It is now very well read and heard the complex conundrum that engulfs the US 2016 election race. It has become the most tumultuous of races in recent times, and while similarly Ghana, my home land, is equally edging towards a similar time in its modern history, its almost a cat walk compared to the layers of disdain political talk that the U.S. elections are plagued with this year (2016).
So in the latest of events, and one of the few is like to hint on because it fingers one of my very key principles – integrity at all times. The FBI director somewhat seemed to have caved in before, wether lightly or deeply, and by so doing opened up himself for either continued compromise or fisting his own face. Director Comey is a guy with impeccable record and more so known for his no nonsense approach.
Director Comey in his latest move, seems to want to “right a failure” on his part earlier on or at least cave in to something. It’s all become a case of “bread gone bad”, in such a case, the only means is to toast it. He was advised by the U.S. justice department not to inform Congress of a new inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s email use, officials say. And while that was an advice, he did otherwise, which can be in some quarters considers very bold and daring.
Justice department officials said the move would be inconsistent with rules designed to avoid the appearance of interference in an election.
Based on the Directors’ own accord he acted independently when he briefed lawmakers in a letter on Friday. Rightly so, Mrs Clinton said the move was “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling”.
FBI investigators have known about the existence of the newly discovered emails for weeks but did not inform the FBI director, according to US media reports. Leading Democratic senators have written to Mr Comey and to Attorney General Loretta Lynch urging them to provide more details about the investigation by Monday.
They argue that Mr Comey’s decision to reveal the reopening of the case, less than two weeks before the 8 November election, is being used for political purposes.
But Republican opponent Donald Trump has praised the FBI’s decision.
Speaking at a rally in Nevada on Sunday, Mr Trump accused the justice department of protecting the Democratic presidential candidate in a “rigged system”.
“The Department of Justice is trying their hardest to protect the criminal activity of Hillary Clinton,” Mr Trump said, offering no evidence for the assertion. FBI Director James Comey said it would be “misleading” not to make the new inquiry public
In his letter to Congress, Mr Comey said the FBI had learned of fresh emails which might be “pertinent” to its previous inquiry into Mrs Clinton’s use of a private server when she was secretary of state in the Obama administration.
Mr Comey, who has served in government under both Democratic and Republican presidents, has been an acclaimed fellow with the highest of integrities.
It is not clear what the emails the FBI said it discovered “in connection with Mrs. Clintons time as a stateswoman, but is said to be the inquiry into top Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s estranged husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, who is alleged to have sent sexually explicit emails to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Speaking to supporters in Florida on Saturday, Mrs Clinton said: “It’s not just strange, it’s unprecedented. And it is deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts.
“So we’ve called on Director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table.”
Mrs Clinton has said she is confident the investigation into the emails will not change the FBI’s original finding in July, which criticised her but cleared her of any illegal acts.
Mrs Clinton called the move “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling”
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said the Mr Comey’s handling of the matter was “inappropriate” and the information provided was “long on innuendo” and “short on facts”.
There was, he said, “no evidence of wrongdoing. No charge of wrongdoing. No indication this is even about Hillary.”
Mrs Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine told NBC’s Meet the Press the FBI director owed it to the public to be more forthcoming about the emails.
“We don’t know whether they’re to or from Hillary at all,” the Virginia senator said. “[If he] hasn’t seen the emails, I mean they need to make that completely plain. Then they should work to see the emails and release the circumstances of those once they have done that analysis.”
But Mr Trump’s running mate Mike Pence praised Mr Comey’s decision, saying the emails showed Mrs Clinton was a “risky choice” and the Clinton campaign was practising the “old playbook of the politics of personal destruction” by “targeting the director of the FBI and questioning his personal integrity”.
Mr Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN that Mr Comey would have been accused of interfering in the election if he had not disclosed the newly discovered emails were under investigation.
How has the FBI probe affected the polls?
The bad news for Hillary Clinton is that the polls had already begun to tighten both nationally and in key battleground states before the FBI announcement on Friday.
A new New York Times poll in Florida, which was carried out earlier last week, has Mr Trump ahead of Mrs Clinton by 46% to 42%, while the RealClearPolitics polling average has the candidates tied on 44%.
Nationally, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll suggests Mrs Clinton is leading her rival by just one percentage point, down from a 12-point lead in the same poll a week ago. About a third of likely voters polled said they were less likely to support the Democrat after Mr Comey’s disclosure.
But there is little evidence yet that the news will derail the former secretary of state’s bid for the presidency.
In a new CBS poll of 13 battleground states, 52 percent of voters said they expected the emails to contain “more of what we already know” and most of those who said they were less likely to vote for Mrs Clinton were Republicans.