Clinton ‘corrupted,’ but Trump has a ploy, analyst says

Democratic and Republican nominees at the US 2016 presidential election are both “right” when they accuse one another of “corruption,” an analyst says.

Keith Preston, the chief editor and director at AttacktheSystem.com, made the comments in an interview with Press TV, when asked about recent accusations by Donald Trump against his rival, Hillary Clinton.

Speaking at a rally in suburban Detroit on Friday, Trump said that Clinton and “her co-conspirators” were not above the law and should be held accountable for their deeds, further urging US President Barack Obama to “pledge” not to pardon Clinton, his former secretary of state and once Democratic rival.

Clinton’s use of a private email server in the Obama administration has been used by the Trump campaign and the GOP to question her resolve for national security.

‘Bad taste in mouth’

According to Preston, the issue of presidential pardons is a “controversial” one that dates back to the time of former President Richard Nixon, “who resigned from office under the threat of impeachment.”

“He was also in danger of being criminally prosecuted for various crimes, committed while serving as president; and he was subsequently pardoned by his successor, his former vice president, Gerald Ford, and that left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths and the idea that politicians can commit crimes and get away with it.”

“Trump is playing to that,” added the Virginia-based political commentator, further affirming the Clintons’ “lengthy history of corruption.”

Hillary and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have also resorted to “abuse of public office and use of public office for private gain,” he noted.

“It’s understandable that Trump would raise that issue; it’s certainly possible that President Obama could issue a blank pardon… So it’s not necessarily unreasonable that Trump is raising this issue now,” Preston said, calling the effort “a ploy” by his campaign.

“He’s essentially trying to portray Hillary Clinton as a dishonest and unethical politician, which she clearly is; however, Trump’s own record has a link to history of dishonest behavior of unethical business practices and things of that nature.”

Preston concluded by calling this year’s vote an “interesting” one, given the fact that there are “two corrupts running against each other and they’re both accusing each other of corruption and dishonesty and they’re both right.”

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