Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders apologized to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton at the ABC News debate in New Hampshire Saturday night.
The apology came just one day after the controversy surfaced, contrasting the timeline of Clinton’s apology for her own online political scandal relating to classified information kept on a private server.
Sanders told Clinton he was sorry for a staffer of his who breached private campaign information of the Clinton campaign in the Democratic National Committee database.
“I apologize,” Sanders said to Clinton when asked by ABC News debate moderator David Muir if she deserved an apology. “This is not the type of campaign that we run,” Mr. Sanders said, adding he would fire any other staffer discovered to be involved in the breach.
“I very much appreciate that comment, Bernie. It’s important that we go forward on this,” Clinton responded.
The New York Times constructed a timeline of Clinton’s statements since the e-mail controversy broke in March of 2015.
“Again, looking back, it would’ve been better for me to use two separate phones and two email accounts. I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way,” Clinton said in March.
During an interview on September 5 with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Clinton said, “At the end of the day, I am sorry that this has been confusing to people and has raised a lot of questions. But there are answers to all these questions.”
In a September 7, 2015 interview with The Associated Press, Clinton refused to apologize for using her private e-mail server as Sec. of State, saying doing so “was fully above board.”
By September 8, six months after the e-mail server story broke, Clinton was ready to apologize. In an interview with ABC’s Muir, Clinton said, “That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility. And I’m trying to be as transparent as I possibly can.”