Over the course of almost four and a half minutes, Clinton first feinted toward acknowledging a recent misstatement, saying she offered a “short-circuited” response in a Fox News interview last weekend by suggesting FBI Director James Comey had concluded that her public statements about her use of a private email server while secretary of State were truthful. But Comey made no such blanket assessment.
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Mrs. Clinton’s reply: “Director Comey said that my answers were truthful”.
By appearing to stretch the truth, at best, Mrs. Clinton also is fueling the notion that the Justice Department may have decided not to press charges against her exclusively for political reasons. That contradicted Clinton’s statements that she, as secretary of state, did not send or receive classified email on her private server.
What resulted Friday were still more mischaracterizations.
Clinton’s trustworthiness has emerged as her biggest weakness in the fall campaign, one worsened by her responses to questions about her use of private emails servers as secretary of state and her reluctance to take regular questions from journalists. Specifically, Todd asked Kaine how that trust can be repaired, and whether it would pose a governing problem if the Democratic ticket were elected.
Comey debunked that assertion in July. I did. He made it abundantly clear that Ms. Clinton did send and receive classified emails and that some of those emails were marked classified.
She explained that Comey was referring only to her interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation – but she also insisted that all of her other public statements on the matter have been consistent with those interviews.
As this election cycles spirals downward and the mudslinging ramps up, I hope voters will seriously consider whether they want the leader of our country to have the inability to take responsibility for their actions? “She was saying what Director Comey acknowledged to be true, that when she spoke to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, when she was talking to the Federal Bureau of Investigation thought her answers in that setting were truthful”. As evidence piles up to the contrary, she is left with less and less such credence for her claims.
He concluded, “We’re gonna be real transparent, absolutely”. Even though Wallace was clearly asking Clinton whether she had been truthful with the American public, she chose to answer a different question: whether she had lied in her interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Clinton, who has been criticized for being closed off to reporters and holding too few news conferences during her campaign, spoke about her plans to stimulate employment in black and Latino communities and to implement comprehensive immigration reform during her first 100 days in office.
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”. He did tell Congress that her public statement about classified material was “not true”. He also said other emails deleted from Clinton’s server also probably had classified markings at the time. Many more emails contained sensitive information, but were marked classified only later.
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At a time when critics charge that Trump lacks the temperament needed for a commander in chief, he also alleged that Clinton was “unbalanced” and “pretty close to unhinged”.
