Clinton regrets her email practices
In her longest sit- down interview to date, she says she’ll answer all questions
Would Hillary Rodham Clinton like to apologize to voters for the past emailing practices that have so many of them questioning her trustworthiness? Sort of. “It wasn’t the best choice,” Clinton said during a 30- minute MSNBC interview with journalist Andrea Mitchell on Friday. “I certainly have said that. I will continue to say that.”
But the only reason she was sorry for her use of an email server in her home for government communications while secretary of State was because it has been “confusing to people and has raised a lot of questions,” she said, adding: “But there are answers to all these questions.”
About a third of the sitdown interview — the longest Clinton has done since announcing her run in April — was consumed by the kind of uncomfortable questions about her emailing practices that the campaign had hoped would be past her by now.
But as it has become clear that the issue is not going away, Clinton is confronting it with more public discussion. There will be many uneasy exchanges to come.
On Friday, Mitchell challenged Clinton’s assertion that Colin Powell had used email in much the same way when he was secretary of State. Mitchell asked how it was possible that the secretary of State could have a government email address that even the agency’s own information technology staff did not know about. Mitchell then asked how it was possible that none of Clinton’s advisors warned her that the private email server was a bad idea.
“I was not thinking a lot [ about email systems] when Igot in,” Clinton said. “There was so much work to be done. I didn’t stop to think what kind of email system therewould be.”
The interview came a day after an aide who helped Clinton set up the private server told a congressional committee investigating her former email practices that he would be invoking his 5th Amendment protection against self- incrimination, refusing to answer the committee’s questions.
Clinton has said repeatedly that she will not be doing the same when it is her turn to testify late next month. She told Mitchell that the hearing, demanded by Republican lawmakers, would be an opportunity for her to clarify the email issues “in front of the entire world.”
Clinton said the troubles her campaign had faced over the summer in no way resembled her experience during the 2008 presidential race, which she entered as a dominant front- runner but ultimately lost. “I don’t feel that,” she said. “I feel I have questions to answer. Which I will at every turn.”
One topic Clinton seemed more eager to discuss was Donald Trump.
Asked about the attacks he had leveled against her and her staff, Clinton said: “He is great at innuendo and conspiracy theories and really defaming people.” She had more to say, suggesting that “loose talk, threats, insults” are dangerous coming from a potential head of state.
And more: “I think it is an unfortunate development in American politics that his campaign is alla bout who he is against,” Clinton said, citing basketball great Kareem Abdul- Jabbar and Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly as example targets of Trump’s attacks.
The interview was only the second Clinton has done with the national media since becoming a candidate. Next week, she will be a guest on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
‘ It wasn’t the best choice. I certainly have said that. I will continue to say that.’
— HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, on her use of a server in her home for government emails while secretary of State