Coming: 10 Weeks of Scandal

With exactly 10 weeks to the day to go until Election Day, it would be wise for Hillary Clinton to prepare herself for the 70 days of headlines detailing the ongoing scandals that have dogged her for years — the Clinton Foundation, suspect fundraising, her secret home-brew email server, the tragedy in Benghazi, and so many more.

Clinton’s plan right now: dodge, deflect, blame, paint Donald Trump as unstable, run out the clock, and waltz into the White House.

Clinton’s plan right now: dodge, deflect, blame, paint Donald Trump as unstable, run out the clock, and waltz into the White House. After all, she hasn’t done a press conference with reporters in 269 days.

She continues to prepare for the first of three presidential debates against Trump on Sept. 26 in New York. Meanwhile, questions concerning the use of her private email server during her tenure as secretary of state have snowballed into a massive stumbling block for Clinton. When those questions are complicated further with shady connections between the Clinton Foundation and its influence within the State Department, the Democratic nominee has a lot to worry about — more emails and more documents will be released.

“That’s a very common public sentiment that she really did break the law, and it’s just peculiar that some people face prosecution and others don’t,” Voth said. “And it starts to look like political corruption at a very severe level.”

“That’s a very common public sentiment that she really did break the law, and it’s just peculiar that some people face prosecution and others don’t,” Dr. Ben Voth, a professor at Southern Methodist University, told LifeZette. “And it starts to look like political corruption at a very severe level.”

But even in the midst of her ongoing scandals, Clinton is facing just a minuscule amount of condemnation and accountability from the liberal media at large. “I think there is a lot of mediated preference for Hillary Clinton. There’s a lot of spinning that kind of works in her favor,” Voth said.

Still, how much longer can Clinton continue to bob and weave as headline after headline and scandal after scandal threaten dash her march to the White House? Clinton can’t afford to take it easy in the remaining 10 weeks of her campaign. During those 70 days, several key events will occur that will most likely affect Clinton’s public image and support.

[lz_jwplayer video= “iRu8I4C8″ ads=”true”]

Last week, a federal judge ordered the State Department to release several important — and potentially damning — emails from Clinton’s private server regarding the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, by Sept. 13 — nearly two weeks before first presidential debate. On top of that, Clinton must also deal with the increasing calls from House Republicans for an investigation into perjury allegations that Clinton lied under oath during the FBI’s investigation into her private email server.

And piled onto all that lurks the ever-present Clinton Foundation and the revelations that many major donors were given special access to Clinton and the State Department during her tenure. The remaining unpublished daily schedules used during Clinton’s time as secretary of state will prove to be illuminating. Who got play for pay?

So how does the evasive Clinton plan to control the ensuing conversation? So far, the plan involves dodging the press. But Clinton’s current record of cagey inaccessibility may prove to be a thorn in her side.

[lz_related_box id=”193755″]

“I just think — not only has Hillary Clinton not debated as much — she’s also been much more withdrawn from the press and sort of combative interviews that would test her and prepare her for debate,” Voth said, adding that her evasiveness could prove to be a stumbling block when Trump confronts her in person during the first debate.

“For her, what I would expect — and probably is advisable — is to continue the line of argument that says that this is an old argument and that we have seen this before, and therefore we should put it behind us. It’s kind of what I would call the ‘move on’ strategy,” Voth said. “I think she’s going to continue to use the ‘move on’ kind of argument: ‘This is old. That’s the past. The new is about becoming president in the future.'”

But Voth believes that Trump will be able to successfully tap into what he calls the “populist outrage” sweeping across the country that condemns the “quasi-incumbent” Clinton for her entrenchment within the political establishment.

“I think the other thing in terms of attacking her that would help [Trump] a lot is just the populist sense that there seems to be two standards of justice in the country, and that she seems to be living in a world where there’s no accountability and everyone outside of her circle faces, you know, unpredictable accountability,” Voth said, noting that Clinton’s “world” isn’t the world in which she and her scandals actually find themselves.

And with the 10 weeks remaining before Election Day, Clinton will have more than enough time to contemplate just how she will spin the upcoming scandals waiting in the wings.

[lz_jwplayer video= “YCwJ0jKN” ads=”true”]