Now that a federal judge has confirmed for the press the obvious—that an entirely private email system with servers in a bathroom, designed to evade public scrutiny, FOIA requests, and public records laws, did not, um, comport with the law— the press can follow up on that point as if it is a fact in evidence. It has been evident from the beginning, but this voice of non-partisan authority allows some cover on calling these shenanigans what they are.

Mika, on “Morning Joe,” who to be fair has expressed a fair amount of incredulity on Hillary’s response before now, does us all a favor by stating plainly what’s going on here. She does it with the consternation and disappointment of a supporter rather than the conviction and wrath of an opponent, but she gets to the point.

“Okay, why do they keep saying something that is not true?”

Mika’s exclamation is the dismayed cry of someone who wanted to believe in Hillary to Carly Fiorina’s “she’s lying,” but they’re both saying the same thing.

Clintons gonna Clinton. They lie because they think they can and should get away with whatever they want, playing by whatever rules they please, and history has never really taught them any different. That being said, the FBI looking into your secrets is a different animal than the GOP doing it, and Hillary Clinton is a different political animal than Bill Clinton.

There were earnest supporters of hers who suggested to me that she should speak about the email controversy early on, get everything out there, so she could move on. Now, certainly, she could have counted on the press being more forgiving of her than of a Republican in the same position—who would have been declared disqualified for office months ago—but she is not and never has been interested in disclosing anything. That was the whole point of this operation. Further, she is not and never has been capable of doing a partial disclosure in the charming, effective manner that her husband would have employed that would have cajoled the most sympathetic takes from the press and the American people. In short, talking about the e-mail controversy was the morally right thing to do, but never the politically right thing to do for someone with Clinton’s desires and political (lack of) skills.

You don’t have look further than her peevish exchange with #BlackLivesMatter this week to see how, even in dealing with purported allies, Clinton is guarded, defensive, entitled, and ineffective. I get what she was saying in the video. She wasn’t literally saying she only wants to talk to white people; she was taking the activist’s argument that white liberals can offer no thoughts or advice to #BlackLivesMatter without being condescending because they are white to its extreme conclusion—black and white people should never talk about important issues, then. It wasn’t a totally unfair point, but it was a snarky dorm-room riposte that could have easily been softened to allow the activists in front of her to feel heard, which is what they wanted. (I’d suggest Hillary’s advice was likely condescending by virtue of her being a Clinton, not being white, but I digress.) It doesn’t take a political genius to know you should take these several moments out of your day to make nice with a handful of activists in an important bloc of your voter pool who have the potential to make your life harder. And, it’s not hard to do. Bill would have left that room having quelled the storm, given basically nothing, and leaving the activists feeling like they had won the lottery.

Click the image to watch Mika: