By Tom Howell Jr. - Sunday, July 26, 2015

Republican presidential contenders blasted Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a private email server Sunday ahead of a possible showdown, saying revelations about classified material in some of the messages vindicates doubts about her trustworthiness.

The State Department’s inspector general concluded that some of Mrs. Clinton’s emails held classified information — though they weren’t specifically labeled classified at the time — and that at least one of those emails had been put out in public by the department.

The revelations, contained in 13 pages of memos released Friday by the State Department inspector general, could pose problems for Mrs. Clinton, who had insisted she never trafficked in classified information while using her own assigned email account and server, kept at her New York home, rather than an official, secure email account.

“I think it’s pretty damning that President Obama’s Justice Department has even brought this up — the fact that they are saying that they’re concerned that classified information was transferred,” Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and presidential contender, told “Fox News Sunday.”

Businessman Donald Trump, the flamboyant presidential candidate who has been topping Republican primary polls, piled on with his trademark candor, saying Mrs. Clinton is effectively disqualified from the race.

“The fact is, what she’s done is criminal. I don’t see how she can run,” Mr. Trump told CNN.

Both the State Department and intelligence community inspectors general looked into Mrs. Clinton’s emails, and concluded information contained in them should be withheld from the public because it should be classified. Their memo urged the State Department to enact better controls to make sure the emails being put out in public weren’t divulging secrets.

Mrs. Clinton has said she set up the separate account on a private server largely out of convenience — though some of her specific reasons, such as not wanting to carry multiple phones, have proved dubious — and her office has said she did not send or receive classified information on the account.

But the revelation of the account has been a headache for Mrs. Clinton, who is fending off attacks from congressional Republicans investigating her actions in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, and a primary challenge from Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination and drawing huge crowds with his left-populist message.

Republican presidential contenders say the roadblocks in the early throes of her second White House run are the byproducts of her own decisions.

Mr. Trump said her handling of email “is far worse than what General [David H.] Petraeus did, and he’s gone down in disgrace,” referring to the decorated general who resigned as director of the CIA amid allegations he shared classified information during an affair with his biographer.

Until now, Mr. Trump had reserved his sharpest attacks for his fellow Republicans — criticizing the war record of Sen. John McCain, calling Sen. Lindsey Graham a lightweight who wouldn’t be able to find work in the private sector and tossing other barbs at former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Yet Mrs. Clinton would easily defeat Mr. Trump, by 56 percent to 40 percent, in a hypothetical general election, according to a new poll from CNN-ORC, while edging former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by 5 percentage points and Mr. Walker by 9.

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for more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015...-of-criminal-a/

NBC/Marist Polls Show Donald Trump Running Strong in Iowa, NH

Donald Trump is running strong in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire, according to two new NBC News-Marist polls.

Trump leads the Republican presidential field in New Hampshire, getting support from 21 percent of potential GOP primary voters. He's followed by Jeb Bush at 14 percent, Scott Walker at 12 percent and John Kasich at 7 percent.

Chris Christie and Ben Carson are tied at 6 percent in the Granite State, and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are at 5 percent each.

In Iowa, Walker and Trump are in the Top 2 - with Walker at 19 percent among potential Republican caucus-goers and Trump at 17 percent. They're followed by Bush at 12 percent, Carson at 8 percent, Mike Huckabee at 7 percent and Rand Paul at 5 percent.

more at:
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/nb...iowa-nh-n398401