Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she may have “short circuited” during her response on her emails in an interview with Fox News reporter Chris Wallace.
“I may have short short-circuited it and for that I will try to clarify,” Clinton said in a response to NBC’s Kristen Welker after her speech at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.
She said that she and Chris Wallace were talking past each other, and that the answer may have gotten confused.
From the transcript:
WALLACE: After a long investigation, FBI Director James Comey said none of those things that you told the American public were true.
CLINTON: Chris, that’s not what I heard Director Comey say, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity, in my view, clarify. Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails.
Clinton’s comments were given a “pants on fire” rating from Politifact and “four Pinnocchios” by the Washington Post.
But Clinton said she was merely pointing out that FBI director said that Clinton’s answers to the F.B.I. about her email were truthful.
“I do think having him say my answers to the FBI were truthful and then I should quickly add what I said was consistent with what I had said publicly and that’s really sort of in my view trying to tie both ends together,” she said.
Welker pointed out that Comey actually said that Clinton sent three emails that were marked classified.
Clinton tried to clarify that Comey referred to emails that were “resembling classified markers” but that the 100 emails she sent containing classified information were not marked classified, which is “pretty much what I have been saying throughout this whole year.”
She again apologized for not using two email accounts and said that she would “take responsibility” for that decision.