“Sen. Bernie Sanders, who perhaps is the person most to blame for Clinton’s failure to become President with the exception of Clinton herself, condemned the outrageous diatribe.”

Bernie Sanders was in a primary race to win the nomination. He never said anything untrue about Clinton in the primary. So Sanders shares no blame in her loss. That is all on Clinton, her record and her policies.

Why Clinton chose 18 October to go after Tulsi with a sensless smear? My guess is because Chelsea is thinking of running for office next year, Chelsea and Hillary just wrote a book and are on a book tour right now, and Hillary is toying with another presidential run.

With that as a backdrop, on 18 October, 38 people were cited for violations regarding the emails on Clinnton’s illegal private email server. Several mainstream news sites picked it up (e.g. WaPo and NBC) but Clinton’s baseless smear took all the oxygen out of the room and put the focus on Clinton and Tulsi.

Yes, long term this baseless, redbaiting smear won’t help Hillary, and even short term she probably got more blowback than expected. But a resurfacing of her email scandal, if it caught fire, would kill both Hillary’s and Chelseas prospects for a meaningful political future in the next 13 months. A short term reaction that long term hurts her brand is exactly what Hillary (and Bill, abeit less so) has done her entire political career.