Sanford E. Deyo guest column: Clinton, a known liar, is wrong for America

In my opinion the Democratic Party has always been the party of middle class America. The party of the blue collar workers who have made the goods that made America great. The party of FDR, Harry and JFK, the party who believes regardless of one’s race, color, religion or gender, it’s one’s character and actions that matter.

We now find the Democratic National Committee leadership has worked to choose a discredited presidential candidates in favor of one that has continuously lied to the American people.

Since Watergate in the 1970s, Hillary has left a long trail of questionable ethics and honesty.

As First Lady she lied about her trip to Bosnia, but her supporters said she only “misspoke.”

When she and Bill left the “vandalized” White House in 2001, along with taking goods belonging to the American people, she declared they were “dead broke.” Rather interesting as he has received more than $132 million for speaking engagements since 2001 and last year (2015) received hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers’ money as a retired U.S. President.

I have read her personal wealth is $32 million, Bill’s is $85 million and their foundation has a worth of hundreds of millions. She speaks of transparency but is involved with Canadian operations that shield identities of donors. Why do foreign countries, companies and individuals make such large contributions to the Clinton Foundation? Surely there are needy charitable foundations in their own country that could use the financial assistance within their country.

She has lied to the American people about Benghazi but then “what does it matter” four Americans were killed.

In the private server incident she started with it being “a matter of convenience” by using one device, then it was, they said “I could do it,” followed by, “there was no classified information” which became “there was no information marked as classified.” The FBI report rebukes her claims and describes her handling of classified matter being in a “extremely careless way.” They’re speaking about the Secretary of State, who one has to consider is the head person in the Department of State and in charge of that operation. She’s leading by example?

FBI Director Comey stated, “(We) did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information.” When did intent become an accepted alibi or excuse for wrongful action? How soon before we hear, “I didn’t intend to kill anyone when I pulled the trigger”?

Intent might be difficult to prove, but she lied repeatedly to the American people about the nature of her emails and sought to cover up the damaging information they contained. Hillary has repeatedly said, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email.” I wonder how often we may hear this again during the coming campaign.

I have a problem in trying to understand how a person of such reported intelligence, with all their experience as First Lady, as a U.S. Senator and as Secretary State, didn’t consider what they were doing was wrong.

Hillary has lied repeatedly. When she appears before the public, how are we to know if she’s actually telling the truth? How are foreign dignitaries expected to believe a liar? She has publicly stated she has never lied, which might be the biggest of all her lies.

While many have supported her and her claims of great actions, there are many who believe she has greatly exaggerated the benefits of her actions.

Many in the media seem to have more concerns about giving her the benefit of a doubt in matters than they are in reporting her repeatedly actual lying ... or is it just a matter of her having misspoken? Regardless of what the media, Hillary or her supporters may have to say about her, or her competitors, she has repeatedly lied to the American people and the world. I don’t feel Americans, be they Democrat, Republican, Independent or other, believe a known liar should be President of the United States of America.

Throughout my life I have always considered myself as an independent voter and opting for whom I felt was the better candidate. Previously I never felt a party had made a bad selection in its selection of a candidate for the President of the United States; however, I sadly feel the Democratic Party made a mistake this time.

Sanford E. Deyo is a resident of Minden.