Friday on CNN’s “The Lead,” retired U.S. Army Lt. General Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, discussed his call for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race because she is under investigation by the FBI for how classified materiel was handled on her private email system.
Partial transcript as follows:
FLYNN: The nation would allow itself to back down a little bit and let this investigation run its course with her not in the limelight and making this such a big, big deal, I really do believe that the severity and the number of resources that are applied, despite what the outcome is, I just think the lack of accountability frankly in a person who should have been much more responsible in her actions as the secretary of state of the United States of America, this is not —
TAPPER: No, I get this.
FLYNN: If it were me, I would have been out the door and probably in jail.
TAPPER: But she and her supporters say this is an issue of overclassification.
FLYNN: No.
TAPPER: These are things that are classified now but were not at the time or, and you know this —
FLYNN: Yeah, sure.
TAPPER: It’s part of this tug of war over, for instance, if I were to e-mail — if I were an intelligence official and I were to e-mail a wiki leak that was published in “The New York Times” that is top secret even if it’s in “The New York Times.”
FLYNN: Overclassification or not, if it’s classified, it’s classified. And she knows better. She knew better in the roles that she has had both as a senator, both as a — even back when she’s married to the president of the United States and she’s going to have privileged information in that regard, not only as the secretary of state which is part of the National Security Council, so she should know better. This overclassification excuse is not an excuse. If it’s classified, it’s classified.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN