“According to her campaign aides, what Hillary Clinton was referring to was Director Comey testifying, ‘We have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI.’ But Clinton’s comments to the FBI are different from what Chris Wallace was asking about, which were Clinton’s comments to the American people”.
Advertisement
The Democratic presidential nominee was asked about emails Friday during an appearance at a joint session of associations of black and Hispanic journalists in Washington. “We were talking past each other because, of course, he could only talk to what I had told the Federal Bureau of Investigation”, she said.
She said, “Just maybe when I’m actually running for a job there is a real benefit from those on the other side with trying to stir up as much trouble as possible”.
Following the blowback to Clinton’s interview Sunday, her spokesman, Brian Fallon, said, “She was indicating in that interview to Chris Wallace was what she said to those Justice Department interviewers was entirely consistent with what she has said to the public for the last several months”.
“I may have short-circuited it, and for that I will try to clarify”, she responded. While it is true that numerous classified emails that passed through Clinton’s private email system were not marked classified, Comey said, “even if information is not marked “classified” in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it”.
And she repeated her assertion that she didn’t transmit material on a private server that was marked classified at the time it was sent or received. Comey then said in his testimony on July 7 that only three were labeled classified at the time they were sent through Clinton’s server, but did not have the proper classification header indicating potentially sensitive material, therefore Clinton might not have known.
Here’s a prediction: Hillary Clinton’s latest four-and-a-half minute answer to questions about whether she mishandled classified email is not going to satisfy her critics. Interviewer Norah O’Donnell pointed out that in an interview with Charlie Rose, Clinton was at odds over Comey’s words on whether she was careless. “I think that’s the honest response, and I’ve heard her say that a number of times”.
Clinton has faced increasing criticism for not holding press conferences, unlike her publicity-hungry GOP rival Donald Trump.
“Clinton blames some of her low approval rating on Republican attacks, saying she gets higher marks from Americans when she is serving in public office”. As her campaign has argued before, she noted Comey has acknowledged the markings themselves were not properly marked.
CLINTON: Here are the facts behind that as well.
And in questioning, Director Comey made the point that the three e-mails out of the 30,000 did not have the appropriate markings. She continues to provide legalistic answers that touch the truth but aren’t entirely the truth.
Advertisement
Instead, Comey has gone on record saying that he could only “speak about what [Clinton] said to the F.B.I.”
