White House press secretary Josh Earnest says that all of the information Barack Obama has on Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server is based on news reports.
During Monday’s press conference, Earnest attempted to walk back Obama’s claim that Clinton did not jeopardize national security suggesting, “The president’s knowledge about this situation is based entirely on public reporting.” (RELATED: Obama: Hillary ‘Has Not Jeopardized America’s National Security’ With Her Private Email Server)
Earnest was asked to clarify Obama’s comments from “Fox News Sunday” when he said that Clinton “has not jeopardized America’s national security” by using a private email server that had classified information on it while Secretary of State. Obama’s press secretary claimed that Obama “has neither sought nor received a confidential briefing or confidential information about the ongoing investigation.” (RELATED: Obama Guarantees There’s ‘No Political Influence’ In Hillary’s FBI Investigation)
Later, defending Clinton, Earnest said, “This is one of the benefits of the approach that Secretary Clinton and her team have taken to dealing with this matter. Secretary Clinton said, ‘Well, let’s just make all the emails public.’ All of you in your news organizations have spent — God knows how many hours — reviewing all those emails. Some of them interesting, most of them mundane but it does give the American public some insight into what is included in those emails.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton’s Emails Contain ‘Operational Intelligence’ That Put Lives At Risk)
Earnest concluded that Obama’s “public comments” are “based entirely on the reporting … [of] news organizations.”