During the third and final presidential debate, Donald Trump promised that he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server and her work with the Clinton Foundation.
‘If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.’
That promise, that he would investigate “Crooked Hillary,” likely contributed to his unprecedented victory on November 8. However, Trump has already reneged on the campaign promise that won him so much support, and he hasn’t even been sworn in as president yet.
It was announced just this morning that Donald Trump will not be appointing a prosecutor to investigate Clinton. Reporters from The New York Times, Mike Grynbaum and Maggie Haberman, who attended a meeting with Trump and other reporters and editors, tweeted quotes from Trump’s response to questions about the decision not to investigate.
Trump is pressed if he has definitively ruled out prosecuting Hillary Clinton. “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
2/2 "I think I will explain it that we in many ways will save our country."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
"My inclination would be for whatever power I have on the matter is to say let's go forward.This has been looked at for so long, ad nauseum"
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump didn’t think his supporters would be disappointed by his decision, but he was sorely mistaken, especially in the case of conservative commentator Ann Coulter. Coulter, who stood steadfastly by Trump throughout his campaign, took to Twitter on Tuesday morning and railed against the president-elect, saying it was not his job to make the call about Hillary Clinton.
Whoa! I thought we elected @realDonaldTrump president. Did we make him the FBI, & DOJ? His job is to pick those guys, not do their jobs. https://t.co/8JCQOO0dSF
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 22, 2016
As happy as I am that our long national nightmare's over, NO president shld be blocking investigators from doing their jobs. #EqualUnderLaw https://t.co/8JCQOO0dSF
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 22, 2016
Although she never rescinded her support, Coulter has not been shy in the past about calling out Trump for going back on his promises. When Trump spoke about softening his stance on immigration in August of this year, Coulter told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that Trump was making a “mistake.” It seems like Ann Coulter, and many other die-hard Trump supporters, are going to be disappointed quite a bit in the next four years, especially since Donald Trump’s plan to leave the Hillary Clinton investigation behind is not the first campaign promise he has gone back on.
In addition to dropping the investigation — or at least dropping his insistence that it happen — Trump has also already changed his mind about repealing the Affordable Care Act, something he promised repeatedly to do. Days after his victory, he even announced plans to leave some of Obamacare’s key characteristics in place, including “the prohibition on denying coverage based on patients’ pre-existing conditions” and the “provision that extends children’s coverage on their parents’ insurance policy.”
Featured image via David Livingston/Getty Images.
