Hillary Clinton Interview with Wolf Blitzer (07/08/16): Part 2 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00about it from now all the way uh into
2. 0:02the White House and Beyond let me turn
3. 0:04to the sensitive issue of the email
4. 0:06investigation now that the threat of
5. 0:08criminal prosecution is behind you what
6. 0:11have you learned from this entire
7. 0:13episode about your
8. 0:16emails well first I greatly appreciate
9. 0:20uh the work that the FBI uh Department
10. 0:22of Justice did and they handle it very
11. 0:25professionally and I have said many
12. 0:27times and I repeat clearly today it was
13. 0:30a mistake uh for me to use personal
14. 0:33email uh and I regret that uh I am uh
15. 0:37certainly relieved and glad that the uh
16. 0:40investigation has concluded uh but I
17. 0:43also uh know how important it is to uh
18. 0:47make sure everybody understands uh that
19. 0:50I would certainly not do that again that
20. 0:52is something that uh uh at the time uh
21. 0:56as even director Comey said seemed like
22. 0:59uh a convenience but it was the wrong
23. 1:01choice cuz he he clearly said you did
24. 1:04not break the law but Comey the FBI
25. 1:06director also said in announcing his
26. 1:08findings this week that you acted in his
27. 1:10words extremely careless in an extremely
28. 1:14careless handling classified sensitive
29. 1:17information do you acknowledge you were
30. 1:20extremely
31. 1:22careless well I think the director
32. 1:25clarified uh that comment to some extent
33. 1:29uh pointing out that some of what uh had
34. 1:31been thought to be classified apparently
35. 1:33was not the state department also uh
36. 1:36made that clear I think there are about
37. 1:39300 people uh in the government mostly
38. 1:43in the state department but in other
39. 1:45high positions in the government with
40. 1:47whom I emailed over the course of four
41. 1:49years uh they I believe uh did not uh
42. 1:54believe they were sending any material
43. 1:56that was classified they were pursuing
44. 1:59their responsibilities I do not think
45. 2:01they were careless and as I have said
46. 2:04many times I certainly did not believe
47. 2:07that I received or sent any material
48. 2:09that was classified and indeed uh any of
49. 2:13the uh any of the documents that have
50. 2:15been referred to um I think uh were not
51. 2:18marked or were marked inaccurately as
52. 2:21has now been clarified but but the the
53. 2:24FBI director did say about 110 emails uh
54. 2:28were classified various form
55. 2:30of classification even if they had not
56. 2:32been marked he said someone in your
57. 2:34position as Secretary of State should
58. 2:36have known better here's the question
59. 2:38should you have known
60. 2:41better I just uh believe that uh uh the
61. 2:45material that was being communicated by
62. 2:48uh professionals many uh with years of
63. 2:51handling uh sensitive classified
64. 2:54material they did not believe that it
65. 2:57was I did not have a basis for guessing
66. 3:01uh their uh conclusion and these were
67. 3:04not marked they were not marked and in
68. 3:07retrospect uh some have said well they
69. 3:09should have been but they were not at
70. 3:11the time and I have the highest regard
71. 3:15for uh the people in the state
72. 3:17department who are doing the very hard
73. 3:19work of diplomacy day in and day out
74. 3:22often under tremendous pressure from the
75. 3:25field and uh under time pressures and uh
76. 3:29uh questions from journalists and so
77. 3:31much else and I have no reason to
78. 3:34believe that they were careless in uh
79. 3:36their judgments and sending me uh the
80. 3:38material that they
81. 3:40did the state department as you know has
82. 3:43decided now to reopen its own internal
83. 3:46review of your use of that private email
84. 3:49server or servers now that the justice
85. 3:51department the FBI has completed its
86. 3:53investigation will you cooperate with
87. 3:55this new State Department investigation
88. 4:00well I assume they will uh pursue
89. 4:03whatever process they think is
90. 4:04appropriate and I also assume that they
91. 4:06will pay very close attention uh to what
92. 4:10uh the findings were of the uh uh
93. 4:13justice Department investigation uh but
94. 4:15again I will repeat because I think this
95. 4:18is important uh over 300 people were on
96. 4:22these email uh exchanges uh some on many
97. 4:27some on a few uh and these were
98. 4:29experienced professionals who have had
99. 4:31great uh uh years of dealing with
100. 4:35classified material and whatever they
101. 4:38sent me uh they did not believe and had
102. 4:41in my view uh no reason to believe at
103. 4:45the time that it was classified so I am
104. 4:49very proud of the work that we did
105. 4:51during my four years we dealt with two
106. 4:53Wars of financial collapse the Arab
107. 4:56Spring and so much else and uh I think
108. 5:00that the professionals with whom I
109. 5:02communicated uh were uh very careful
110. 5:05about how they handle classified
111. 5:07material as I was over the course of
112. 5:10those four years we're out completely
113. 5:12out of time but very quickly will you
114. 5:13cooperate with this new State Department
115. 5:16investigation because I know you didn't
116. 5:18cooperate with the Inspector General of
117. 5:20the state department in his
118. 5:23investigation well there was a Justice
119. 5:25Department investigation going on at the
120. 5:28time and of course I fully cooperated
121. 5:30with that Madame secretary thank you
122. 5:33very much for sharing some thoughts with
123. 5:34us on this
124. 5:36day thank you very much wolf Secretary
125. 5:39of the former Secretary of State uh back
126. 5:41to Jim