Case Reopened
In my last article, I discussed the reasons why the Wikileaks emails were gaining so little traction in the media. My reasons were that 1) we expect this from Hillary by now, 2) we need soundbites, not pages of emails, and 3) other alternative stories are juicier. Well folks… Clinton’s juicy sound bite story has arrived! A few days ago, the FBI released a statement that they will be reopening the investigation regarding Clinton and her email server based on recent findings.
Where did those findings originate? (No, not from Wikileaks.) Surprisingly enough, they were found on the infamous Anthony Weiner’s computer that was being investigated for other reasons. It turns out that the emails actually belonged to Weiner’s ex-wife and now-Clinton aide Huma Abedin, which makes a lot more sense… but that explanation sounds a lot less scandalous.
Story or sound-bite?
To be honest, that’s nearly all the information the public has access to, except for a few more details you can read here. The fact that the FBI has released no other information in and of itself is hurting Clinton’s campaign, because now the media has its sound bite to run with. Hillary Clinton and her email controversy are now tied to a scandalous politician being investigated for inappropriate relations with a minor—and if that’s not juicy, I don’t know what is. The longer it takes for the FBI to release more details, the more and more this impression will be reinforced in the public’s mind. People have no other information with which to justify or denounce their support for Clinton, which means the short story is getting revisited over and over again.
Given that it is only one week from the election, I disagree with my own advice from the last blog post. The Clinton campaign has been backed into a 
corner with this one and there is little room for pivoting anymore. I really doubt that any other scandal will break in the next 7 days that is bigger news than this, even though Trump has proven to be a bit unpredictable. The only thing left for the Clinton campaign to do is to keep their heads down and wait for November 8th. Realistically, no major investigation findings can break in the next week, given the sheer multitude of information to comb through and many people have already made their choice via early voting.