Dick Harpootlian, the former chairman of the Democratic Party in South Carolina and a top backer of Vice President Joe Biden questioned how viable a Clinton presidency is in light of new questions about Clinton using a private email for business while she was secretary of State.
“There’s always another shoe to drop with Hillary,” Harpootlian told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “Do we nominate her not knowing what’s in those emails?…If the emails were just her and her family and friends canoodling about fashion and what they’re going to do next week, that’s one thing. But the fact that she’s already turned emails to the Benghazi committee because she was doing official business on it means she’s going to die by 1,000 cuts.”
Harpootlian has repeatedly voiced support that Biden should run for president in 2016. He told the Post that unlike Clinton, Biden “ain’t got no e-email problems. He ain’t got no foundation problems. What you see with Joe is what you get. There’s nothing hidden there.”
As a result of The New York Times‘ report about the emails, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, run by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), plans to subpoena Clinton’s emails.
Harpootlian said Clinton needs to address the emails publicly. In her first major speech since the email story broke, at an Emily’s List event on Tuesday night, Clinton did not mention or even refer to the email story.
“She better peel away the layers of protection and come out and talk about this,” Harpootlian said. “Who were the emails to? What is this about? Why did you do it? Put it to bed. You can’t play rope-a-dope and be elected President of the United States.”
As TPM has previously noted, Harpootlian once told a crowd of attendees that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) should go back to “wherever the hell she came from.” Harpoolitan later said he was not referring to Haley’s race (she is Indian-American), he was referring to her past job as an accountant.
In 2012, Harpoolitan also compared Haley to Adolf Hitler’s wife.
