Election Day on November 8, 2016 is around the corner, and it's irrational to believe an ongoing FBI investigation doesn't hurt a Democrat's chances of winning the presidency. Even against Donald Trump, Democrats can't risk prolonged legal battles and the possibility of indictments from the FBI and Justice Department, simply because one candidate has the perception of experience and qualifications. As I stated during my CNN interview with Victor Blackwell, if you don't want a neon "Trump" sign outside the White House, then there's only one Democrat not linked to an FBI investigation.
Bernie Sanders is also the only leading candidate with positive favorability ratings. Quinnipiac University's February 18, 2016 national poll states "Sanders has the highest favorability rating of any candidate and the highest scores for honesty and integrity." Conversely, Bernie's Democratic rival isn't as admired by most Americans.
Go to HuffPost Pollster Hillary Clinton Favorability Rating right now.
In 10 out of 10 national polls regarding favorability, Hillary Clinton has negative favorability ratings nationally in all 10. I explain why Hillary Clinton is unelectable due to negative favorability numbers in this YouTube segment.
Now please go to HuffPost Pollster Bernie Sanders Favorability Rating.
In 10 out of 10 national polls regarding favorability, Bernie Sanders has positive favorability ratings in all 10.
It's very simple. One Democratic candidate is admired by most Americans, while the other is not.
To say that the majority of Americans have an unfavorable view of Clinton isn't hyperbole; it's backed up by poll numbers. I've been criticized for being unfair to Clinton, but my analysis is always backed up by various facts, including the fact 67% of Americans according to Quinnipiac find Hillary Clinton "not honest and trustworthy."
Yes, the same polls that bolstered Clinton's inevitability are also the same polls that show Bernie Sanders is the superior Democratic nominee in November.
Then, there's the tiny issue of an ongoing FBI investigation. This used to doom presidential campaigns but we've changed as a nation. While the Hillary faithful can't possibly fathom indictments, there's a great likelihood of Clinton getting indicted according to many observers. First, nobody knows why Clinton chose to use a personal server exclusively ("convenience" is obviously not the only reason) and her actions were not the same as former secretaries of state. I ask why Clinton needed a private server in this YouTube segment.
Second, the FBI doesn't conduct civil investigations, it conducts criminal investigations, as Michael B. Mukasey states during a Bloomberg Politics (at 7:06 on the video) interview. In this Bloomberg interview, Mukasey also states the FBI is investigating Hillary Clinton, her staff, and that the email investigation is a "criminal investigation."
Based upon the unprecedented aspects of this case, former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey believes indictments are likely, as stated in a Hill article titled Former AG: Clinton should be charged over classified emails:
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey believes that Hillary Clinton should be charged with a federal crime for mishandling classified information via her private email server.
Clinton clearly knew that her setup was not equipped to handle sensitive documents, Mukasey wrote in an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Whether the former secretary of State and Democratic presidential front-runner was merely negligent or actively trying to destroy emails, he wrote, Clinton's "state of mind ... justifies a criminal charge of one sort or another."
...More than 1,300 emails released by the State Department from Clinton's personal server have been classified at some level. This week, news leaked that the intelligence community inspector general has determined that the emails also contained information classified above top secret, on a "need-to-know" basis.
In his op-ed, Mukasey points to those revelations as well as indications that Clinton's staffersrejected the idea of a State Department-run email address and that she asked an aide to send a "secure fax" via email.
Mukasey also points out that intelligence can be retroactively classified at any moment. Also, the intelligence classification doesn't absolve Clinton of storing such data on a private server; unprotected by government networks. Therefore, the defense that Clinton's emails were retroactively classified doesn't overshadow the reality that they should never have been outside U.S. government computer networks to begin with.
Furthermore, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey explains on Bloomberg Politics that Clinton's 31,830 deleted emails could easily lead to serious legal consequences.
Then, there's the ominous issue of Clinton's ties to Donald Trump, as explained in a POLITICO piece titled Trump has spent years courting Hillary and other Dems:
Clinton, the... former New York senator who had some say over policy that could have impacted Trump's vast business dealings, received donations from both him and son Donald Trump Jr. on separate occasions in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007, according to state and federal disclosure records.
Trump has also been generous with the Clinton Foundation, donating at least $100,000, according to the non-profit.
In another sign of their closeness, Clinton attended Trump's 2005 wedding to current wife Melania Knauss at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida..
Trump defended his donations to New York Democrats in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that April, proclaiming that in the state, "everyone is Democratic" and implying that to donate otherwise would be waste of his money.
"So, what am I going to do, contribute to Republicans? Am I going to contribute to, I mean, one thing I'm not stupid..." he said.
Yes, the same man who terrifies loyal Democrats is also the same man whose wedding Clinton attended. As for donations, Clinton "received donations from both him and son Donald Trump Jr. on separate occasions in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007, according to state and federal disclosure records."
So, Hillary Clinton not only accepted money from prison lobbyists, but also Donald Trump. This isn't the winning combination to beat Trump on November 8, 2016. I explain Clinton's prison lobbyist ties in this YouTube segment.
I've been saying Bernie Sanders will become president since June 29, 2015, when I wrote a piece titled Why Bernie Sanders Will Become the Democratic Nominee and Defeat Any Republican in 2016. Back then, Bernie was polling at 15.9% and over 40 points behind the former Secretary of State. Bernie Sanders is now on his way to defeating Clinton in the Democratic primaries and poll numbers have shifted towards Sanders, like I predicted in various other articles. I haven't been perfect, but my ultimate prediction will come true, and Bernie Sanders will indeed become Democratic nominee and defeat Trump to win the presidency.
However, if Hillary Clinton becomes nominee, America is looking at a Trump presidency. Trump will make the FBI investigation, and its legal consequences, a primary focus of every debate. He'll be relentless, and the GOP attack machine will make Clinton's trustworthiness issues, negative favorability ratings, and previous scandals the basis of their campaign. The polls show that Americans in aggregate don't trust Hillary Clinton, and while voters don't trust Donald Trump either, his brand is based upon arrogance.
Certain people like Trump because he's arrogant, and once he tones down his rhetoric and behavior to become more palatable to voters in a general election, his donations to Clinton's foundation and Senate runs will be a liability for Democrats. He can claim that he bribed Clinton, and that he bribed other Democrats, and he'll be able to present himself as the only presidential candidate not linked to an FBI investigation.
Like I said, Trump won't be a class act like Bernie, he'll be relentless and always on the attack; with a plethora of Clinton scandals and controversies to highlight in any debate or television ad. Trump could also bring up Clinton's use of racism against Obama in 2008, further weakening her appeal nationally, while masking his overt racism.
Against Bernie Sanders, however, Trump doesn't stand a chance, primarily because Trump is everything Bernie has warned this country about for decades. Suddenly, Donald Trump is on the defensive with Bernie, and he'll have to fabricate political attacks since Sanders doesn't have a litany of scandals to expose. Most importantly, Bernie Sanders already beats Donald Trump by a wider margin than Clinton. The only way to defeat Donald Trump is with Bernie Sanders as the 2016 Democratic nominee.