What About Hillary…
By: Matt Swisher
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Trump, Politics

We have to face the fact that the current President of the United States is somebody who has only ever thought about what is best for him, his image, his “brand”. We have a President who uses social media like a vindictive “mean girl” to call out, poke fun, insult and demean anybody who would have the audacity to speak against him. He is a smug, spiteful bully, who will say anything to sway people to his point of view, even if it is not the truth, and people let him get away with it. People have always let him get away with it.

He said it himself, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, ok?” Those are words he actually said. There’s video proof of it. Now, you could argue that he was using a hyperbole to make a point, and he probably was, but the fact of the matter is that he surrounds himself with people who help him in his belief that he can do no wrong.

With the reports that are coming out now, there is a lot of talk about indictments, charges, impeachment. I’ll leave the legality of all that to the experts, but from what I am hearing, it doesn’t look good. And yet, I’m still hearing a common refrain:

“But what about Hillary?”

Those were the exact words I heard on Sunday morning as I was driving in my car listening to the radio. The host was reading tweets in response to some of the news that has been coming out. In one of them, the listener said something along the lines of “But what about Hillary? When are we going to see her brought up on charges?”

My gut reaction was to roll my eyes so hard I almost ended up on the sidewalk (not really, that’s an exaggeration, but you get my point). I’m so tired of people saying, “Yeah, but Hillary…” or “What about Hillary?” Why am I tired of it?

Because it doesn’t matter! It is irrelevant to the conversation that is taking place right now.

Certainly, as the election was drawing near, it seemed that Hillary was at least connected to some shady stuff. Was it true? I don’t know. Frankly, it doesn’t matter right now, and let me put this in all caps to emphasize something that people need to hear:

HILLARY CLINTON IS NOT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

I know that some people are going to have an immediate reaction of “Thank God!” In fact, the Sunday after the election, somebody in my church mentioned a “praise” during the prayer request time that “that woman did not get elected.” I know that people are passionate about their dislike of Hillary Clinton. However, the first comeback to legal accusations against the President should not be, “What about Hillary?”

Hillary Clinton is a private citizen — well, at least as much as somebody with her kind of background can be. She is not serving public office right now. She is not a figurehead in the contemporary political scene. She’s not even on the town council of Nothing, Arizona (it’s an actual place, I looked it up; I mean, it’s a ghost town, but you get my point, right?)

Bringing up any potential Hillary Clinton legal problems is a false equivalence against Trump’s current legal problems. Why? Because Donald Trump IS the President of the United States.

Imagine a world where Hillary was elected President (I’ll give you a minute to shudder if you need it), and every time somebody mentioned that she needed to be brought up on charges, you would say, “Yeah, what about Donald?” It wouldn’t make any sense. And yet, this is the world in which we find ourselves today.

Donald Trump is the President of the United States (I’ll give you a minute to shudder if you need it). And because of this fact, we do need to take seriously the potential that charges will be brought up. He is not a private citizen. He is the leader and figurehead of the United States on a global scale.

The same people who are willing to give him a pass for his personal and legal issues right now are the ones who have been crying out against the Clintons for their personal and legal issues. We cannot have that kind of double standard and consider ourselves rational people.

And so, let’s all take a deep breath. Let’s put aside our political leanings for just a moment and ask ourselves this question: is it okay that we have a President who is mired in these kinds of scandals? If Hillary was President, would these scandals be okay? If this kind of information came out about Obama, would we just shrug it off like it was no big deal? If we found out that George W. Bush did some of the things that Trump has done, would you as outraged as you are now?

This is where we are as a country. We care more about political party than we care about right and wrong. There are things that are just wrong. Period. There are things that are illegal. Period. We cannot be okay with the President of the United States being a part of these kind of activities, regardless of party.