New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton must be worried by Joe Biden's rise in the polls because people view him as a good alternative to the Democratic frontrunner in the wake of Clinton's email scandal.
"This is problematic. I think that the kind of cascading revelation and explanations are part of what is driving Biden's rise in the polls," Confessore said. "I think there are some people looking for an alternative who are wishing that there is some kind of mainstream fallback for the party, and that's got to be worrying for her."
Clinton suffered from a series of damaging reports released Tuesday as rumors arose that her campaign may have turned the ship around. The FBI has been able to recover "personal" emails Clinton deleted from her server before turning it over. More of Clinton’s previously undisclosed emails on Benghazi have been found, even though Clinton said she turned over all correspondence relevant to her work for the State Department. The Benghazi documents were withheld from congressional investigators and occurred during a months-long gap in Clinton’s email record.
Most troubling for Clinton, according to Craig Melvin, is the State Department separating itself from the Clinton's story as to why they asked for Clinton's emails. Clinton has maintained she turned over her work-related emails as a response to a routine records request made to all former secretaries. State Department spokesman John Kirby went on the record to dispute the claim, telling the Washington Post that State Department's request for Clinton's messages was prompted by the discovery of Clinton’s private email server.
"You know, it's hard to keep track. That's part of the problem. This has become so convoluted, but it is interesting to see the State Department diverging from Hillary Clinton a bit," Confessore said. "There was a sense before they were kind of playing defense for her, but recently we are seeing kind of a split. The State Department is now saying, no, this was not routine. This is problematic."
After one poll showed Clinton increasing her lead, a Bloomberg poll found Clinton nearly tied with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and a surging Vice President Joe Biden.