for her work while she served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
Her only statement so far was her Wednesday night short tweet, in which she said that she wants "the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They [the State Department] said they will review them for release as soon as possible."
That tweet isn't enough, said Fournier, who commented that a "cornered Clinton is a craven Clinton," and he wants to know why, if Clinton wants her emails public, she made a secret account "on a dark server registered at her home? ... why didn't she give State all of her email rather than a self-censored fraction of the correspondence?"
Instead of waiting, Fournier said, Clinton should instead turn over all her emails for independent vetting and to allow someone the public trusts to decide which of the correspondences are private and which ones are public.
Clinton's tweet, Fournier said, is reminiscent of the 1990s, when her husband's White House responded to controversy by bullying the media, blaming Republicans, and denying the truth, and he accused her of following "a shameless script" that is unbecoming "of a historic figure who could be our next president."
Further, the actions are inappropriate for modern times, when "the Internet has made almost everybody a researcher and a journalist."
The public can now spot lies, stand up to bullies, and "remind our leaders that two wrongs don't make a right," said Fournier.
Fournier also called on Clinton to return "unseemly foreign donations" to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation.
On Wednesday, he pointed out, The Associated Press said it is considering action over years of stalled requests for documents from Clinton's years as secretary of state.
The AP is seeking her schedules, calendars, and details on the State Department's decision to hire longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.