Vice-President Mike Pence, it turns out, used his private e-mail account for government business when he was governor of Indiana. Democrats are indignant, accusing Republicans of making it into a big scandal when Hillary Clinton did the same thing.
But the two cases are not at all the same. Tyler O’Neil gives three reasons why not. The most important: The state of Indiana has no laws regarding state officials using their own e-mail accounts. Whereas there is a law against U.S. State Department officials using unauthorized accounts. Mike Pence, unlike Hillary Clinton, didn’t break the law!
O’Neil’s other two reasons are also telling.
From Tyler O’Neil, No ‘Double Standard’ in Pence Attacking Hillary’s Emails:
Thursday evening, the Indianapolis Star reported that Vice President Mike Pence used a personal AOL email account for state business as governor of Indiana. The Star also reported that Pence’s email was hacked. Naturally, Democrats have seized on the issue, attacking Pence for an alleged “double standard” in attacking Hillary Clinton for her private email server. . . .
Despite the similarities between Pence’s email scandal and that which plagued Hillary Clinton, [Pence spokesman Mark] Lotter called any comparisons between the cases “absurd,” noting a key few key differences.
1. Pence didn’t deal with classified information. . . .
2. Pence’s email scandal is not illegal. . . .
3. Consumer email versus private email. . . .
Go to the link for details of each of these three points.
Illustration by geralt, Pixabay, CC0 Public domain.
