Who had the Worst Week in Washington? Bill and Hillary Clinton

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For the Clintons, things had been going a little too well of late.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had blown his six-week general election head start with a series of self-inflicted wounds that he seemed unable or unwilling to fix in anything like a timely manner. The Democratic Party had rapidly united behind Hillary Clinton, and polling suggested she had a mid-to-high-single-digit edge over Trump.

Then this past week happened.

It all started a week ago Monday when Bill Clinton, for reasons only he will ever know or understand, decided to pop onto the plane of Attorney General Loretta Lynch as everyone cooled their heels on the tarmac at Phoenix's airport.

Everyone involved insisted it was purely a social call, chatting about grandkids and the like. But, the idea of the former president of the United States huddling with the nation's top cop even as the Justice Department continued to investigate Hillary Clinton's email setup while she was secretary of state was problematic -- at best.

Republicans screamed foul and demanded a special prosecutor be appointed to the case. Lynch, after a week of relentless negative press, announced Friday that she would recuse herself from the matter.

Even as her husband was making trouble for her, Hillary Clinton's one-time -- and sort-of current? -- rival Bernie Sanders was taking to national television to cast her as something short of a principled liberal. Asked by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell when he might endorse Clinton, Sanders responded: "It's not a question of my endorsement. It's a question of the American people understanding that Secretary Clinton is prepared to stand with them as they work longer hours for low wages, as they cannot afford health care, as their kids can't afford to go to college."

Oomph. Thanks for that one, Bernie!

The coup de grace came Saturday when Hillary Clinton submitted to a more-than-three-hour interview with the FBI, a final step in that agency's long-running investigation into her emails. While Clinton insisted she was happy to spend the time and simply wanted the truth out, the timing of the interview meant that she will likely be dealing with the fallout from the FBI's final decision in the matter in the immediate leadup to the Democratic National Convention. Not so good.

Trump did his best to create diversions to keep the attention off of the Clintons -- but this week, not even The Donald could take the spotlight away from Bill and Hillary.

And, as is often the case when the country is looking squarely at them, the Clintons had the Worst Week in Washington. Congrats, or something.

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