Hillary Clinton: The FBI Hasn’t Contacted Me About Emails

According to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, the FBI has yet to contact her regarding those pesky emails. NBC News reports that despite the email scandal that has been dogging her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton says she hasn’t been contacted by the FBI as part of its reported inquiry into her use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. The statement came during an interview by Chuck Todd which aired on Sunday’s Meet the Press.

Previous reports indicated that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as some of her top aides, were soon to be interviewed by the FBI as a part of the investigation into whether or not Clinton broke the law when she used a private, non-government-sanctioned email server to send and receive sensitive, possibly classified, information. When the topic of an FBI interview was broached during the Sunday interview, Hillary Clinton quickly said she hadn’t yet been contacted. She went on to point out that despite the lack of FBI contact, she “made clear” that she would be “happy” to answer any questions that the Bureau might have.

In addition to denying that she’d been contacted by the FBI, Hillary also underscored that she did make a mistake when she decided to use a personal email as a government official, as well as challenged anyone else in public office to follow her lead and release their emails to the public for scrutiny.

“I’m the one who’s done it, and I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do.”

In addition to speaking up in her own defense regarding the FBI and the ongoing email scandal, Hillary Clinton also said during Sunday’s interview that she’s “confident” that she will be debating her rival Bernie Sanders again before the New York primary, which takes place on April 19.

Clinton, however, refused to formally commit to a date for the hypothetical debate.

It has been reported that the Democratic presidential contenders’ respective campaigns are bickering about a date and time for the pre-New York State debate, but have yet to come to a consensus. The primary battle between Clinton and Sanders has become increasingly heated and intense in recent weeks, with Bernie Sanders picking up some big wins in primaries in Western states and refusing to drop out of the race before the Democratic National Convention.

During the FBI/email interview, Hillary Clinton said that while she is “confident” that another debate will take place between herself and Sanders, she is “not the one negotiating” the precise terms of that debate.

“We’ve proposed Thursday the 14th which gives people more time to digest what happens in the debate. Is he in?”

On Saturday, Hillary said in a statement that the Sanders campaign has already shot down three debate dates suggested by the Clinton campaign.

The back-and-forth follows a challenge issued by Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton last month on Meet the Press, a challenge in which Bernie dared Clinton to debate him in New York.

“I would hope very much that as we go into New York state, Secretary Clinton’s home state, that we will have a debate — New York City or upstate, wherever — on the important issues facing New York and, in fact, the country.”

While much of Hillary Clinton’s Meet the Press interview focused on emails, the FBI and Bernie Sanders, Clinton did spend some time focusing on GOP front-runner Donald Trump. When asked by Chuck Todd about setting her sights on Trump as opposed to Sanders, Hillary Clinton replied that it is important “to draw some pretty clear lines” between Democrats and Republicans. She went on to directly criticize Trump for what she referred to as “his rhetoric, his demagoguery.” She also directly called out Donald Trump for the increasing level of violence at his events.

“When you incite violence, you are acting like a political arsonist. We may have differences, of course we do. But we don’t condone violence. We don’t say we’ll pay the legal fees of people who punch other Americans, who are protesting, attending an event. That is just not appropriate behavior when you’re running for president.”

For the last several months, it appeared that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would be their political party’s respective nominees. In recent weeks, however, both Clinton and Trump have taken some serious political hits. Establishment Republicans are circling their wagons against Donald Trump, doing everything in their power to force a brokered Republican National Convention in July. Bernie Sanders is picking up some substantial and unexpected wins, narrowing the delegate count between himself and Clinton. It remains to be seen in the persistence of the Hillary Clinton email scandal or possible further interviews by the FBI will damage her presidential campaign between now and the Democratic Convention.

[Image Courtesy Of Darren Hauck/Getty Images]