DNC chair: Clinton emails a nonissue in 2016

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz defended Hillary Clinton in the ongoing email controversy and emphasized that it will not be an issue for Clinton if she runs in 2016.

“Whether Hillary Clinton or anyone else uses a private email or a government email will not have anything to do with voters’ decision on who to cast their ballot for, for president of the United States,” she said Monday on CNN’s “Newsroom.”

“She’s made it clear that the reason that she used a private email account was to for purely for convenience.”

Wasserman Schultz, who serves as the party’s voice ahead of the 2016 presidential primary, added that she’s not concerned about Clinton moving through the primary unscathed. Many Democrats have questioned whether the extreme front-runner status of Clinton, who is dealing with controversy surrounding her use of a private email address while at the State Department, is healthy for the party.  

“We’re going to have a primary; I’m fairly confident about that,” she said, while bashing GOP candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for focusing on helping the wealthy.

“We’ll have an opportunity to debate the ideas about who can best be the Democrats’ best foot forward to help people climb the ladder of success and reach the middle class.”

Wasserman Schultz also criticized Cruz’s campaign for the presidency, which he announced just hours before her appearance. She framed Cruz, who receives more support from the conservative base of the Republican Party, as indicative of the GOP’s rightward trending mainstream.

“Ted Cruz being the first candidate to officially announce on the Republican side his candidacy tells you is that this is where the Republican Party’s mainstream is now,” she said.

She bashed his role in shutting down the government in 2013 during the fight over ObamaCare and his opposition to extending funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless president Obama’s controversial immigration actions were defunded.

“Ted Cruz has been the de facto leader of the Republican Party in Congress for more than a year,” she added.