James Comey, the director of the FBI, said in his statement detailing reasons why Hillary Clinton should not be charged for mishandling sensitive emails, that Clinton was "extremely careless" in handling classified information.

The inference is plain: Hillary Clinton can't be trusted with classified information.

Speaker Paul Ryan thinks based on the FBI's conclusions, Hillary Clinton should be denied access to classified briefings as a presidential candidate.

But despite the director of the FBI believing that classified information would be at risk in Clinton's hands, the White House is going ahead with the briefings anyway.

Washington Times:

“We should leave those decisions in the hands of our intelligence professionals,” said White House press secretaryJosh Earnest. “They’ll provide the same information to both candidates.”

Mr. Ryan said Mrs. Clinton’s access to secret government information should be denied, in the wake of FBI Director James B. Comey’s finding that Mrs. Clinton was “extremely careless” with classified information on her private email system during her tenure as secretary of state. Mr. Comey is recommending that no criminal charges be brought in the probe.

The speaker said if Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper doesn’t deny access to Mrs. Clinton, Congress should step in.

But Mr. Earnest said the White House expects both Mrs. Clinton and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, to receive the classified national security briefings after they are formally nominated at their respective party conventions later this month.

“There’s a longstanding tradition of providing briefings to the major party nominees to make a smooth transition much more likely,” Mr. Earnest said.

So we should risk exposure of classified information because of "tradition"? 

He also said Mr. Obama didn’t talk about the situation with Mrs. Clinton on Air Force One as they flew to North Carolina for their first joint campaign rally.

“It didn’t come up,” he said.

The president’s spokesman also ducked questions about whether anyone on Mrs. Clinton’s staff at the State Department should be punished or have their security clearance revoked.

“I’m not going to render any judgment on that,” Mr. Earnest said, noting that the Justice Department is still considering Mr. Comey’s recommendation.

Hillary aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills were, if anything, even more careless with classified information.  They too, apparently, are in line for classified briefings.

It's been said before but bears repeating: if Hillary Clinton were anybody else at any level of government, she almost certainly would have been indicted and convicted.  Instead, by election day, the entire affair will have been forgotten and swept under the rug. 

It's good to be a Clinton in America in the 21st century.