Thursday at the State Department daily briefing, spokeswoman Marie Harf said, “I don’t want to automatically assume that it was problematic” in discussing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton breaking the disclosure agreement she had with the Obama administration and not reporting foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat.
Matt Lee of the Associated Press asked, “Doesn’t the department think that it is problematic that these oversights or omissions were made in the first place, and have you asked for an explanation?”
Harf replied, “I don’t know the answer to your second question, but the first question: I wouldn’t automatically assume — I don’t think anyone should presume that it was. If there were things that should have been submitted but weren’t, we obviously would have appreciated the opportunity to review them for the MOU. But I am also not going to recreate history and sort of recreate the facts at the time about how a review would have played out if there had been one, so I don’t want to automatically assume that it was problematic.
Lee countered, “No the question is whether the actual specific donations were problematic, because we don’t know because they were never submitted to you for approval or disapproval?”
Harf answered, “And I don’t think you should –not you– but people, should assume that is why they weren’t submitted.”
(h/t RCP Video)
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