GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl is the latest politician reacting to the renewed FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“I’m disappointed, I don’t think it’s fair,” Kohl (D-Wisconsin) said when asked about the controversy on Monday. “He (FBI Director James Comey) brings up a renewal of an investigation that was closed last summer, while at the same time offering no facts about why he’s doing it. That’s deeply unsettling and troubling in a democracy.”
Kohl, who made an appearance at Democratic of Brown County headquarters in Green Bay, called Comey’s decision “unprecedented”.
“I think the American people have always felt that, at some level, politics needs to be fair and I do believe that he’s gone beyond that proposition in what he did,” said Kohl.
Comey’s letter last Friday notified members of Congress that the FBI had discovered new emails apparently pertinent to the Clinton server probe. It came during a separate investigation into former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-New York), who is the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Despite the news coming 11 days before Election Day, Kohl isn’t sure what kind of impact it will have on voters who will cast a ballot on November 8.
“I would like to hope that people, either pro or con, have made up their mind,” Kohl said.
According to a RealClearPolitics aggregate poll (with a range of October 20 to October 30), Clinton holds a 3.1 point advantage (48.0-44.9) over Trump.
Kohl did formally endorse Clinton, along with Democratic candidate in the 8th Congressional District Thomas Nelson. Nelson, the Outagamie County Executive, is battling political newcomer and Republican Mike Gallagher.
SOONER RATHER THAN LATER
The 81-year-old Kohl called on Comey to release those facts surrounding his revived investigation into Clinton’s emails promptly.
“He has to talk about that in the next several days,” Kohl stated. “You do not take a human being, let alone a presidential candidate, and hang them out to dry.”
In letters to Congressional members on Monday, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik relayed the Justice Department was dedicating “all necessary resources” to work with the FBI on its examination of the newly discovered emails “as expeditiously as possible.”
But how soon that might happen was not made clear, according to one official familiar with the FBI review. Nelson, when asked about his reaction to the story, was vaguer than Kohl in his response.
“I think we’re going to see play itself out in the next couple of days,” says Nelson. “There really isn’t a lot of information outside of what has trickled down of the last couple of days so I think we’ll wait to see more.”
UNPRECEDENTED ELECTION YEAR
Kohl won his U.S. Senate seat during the 1988 election, and prior to that served as Chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party from 1975 to 1977. This election year, he admits, is unlike any before and not just because he’s seen a few.
“I think most people, who are of any age, say that they’ve never seen an election like this because it has not been civil,” Kohl says. “Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been civil. You may or may not agree with her positions, but she’s been civil. Well, with Donald Trump you’ve had something different.”
Trump’s campaign, Kohl explained, has been full of, “divisiveness, anger, demeaning his opponents.” He admits that while the business mogul has attracted large crowds, Trump himself encouraged that very divisiveness. Kohl also went after Trump’s lack of experience.
“Being president is not an entry-level job,” says Kohl. “In my opinion, his lone position is because I’ve been a successful business person, therefore at age 70 I can be on day one a successful president? Well, that’s debatable.”
Kohl went on to praise Clinton, whom he says he’s known for 25 years, as having, “all the qualities that I look for. I know she will be a good president.”
(Additional reporting by Reuters)
