Clinton: ‘Most of my work was not done on emails’

Hillary Clinton conducted just a sliver of her work as secretary on State via email, and didn’t even have a computer in her office, the nation’s former top diplomat said on Thursday.

During a heavily scrutinized hearing before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Clinton rebuked criticism about what was or was not in her emails, in a sound bite that is likely to carry over to her campaign for the presidency in 2016.  

{mosads}“I did not conduct most of the business that I did on behalf of our country on email,” Clinton said. “If you were to be in my office in the State Department, I did not have a computer.”

“I do not want you to have a mistaken impression about what I did and how I did it,” she added. “Most of my work was not done on emails.”

The comment came in response to a question from Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.) about why Clinton’s emails contain no mention of an April 6, 2012, bombing on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. That bombing came five months before the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in the city that left four Americans dead.

“What kind of culture was created in the State Department that your folks couldn’t tell you in an email about a bomb in April of 2012?” Brooks asked.

In response, Clinton insisted that she performed a great deal of her work during a series of meetings with top officials, whether they be at the State Department, the White House or elsewhere in Washington. She also relied on “a great deal of classified information” sent by cable, Clinton said, as well as secure calls and other protected means of communication.

“I did not email during the day, except on rare occasion when I was able to.”

Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal email address and private server has been a major political vulnerability for her presidential campaign, in part because of concerns about the machine’s security. Intelligence officials have said that information contained in the emails should now be classified.

The FBI is currently reviewing the handling of sensitive information on Clinton’s server.

Though Republicans continue to hit Clinton for her email setup, Democrats have largely tired of it.

During the first Democratic presidential debate last week, Clinton’s top competitor for the nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was loudly applauded for saying that the people were “sick and tired” of hearing about the emails.