No reporter and no GOP candidate for president will ever know what was exchanged between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former president Bill Clinton during a chat on a private plane on an Arizona tarmac. Neither will any voter. But that doesn’t matter — because the appearance of impropriety overrides any plausible denial. Suspicion will fill in the narrative. Americans — whether they are Hillary Clinton supporters or not — cringe at this meeting. Loretta Lynch is, of course, in charge of potentially prosecuting Hillary Clinton about her private email server.
Even if Bill Clinton never mentioned anything beyond the heat, the college World Series and what he had for breakfast — the meeting reeks of scandal. It just took an issue — Hillary’s email fiasco — that was not prominent in the minds of most voters and put it front and center. But here’s the thing: Clinton is being pilloried for acting carelessly and not realizing the extent to which such a meeting would be perceived as influence-peddling — at the very least. But the idea that Clinton was unaware of the rumor-feeding impact of a Lynch meeting is not possible, so the only conclusion to draw is that Clinton thought the meeting was necessary anyway. That calculated risk would indicate that Lynch’s case against Hillary Clinton is a weighty one.
