Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

The Philosophy That Fuels the Clinton Scandal Machine

One political theory generates many dead-end investigations.

October 25, 2016 at 1:25 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Transactional politicians.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

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We know one thing for sure about the wave of Clinton-related scandals over the years: People will go to any lengths to spot them and use them as fresh “proof” that Hillary and Bill Clinton are corrupt.

Take, for example, a Wall Street Journal article that alleged … well, it’s not entirely clear what it alleged. It tries to make something of a set of facts. One, Hillary and Bill Clinton have been close to Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Two, McAuliffe recruited Dr. Jill McCabe to run for a Virginia state senate seat in 2015 and was responsible for raising most of the money for her campaign. Three, McCabe’s husband was a senior FBI official, who, after the campaign, was promoted to deputy director and wound up involved in the investigation of Clinton’s e-mails.