Reading this book was like watching a marathon of Jerry Springer episodes. I honestly feel dirty.
Sensational and outrageous are two words that come to mind.
Make no mistake, this is a book with a clear political agenda, written by the Right for the Right.
I had really hoped for so much more, like a serious and thorough look into the FBI investigation and its recommendation not to press charges. Instead what I got was a Clinton conspiracy theory.
Within the first fifteen pages of the book, Klein, who has written several books on the Clintons portraying them as the ultimate evil doers, suggests Hilary is an ugly, foul-mouthed, hot-headed, feminist who stays with her philandering playboy husband simply to advance her political ambitions. He even suggests that she is a lesbian engaged in a sexless lesbian affair with top aide Huma Abedin, his assertion based on the fact they seem to enjoy each others company and make each other laugh. It's absurd and actually offensive to anyone with a modicum of common sense.
But most importantly, according to Klein, Hillary is a liar and has been from the moment she appeared with her husband on the political scene, who once had the audacity and indecency to clerk for a law firm with Communist Party connections and who had represented the Black Panthers.
A combination of personal commentary woven into scenes that supposedly recreate private interactions that took place between various parties, including Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Obama and top adviser Valerie Jarrett the narrative is often disjointed, contradictory, and generally unrealistic. The artistic license that Klein takes is appalling. Scene after scene, accusation after accusation. Yet not one footnote. Not one credible corroborating source. All hearsay...said a source who is a friend of a friend of a friend. Seriously?????
Klein's portrayal of the characters involved is nothing short of bizarre. Bill Clinton the aging, absent-minded husband who simply wants to live out his final years in peace and quiet with the occasional naked pool party at his bachelor pad, and ruthless Chelsea, a mini Hillary in the making who is hated by all. And if crooked Hillary's lesbianism, foul-mouth tantrums, and bullying of her husband's lovers aren't enough to convince you she isn't fit for office, we should all know that Clinton is covering several serious health conditions like hypothyroidism.
Oh and then there is the portrayal of Obama...a petty, vindictive, elitist who secretly hates Hillary and only endorses her after his attempts to convince Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren to run fail. That, and of course, Hillary's promise to find him a seat on the Supreme Court. Quote...The idea of looking cool in a black robe and becoming a justice of the Supreme Court intrigued Obama, said a White House source close to Jarrett...end of quote.
Who in the hell believes this crap???? Surely the same people who still believe Obama is a Muslim terrorist.
There's more, but I think you get the picture.
Now let's deal with the facts as given by Jame Comey himself:
1. Clinton used a personal email account to send and receive work-related emails, some which were classified at various levels.
2. As per James Comey, Clinton and her aides showed gross negligence in their handling of classified information.
3. However, intent of wrong doing could not be established despite a year long intensive non-partisan investigation.
4. That being the case his recommendation to the Justice Department, which remained free to act on its own, was that no charges should be brought against Clinton.
Not only are these facts not clearly relayed in a book that is supposed to be an investigation into the 33,000 emails, but instead we are presented with a bunch of inflammatory, nonsensical accusations lobbied against everyone from the Clintons, to the Obamas, to Elizabeth Warren and anyone associated with them. The only Democrat in this whole book who seems to be treated with some level of decency is Joe Biden, the man who let down the President by deciding not to run for President, even though his son on his dying bed begged him to run rather than see the crooked Clintons return to the White House.
What a piece of poppycock. It's bad enough that ignorance abounds in the American electorate. But to put out this rubbish and present it as fact does more to harm this country than the Clintons could every hope to.
Of course, the epilogue says it all. According to the author, America is in serious trouble. Gay marriage is legal...many Americans support the legalization of marijuana, police-not criminals-are the problem, the number of adults who identify as Christians is dropping while the number of Americans who identify as atheist, agnostic, or other is growing. Even worse, in less than thirty years non-Hipsanic whites will no longer make up a majority of Americans (oh my...say it ain't so, Gertrude...say it ain't so.) More than half the births to women under 30 are outside of the sacred institution of marriage that is no longer sacred thanks to the f-ing liberals and the average American woman now weighs the same as the average man of the 1960s, tatoos are no longer limited to manly and gruff sailors, men no longer wear ties to baseball games, and people are just plain rude.
And Klein's answer to this tragedy that has become the fall of American culture...Donald Trump....a man who has admitted to having three ways (after all...he told Stern...we're not babies here...who hasn't), who has bragged about his infidelities and attempts to seduce married women, who has bantered casually about sexually assaulting women because when you are famous you can do whatever you want, brags about not paying taxes claiming it makes him smart. Are you kidding me???? Then again, Trump does seem upset about the fact that women may be getting fatter and as far as I know, he doesn't have any tatoos.
So sad, since I really wanted to read an honest and unbiased critique of the investigation and its conclusions.
This is the second of six books I plan to read before voting this November. Next up is The Making of Donald Trump.