Russian Scapegoat

Hillary Clinton Email Scandal: Russian scapegoat

Ever since the DNC was hacked by what is suspected to have been the Russians, the media has been scrutinizing Hillary Clinton for her lack of safety and questioning if they can trust her in a position to handle sensitive material. Her Campaign has begun to bring up the fact that the serious issue is Russian hackers trying to influence the American elections. In the article I will I will discuss how the Clinton campaign has used the Russians as a scapegoat to draw attention away from her using a private email server.  This stems from a long history and animosity between Hillary Clinton and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Russian Animosity

As secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a well-known figure in international politics. This influence has made her a lot of enemies, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin is one of them .They have publicly criticized each other along with hindered each other’s international goals. The Clinton campaign usually puts up a more negative view of Russia , as opposed to the Donald trump campaign which has been seen as a little too friendly to Putin. This makes sense considering the Democratic party is the incumbent party, and as we discussed in class the challenger(Republican party) tries to make anything the incumbent do look terrible. So any issues with Russia will cause the Republican Trump campaign to blame the incumbent party, and offer a better solution to Russia. This shows that Russia is already trigger term used in politics by the Republicans. The democrats are turning Russia into a dangerous entity, and saying it is dangerous for them to be so close to the Republicans.

Russian Scapegoat

Hillary Clinton turned the issue off of herself in dealing with the email controversy, by making it seem like this was a plot by Russian Higher ups . This plays to a fear of outsiders attacking the U.S.  and urges the listener to focus more on the fact that Russian hackers attacked her survey and not that she mishandled confidential material. Another fact that she uses to her benefit is that Donald Trump is suspected of getting aid from Russia. The Vladimir Putin and Trump have said positive things each other , and Donald Trump does dealings in Russia. She has effectively turned this issue against Republicans and shown their party leader as being too friendly with an enemy.

Whether the Russians hacked Hillary Clinton’s email server or not, her campaign has found its scapegoat, and as Donald Trump continues to propose his positive view of Russian leader Vladimir Putin t will only push this back onto Republicans. In the last debate Hillary challenged Donald directly about his links to Russia as soon as her email link was brought up calling him a puppet. She claims that Trump urged Putin to do this hack, and is trying to interfere in our elections. This further makes Trump look untrustworthy and takes the eyes off her for this scandal. This has become a very effective rhetorical strategy for her campaign, and shall continue to be utilized as long as her “hacked” emails are still being questioned.