Hillary Clinton Apologizes For Email Controversy
Hillary Clinton has apologized for the email controversy that had been haunting her campaign right from its inception. Clinton spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in her first national news interview; Clinton publicly apologized for her use of her private server to exchange state department-related confidential messages. Hillary had previously told the FBI that she had been inspired to use a private server by the former Secretary of State Colin Powell, an allegation that Powell has denied.
When CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Hillary about the inconsistency of her previous claims, the Democratic Nominee publicly apologized for the controversy for the first time, as reported by CNN.
“I have been asked many, many questions in the past year about emails and what I have learned is that when I try to explain what happened, it can sound like I am trying to excuse what I did. And there are no excuses. I want people to know that the decision to have a single email account was mine. I take responsibility for it. I apologize for it. I would certainly do differently if I could.”
Clinton further hinted on an official apology.
“I believe the public will be and is considering my full record and experience as they consider their choice for president.”
It was revealed on March 2015 that the United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, had used her home’s private email server for official and confidential communications. By law, she was required to use the official State Department account, hosted on federal servers. When it was revealed that the communications that took place via her private server included thousands of classified messages, a controversy ensued, which led to several investigations, with members of the Congress arguing that her use of her private server for state department communications violated several federal laws and regulations and as such Clinton had to be penalized. The whole controversy has been unfolding right around Clinton’s presidential campaign and as such has been a nightmare for her campaign crew.
Clinton had previously defended her use of use of the private servers, claiming that what she did had been in total compliance with federal laws and that she did not use the server to store confidential messages. The FBI later debunked this, and it was found that several of the messages stored on the server could, in fact, be considered confidential and sensitive in State Department terms. Hillary had always maintained that what she had done was follow in the footsteps of the previous secretaries of state.
Also during the interview, Hillary defended the Clinton Foundation, refuting claims by the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, that she had used her public office for personal gains of the Foundation.
“What Trump has said is ridiculous. My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policy decisions based on what I thought was right.
“I know there’s a lot of smoke, and there’s no fire.”
Trump had spoken about the Clinton Foundation during a rally on Tuesday night in Austin, Texas.
“It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins. The specific crimes committed to carry out that enterprise are too numerous to cover in this speech.”
Bill Clinton had described unique circumstances under which if Hillary were to be elected president of the United States, she’d have to step down from the Clinton Foundation. Regarding this, Cooper asked the Democratic Nominee why similar conditions hadn’t applied while she held another public office, as Secretary of State, to which Clinton gave the following reply.
“It draws a conclusion and makes a suggestion that my meetings with people like the late, great Elie Wiesel or Melinda Gates or the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus were somehow due to connections with the foundation instead of their status as highly respected global leaders.
“That is absurd. These are people I would be proud to meet with, as would any secretary of state would have been proud to meet with, to hear about their work and their insights.”
[Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]