The Political Advertisement and its Impact
The political advertisement announces bad news for democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Richard Nixon explains that people must understand whether their leader is a crook. The FBI director noted that Clinton has encountered a wide range of criminal investigations (Future45). The director referred her as ‘extremely careless”. The advertisement dubbed the new development as a new bombshell. Furthermore, the political ad explained that FBI unpredictably renewed its criminal investigations of the private email belonging to Hillary Clinton. The advertisement ends with a question how Americans could elect someone who is under FBI investigations (Future45).
The Allegations and Response
The political advertisement was posed to be a bad news for Hillary Clinton, as it appears to advance the idea that she mismanaged classified information when she was the Secretary of State. The FBI had rebuked her for being careless (Future45). Her rival, Republic Candidate Donald Trump used the statement from FBI to launch a scathing attack on her. The political advert seems to pay close attention on the words of Peter Strzok who pointed out that Clinton’s actions were aimed at violating the law. Therefore, it meant that Clinton’s behaviours were extremely serious because they placed the country at a major security risk (Future45).
Metaphors Used in the Advertisement
The bad news advertisement utilizes a wide range of metaphors. First, the advert starts by stating that a “president is a crook”. It is used to mean that Hillary Clinton is a criminal, offender, lawbreaker or dishonest individual who cannot be trusted with leadership. In this regard, the utilization of family emails and server was contrary to the procedures and protocols of State Department (Future45). Moreover, importantly, the ad mentions her as criminal because her actions contravene federal laws. After FBI had conducted the investigation, it was established that she had used private servers to transfer and store classified information hence violating the policy (Musolff 13).
The Portrayal of Clinton's Actions
Furthermore, the phrase “extremely careless” used in the ad illustrate that Hillary Clinton was not concerned with the safety and security of the country. However, the advertisement tends to point to the fact that the FBI used the term ‘extremely careless’ instead of legal term ‘grossly negligent’. The republicans particularly Donald Trump had argued that Hillary Clinton was receiving protection from the FBI (Future45). More importantly, extremely careless was a typical understatement because she could not be held accountable for her actions. According to Trump, the statement by the FBI was meant to ensure that Hillary was declared innocent. More importantly, had the FBI used the critical statement such as ‘grossly negligent’ which is enclosed in the wording of the law, Mrs Clinton could be charged because of mismanagement of classified material. Pursuant to the Espionage Act under paragraph 793 (f), the wording is ‘grossly negligent’ instead of ‘extremely careless’ (Musolff 13). The FBI director Mr Comey later indicated that no rational prosecutor would put her on trial (Future45).
FBI's Interpretation and Clinton's Defense
The phrase “extremely careless” was only indicating that Mrs Clinton was non-intention to put the country at risk by mishandling the emails. It also suggested that Clinton did not hinder justice and was not inspired by infidelity to the United States. Although the FBI discovered that about eight emails had top-secret data with top category of classification. Furthermore, the FBI stressed that she had two personal servers that were inadequately safeguarded. In fact, they were less safeguarded than the commercial emails such as Gmail accounts. Therefore, it was highly probable that international fraudsters hacked into her emails. However, FBI after conducting the investigation submitted that it she was not intentionally breaking the legislations dealing with classified information (Future45). For this reason, the use of the phrase “extremely careless” was an attempt by FBI to exonerate Mrs Clinton.
Controversy Surrounding Clinton's Actions
Donald Trump castigated the FBI for changing the statutory language in order to ensure that Mrs Clinton was never prosecuted. By the political ad indicating that she was a crook, Trump argued that Hillary Clinton was lying to the Americans and she was not held accountable (Future45). On the other hand, the FBI concluded that there was no foundation to infer she deceived the investigatory body. Moreover, the political ad attempt to mean that it is a crime to deliberately present false information to criminal investigation body based on the federal law. Similarly, the ad seems to mock the change of legal language following FBI investigations (Musolff 17). The insistence of the fact that Hillary Clinton’s actions were not intentional was tantamount to setting her free. It may not be her intent for the top secret to be obtained by unauthorized persons, but she anticipated to infringe the provisions of Espionage Act.
Impact on Electorate and Public
The political ad also denotes the information as a “new bombshell” because it is humiliating and distressing to the country. The metaphor is used to express the unexpected and nasty news to the American people. The phrase was also utilized to create a shocking piece of information, which would make the electorate irritated towards Mrs Clinton (Future45).
Rhetorical Question and its Intentions
The last piece of ad asks the rhetorical question whether anyone can elect a candidate who is under the investigation of the FBI. The question was precisely meant to influence or convince the electorate or audience (Future45). The question is also used as a metaphor in order to accomplish rhetorical affirmation. In this political advertisement, it was used to stimulate, and command emotions of the American people. Donald Trump and the Republicans wanted to emphasize that Hillary Clinton should not be elected as President of the US owing to the fact that she participated in mismanaged of confidential information when she was the Secretary of State. Certainly, the ad was in pursuit to stir the emotions of the audience by building a partnership with the audience in the emotive statements (Musolff 17). The voters are hooked to believe that Hillary Clinton is not suitable to be US president.
Invoking Audience Agreement in the Advertisement
The rhetorical question was employed in the advertisement aiming to invite the people to approve with the announcer. The advertisers appreciate that to influence the electorate; they must establish credibility of the audience that they are comparable to them and they hold similar beliefs (Future45). In so doing, asking this question ensured that the audience agreed with the campaigners. It also helps to stress an earlier statement Hillary Clinton is a criminal or crook.
Final Thoughts
Conclusion
The Bad News advertisement is a metaphor by Donald Trump, which attempts to display Hillary Clinton as a criminal who is benefiting from FBI protection. In fact, it uses the term a ‘crook’ to illustrate her liability for mismanaging the top-secret data through private servers and emails (Future45). She is also described as ‘extremely careless’ which suggested that she was really negligent in her job as the Secretary of State. The rhetorical question is used to stimulate the negative emotions of the votes against her.
Work Cited
Future45. ""Bad News"". Youtube, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuqwgvpVIYc. Accessed 21 Mar 2018.
Musolff, Andreas. Political metaphor analysis: Discourse and scenarios. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
