FBI Director James Comey confirmed during his congressional testimony that Hillary Clinton lied to the American people on multiple occasions regarding the use of her private email server.
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Despite being thoroughly rebuked by fact-checkers and the FBI, Hillary Clinton continues to give her critics fresh ammunition by claiming she never sent or received any information marked classified in her private email account, keeping alive a controversy that’s dogged her throughout her presidential bid.
‘But I know that this is something that she’s learned from, and we’re going to be real transparent, absolutely, ‘ he said, acknowledging Clinton’s problems surrounding her use of a private email server.
For the record, Comey said there were “110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received”.
GOWDY: Secretary Clinton said ‘I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e-mail, there is no classified material.’ Was that true?
“If” she “misspoke” – as though claiming to have been shot at by enemy forces were simply a slip of the tongue, like using the name “Brett” when you mean to say “Brad” – it was “just” a misstatement.
Mr. Comey said three of the messages included markings indicating that they were classified, though he added that Mrs. Clinton may not have been “sophisticated” enough to understand those markings. Trump was referring to a statement that the Democratic nominee had made where she told a group of black and Hispanic journalists that “I may have short-circuited it, and for that I will try to clarify”.
Reporters Yamiche Alcindor and Amy Chozick dutifully provided the filling-in story their Public Editor had hinted at: “Did She “Short-Circuit” On the FBI Inquiry?” She was saying what Director Comey acknowledged to be true, that, when she spoke to the FBI, when she was talking to the FBI, the FBI thought her answers in that setting were truthful. Here’s how she responded: “It is a subject we have covered aggressively – especially how her comments compare to what the F.B.I. found – and will continue to do so”.
CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you, Senator Kaine.
A third possibility, given the epic weirdness we’ve already witnessed in 2016, is that Clinton actually is a robot in a human suit and she actually did just short circuit for a brief moment. “She said, ‘there was no classified material'”.
Clinton’s comments came hours after the USA government announced that the economy added 255,000 jobs in July – surpassing economists’ expectations – while the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9%. It was at a question-and-answer session featuring a few pre-selected questions, not a full-blown “press conference”, as the NYT’s social media misleadingly put it. Clinton has not held a formal press conference for seven months.
The Times poll had Clinton ahead of Trump nationally by only one point – a margin much smaller than other recent polls.
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Overall, he described her handling of “very sensitive, highly classified information” as “extremely careless”.
