Sanders hoping Clinton is indicted over email scandal: Analyst

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is stalling for time, hoping frontrunner Hillary Clinton is indicted over her lingering email scandal, an American political analyst and activist says.

Myles Hoenig, a Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Sunday, after Sanders said his campaign won't necessarily be over if he doesn't win the California primary on June 7.

"Obviously, if we don't do well in California, it will make our path much, much harder. No question about it. But I think we have a good chance to winning California, maybe win big, and maybe win four or five of the other states that are off on June 7th,” Sanders said.

Sanders called California the "big enchilada” in his bid to overtake Clinton.

“California might be the ‘big enchilada’ for Sanders but it also looks like he’s stalling for time. Saying that it’s not over with California (and technically it isn’t until the last state and DC votes) only extends the drama that much longer,” Hoenig said.

“If Sanders were to win, even by a hair, and regardless of how the delegates are portioned out, it would be devastating for the Clinton camp," he said.

"The Democratic Party would have to do some serious soul searching as to how to handle such a deflated Clinton. Would they bury their heads in the sand, as they have been doing for so long, and stick it out with her? Or would those who really want to win and know how to win make the hard choice of pushing her to drop out?” he asked.

“If Sanders were to lose, regardless by how much, the case for Clinton’s coronation is all but assured. But Sanders is stalling for time. The legal problems she’s faced with would cripple the Democratic Party if an indictment is issued. Even with the Justice Department stalling, as so many of their decision makers are Clinton loyalists, having this over her head during the general election phase would be nearly impossible to overcome,” he continued.

Both parties defied playbook rules

“This election, for both parties, has defied all rules of the playbook. On the Republican side you have an outsider who has never run for office make fools of all the other candidates, while being the master fool himself,” Hoenig said.

“His politics is so over the top that even establishment members of his party disassociate themselves from him. Even though so many Republican leaders are openly racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic, they do try to put on a face of respectability.  They’re in a tough spot. Their candidate does not represent the mainstream, while ironically, many past Democratic candidates, including Clinton and President Obama, for whom the Republics waged war with, more represents their positions than who they have as their presumptive nominee,” he stated.  

“On the Democratic Party side you have the ultimate insider whose positions and actions are standard liberal Republicanism and the desired choice, who is losing in popularity to a 74-year-old Democratic Socialist from a small rural state for whom no one outside of New England knew a year ago,” the analyst stated.

US VP is merely for show

“One other point regards the choice of vice president if Clinton were to survive this primary process. Sanders hopes that the candidate would not be from Wall Street,” Hoenig said.

"Even if it were to be himself, as improbable as that would be, the role of the vice president is merely for show. He or she might break a tie in the Senate, but even after 8 years with President Obama, the majority of Americans have no clue who his vice president is. It wouldn’t matter in the least whether the selected vice president is from Wall Street or Occupy Wall Street,” he added.

“From everything that’s been going on, winning or losing California only adds to the drama. We’ll see in Philadelphia how it all plays out but in the end, the general consensus is likely to be straight out of a line from Hamlet when he says, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ No one is likely to be happy with the results,” the commentator concluded. 

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