Barack Obama continues to claim that Hillary Clinton “has not jeopardized America’s national security” by operating a private email server while secretary of state.
In his first appearance on Fox News Sunday since 2008, Obama did however depart from Clinton’s refusal to use the word “investigation” by using the word.
“I got to be careful because as you know there have been investigations, there are hearings, Congress is looking at this,” Obama said. “And I haven’t been sorting through each and every aspect of this.” (VIDEO: Hillary STILL Won’t Use The Word ‘Investigation’ To Describe FBI’s Email Probe)
Host Chris Wallace asked Obama, “Can you still say flatly that [Clinton] did not jeopardize America’s secrets?” (RELATED: Hillary: Seeing Me In Handcuffs Is A ‘Fantasy’ [VIDEO])
Obama replied, “Here’s what I know. Hillary Clinton was an outstanding secretary of state. She would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy. And what I also know, because I handle a lot of classified information, is that there are — there’s classified and then there’s classified. There’s stuff that is really top secret, top secret and then there is stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state that you might not want on the transom or going out over the wire but basically stuff that you could get in open source.” (RELATED: Reports: Some Of Hillary Clinton’s Emails Are ‘Too Damaging’ To National Security To Release)
Wallace interjected, “But last October, you were prepared to say she hadn’t jeopardized and the question is, can you still say that?”
“Well, I continue to believe that she has not jeopardized America’s national security,” Obama said. “Now what I also said is that — and she’s acknowledged — that there’s a carelessness in terms of managing emails that she has owned and she recognizes. But I also think it is important to keep this in perspective. This is somebody who served her country for four years as secretary of state and did an outstanding job and no one has suggested that in some ways as a consequence of how she’s handled emails that that detracted from her excellent ability to carry out her duties.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton’s Emails Contain ‘Operational Intelligence’ That Put Lives At Risk)
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