MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle used Monday’s edition of The 11th Hour to deliver a solemn monologue “for fact’s sake” to attempt to discredit the “misinformation” being spread by Republicans that seeks to compare President Trump’s classified documents indictment to classified documents-related scandals that did not result in indictments. However, Ruhle left out several bits of information and rewrote the law in question when seeking to defend the decision not to charge Hillary Clinton for her e-mails server.
Beginning her pretentious fact-check, such as it was, Ruhle addressed the audience, “Okay, so, let's give you some facts. President Biden is currently under investigation for storing classified documents in his Wilmington, Delaware, garage. McCarthy and other Republicans are just deflecting here, and they're asking, why Hillary Clinton, why Mike Pence? And Biden, why aren't any of them charged?”
As for Pence and Biden, “Well, for fact's sake, here is why that argument is flat out wrong. In the cases of Joe Biden and Mike Pence, aides from both men found classified documents, immediately contacted authorities, turned them over, and allowed the searches of their properties. The Justice Department closed the Pence case without an indictment. The Biden investigation is still ongoing.”
Moving on to Clinton, Ruhle recalled, “Former FBI Director James Comey never brought a case about her emails because he said no reasonable prosecutor would. That is partially because they couldn't determine if there was any intent. As for Donald Trump, the federal government had to subpoena him because they suspected he had not turned over all of his classified documents.”
Ruhle omitted four things in that explanation. First, the law does not only mention intent, but also “gross negligence”. Second, she deliberately deleted all her e-mails under the justification that they were not work-related, but the FBI eventually recovered some e-mails that were work-related, including some that were related to the 2012 Benghazi attack. Third, e-mails are not tangible objects like boxes full of paper. Fourth, the Clinton camp used hammers and BleachBit on the server.
Those last two are important because Ruhle used the photographic evidence of physical objects and obstruction allegations in another attempt to differentiate between the two: “That is why the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago a year ago, turning up more than 100 such documents. The indictment is full of evidence in both quotes and photographs, showing a pattern of hiding and hoarding these documents, and trying to actively prevent a government from getting them back.”
Despite all of that, Ruhle still managed to claim: “That is why Trump will be officially charged in federal court tomorrow. And if you ask yourself, ‘why is Stephanie saying this to me again? She told me on Friday night.’ I am, because we are living in a time when misinformation is coming from the rafters. And we need to bring you the facts every night.”
As the fact-checkers might say, this claim is “missing context.”
This segment was sponsored by Walgreens.
Here is a transcript for the June 12 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
6/13/2023
11:30 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Okay, so, let's give you some facts. President Biden is currently under investigation for storing classified documents in his Wilmington, Delaware, garage. McCarthy and other Republicans are just deflecting here, and they're asking, why Hillary Clinton, why Mike Pence? And Biden, why aren't any of them charged?
Well, for fact's sake, here is why that argument is flat out wrong. In the cases of Joe Biden and Mike Pence, aides from both men found classified documents, immediately contacted authorities, turned them over, and allowed the searches of their properties. The Justice Department closed the Pence case without an indictment. The Biden investigation is still ongoing.
Now, on to Hillary Clinton. Former FBI Director James Comey never brought a case about her emails because he said no reasonable prosecutor would. That is partially because they couldn't determine if there was any intent. As for Donald Trump, the federal government had to subpoena him because they suspected he had not turned over all of his classified documents.
That is why the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago a year ago, turning up more than 100 such documents. The indictment is full of evidence in both quotes and photographs, showing a pattern of hiding and hoarding these documents, and trying to actively prevent a government from getting them back.
That is why Trump will be officially charged in federal court tomorrow. And if you ask yourself, “why is Stephanie saying this to me again? She told me on Friday night.” I am, because we are living in a time when misinformation is coming from the rafters. And we need to bring you the facts every night.
