ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The fact that Hillary Clinton plays fast and loose with the truth is not news to anyone. Countless times in her public life, as first lady, as a senator from New York, as secretary of State and as a failed presidential candidate, she has said things that are blatantly untrue. Never, however, does she acknowledge any of these errors or deceptions.

Until now.

William Shakespeare wrote a little story you may have heard of titled, “Hamlet.” It was assigned reading for many of us during our school days. In the play, Queen Gertrude speaks a particular line that is often repeated in modern society, “The lady doth protest too much methinks.” Essentially, she is saying a character in the play is overacting or overemphasizing a point so strongly that it makes Queen Gertrude question that character’s sincerity and truthfulness.

The website Literary Devices describes the phrase this way, “By this phrase, she meant that the woman tried too hard to convince the audience, losing her credibility. In simple words, her vows are too artful, too elaborate, or too insistent to be true. More cynically, Gertrude may imply that such affirmations are silly, and this may indirectly defend her own situation.”

It’s that last part that is the key. When someone protests too much, or brings undue attention to certain type situations, it is often an indicator that the speaker, the purveyor of the protest, struggles with the very thing they are criticizing.

The neighborhood mom who has her nose in everyone else’s business and leaps to the conclusion that most of the women on her street are secretly having affairs just may be having one herself. The lady doth protest too much.

The businessman who spends an inordinate amount of time criticizing the drinking habits of others likely knocks a few back in his den at night. The gentleman doth protest too much.

Then there is the fascinating case of Hillary Clinton.

Hillary famously claimed in a “Today Show” interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer that the sexual harassment accusations against her husband, Bill Clinton, were part of a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” yet while she and Bill lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, President Clinton’s alleged paramours Gennifer Flowers and Liz Ward Gracen along with Clinton sexual assault accusers Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick were all audited by the IRS. Coincidence?

According to a report by Judicial Watch, “In an effort to discredit the women who charged President Clinton with sexual misconduct, personal files and papers were illegally obtained and released. The courts found, under the Privacy Act, that the privacy of Linda Tripp and Kathleen Willey had been violated.”

The bottom line is that despite her high profile protest, it doesn’t sound like it was the vast right wing that engineered a conspiracy, but rather Mrs. Clinton herself.

Fast forward to her campaign for president in 2016. During an October debate with Republican Donald Trump, Hillary strongly protested her perception of Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to accept the election outcome. She said the following, “We’ve been around for 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them and that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election.”

She continued, “I for one am appalled that someone who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position.”

A vociferous protest, I dare say, against anyone who would question the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. Yet, it was just a year later, November of 2017, during an interview with Mother Jones that Mrs. Clinton herself said, “There are lots of questions about its (the election’s) legitimacy.” Despite 240 years of free and fair elections, Hillary went on to complain, “We don’t have a method for contesting that in our system,” she said. “That’s why I’ve long advocated for an independent commission to get to the bottom of what happened.”

She must be appalled at her own position.

It is Hillary Clinton’s most recent protests, however, that make the strongest statement about her. We all know that Hillary has accused the Russians of wanting Mr. Trump to win and of them being to blame for her shocking 2016 loss. We also know that it was Hillary’s campaign that funded the infamous Steele dossier, ripe full of information provided by the Russians, that accused Donald Trump of a variety of unsavory things involving prostitutes and human waste.

If the Russians wanted Mr. Trump to win, why would they provide such damning info?

If working with the Russians to impact the outcome of the 2016 elections was illegal, why was Hillary’s campaign cash and money from the Democratic National Committee exchanging hands for Russian intel? No matter, the point is, we know for a fact that Team Clinton used Russian information in an attempt to impact the election.

Yet Hillary, to this very day, accuses Mr. Trump of doing that exact thing.

The newest portion of the Russian angle is that Hillary is accusing others she doesn’t like of being a Russian asset. Jill Stein was the Green Party candidate for president in 2016. Hillary recently asserted Ms. Stein was a Russian tool for defeating her. Ms. Stein received 1.06 percent of the popular vote. Ms. Stein received zero Electoral College votes. But according to Hillary, she was connected to the Russians.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is a rising star in the Democrat Party. In 2013, Ms. Gabbard was elected to serve four years as the vice chair of the DNC. In the 2015 run-up to the presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton’s campaign took over the DNC, despite still having a primary opponent for the Democrat nomination. Despite the potential damage to her own political career, Ms. Gabbard quit her party post out of protest and endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Ms. Gabbard is now running for president herself, as a Russian asset. According to Mrs. Clinton, the Russians are grooming Ms. Gabbard to run as a third-party candidate. The notion that Ms. Gabbard is a Russian asset ignores her lifetime of service. In 2004, she became the first state legislator to voluntarily step down from public office for a tour of duty in a war zone. She served 12 months in Iraq and later was deployed in Kuwait. Ms. Gabbard continues to serve as a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard. Russian asset? Unlikely.

According to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump colluded with the Russians. Jill Stein was a tool of the Russians. Tulsi Gabbard is being groomed by the Russians. Barney the Dinosaur is teaching Russian to American toddlers and Vladimir Putin is secretly the general manager of the Washington Nationals.

Of all the names mentioned, it is only Mrs. Clinton herself for which there is actual evidence of working with the Russians. She funded the file of Russian intel in an attempt to beat Mr. Trump. With her unhinged rantings that virtually everyone opposed to her is a Russian asset, Hillary has made a tacit admission.

Hillary doth protest too much methinks.

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