Clinton on voters’ trust issues: ‘I know I have work to do’ … Hillary Clinton, facing direct criticism about her trustworthiness from rival Donald Trump, admitted Monday she needs to do more to earn voters’ trust.  “I personally know I have work to do on this front,” Clinton said at a Rainbow Push Collation luncheon, from prepared remarks. –CNN

This recent speech by Ms. Clinton was an effort to rectify a growing “trust gap” between her and voters. It was all about acknowledging mistakes – and showing she listened and cared.

More:

Clinton has long struggled to explain why voters don’t trust her, but Monday marked the most thorough and comprehensive attempt she has made to address the issue during this campaign.

“It certainly is true, I have made mistakes. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t,” she said.

But Clinton also blamed external factors.  She pointed out that opponents “have accused me of every crime in the book. None of it is true, never has been.”

The CNN article (above) expanded on this point, explaining how being in the public eye for so long had allowed criticism to take hold and fester.

Clinton acknowledged in her speech that she couldn’t simply talk away the doubts.

It remains a problem. A New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year discovered 64% of voters answered “no” regarding their belief that Clinton was “honest and trustworthy.”

And even as Clinton addressed the issue as best she could, the Internet, or certain parts of it, were flooded by reports of a UN official who died accidentally before a trial that supposedly would have seen him testify against her.

The imputation, of course, was that she somehow had him murdered.

From the NY Post’s Page Six:

John Ashe was due in court Monday with his Chinese businessman co-defendant Ng Lap Seng, who is charged with smuggling $4.5 million into the US since 2013 and lying that it was to buy art and casino chips.

According to Page Six, prosecutors would have linked Ashe to the bagman Ng. “It would have been very embarrassing. His death was conveniently timed.”

Snopes contradicted this perception: “Ashe wasn’t going to testify against Hillary Clinton.” The reports were simply fallacious.

This is perhaps symptomatic of Hillary’s larger plight. Her reputation for supposedly nefarious deeds is so extensive and well known that people easily think the worst of her.

And her enemies, of which there are many, exploit her reputation by continually circulating items about her that further impugn and reduce her reputation.

Sometimes, Ms. Clinton is her own worst enemy.

Not long ago she told an urban radio show that she liked to carry hot sauce in her handbag. This may have been a clumsy attempt to reduce  the impact of a quote of hers regarding young black men. According to the Washington Post:

“They are often the kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators,’ ” Clinton said in 1996, at the height of anxiety during her husband’s administration about high rates of crime and violence. “No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”

Clinton has been near the center of the political scene for so long that her gaffes are probably as well known as they are numerous. And it is easy to find lists of serious accusations leveled against her.

Among others, the conservative website WorldNetDaily posted a list of 22 purported Clinton scandals in mid-2015. You can see the list HERE,

Excerpts below (some language from WND):

Turning the IRS into a ‘gestapo’ to attack enemies during her husband’s presidency.

Attacking Bill’s former lovers via blackmail, intimidation, harassment and worse.

Shielding Bill from accusations of rape and battery leveled at him as a result of numerous fleeting trysts.

Vandalizing the White House when leaving office and trying to steal its furniture.

Stealing a comprehensive list of FBI files in order to gain information on adversaries who were then blackmailed.

Murdering deputy White House counsel Vince Foster to ensure he wouldn’t talk about two others scandals: Travelgate and Whitewater.

Keeping top secret emails, on a private email server located at her home – instead of using the government-mandated process while serving in high appointed positions.

Soliciting million-dollar donations during Bill’s re-election campaign from technology companies in return for permission to sell high-tech secrets to China.

Firing the staff of the White House Travel office in order to replace them by friends and then trying to put the head of the travel office, Billy Dale in prison. (Travelgate.)

Assisting in the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, a Little Rock savings bank, as a result of the collapse of a real estate deal. (Whitewater.)

Murdering dozens of additional individuals to ensure that additional scandals were never prosecuted. (Lists of suspicious deaths and suicides circulated regularly on the Internet during the years of the Clinton administration.)

Providing favors for various foreign individuals and enterprises while Secretary of State in return for donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Filing false tax returns regarding Clinton Foundation’s income and activities.

There are even more scandals in the WND list, which apparently doesn’t include one that took place during Bill’s Arkansas governor days involving cocaine smuggling in and out of the Mena airport to generate income for covert Latin American wars.

Many of these scandals are well-documented but for some reason both Hillary and Bill  have escaped indictment.

That may not be the case now, as the private email server scandal is so well known and egregious that it can neither be explained-away nor ignored.

Ultimately, the “trust issue” that Ms. Clinton is determined to rectify may be more deeply rooted than she wants to admit. It seems to have to do with an almost compulsive level of brutality, arrogance and contempt.

This was briefly on display when she told a reporter regarding Libya and Muammar Gaddafi, “We came, we saw, he died.”

She seemed more amused than regretful, though the Libyan war, in addition to its great violence, left an entire country shattered, its infrastructure ruined, its prosperity destroyed.

Conclusion: When evaluated all at once, her actions seem those of a sociopath who will go as far as necessary to achieve her goals. Her terrifying personality traits are probably what Americans are responding to subconsciously when they find her untrustworthy. These traits will not be fixable no matter how hard she tries to bridge the “trust gap.”