Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is changing his tone regarding Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State.
{mosads}Questions about whether Clinton’s email practices compromised classified information or impacted public record requests are “valid,” Sanders told the The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Sanders won praise from Clinton’s campaign last month when he said during the first Democratic debate that Americans were “sick and tired” of hearing about her “damn emails.”
Many political observers and analysts believed Sanders aided Clinton for dismissing controversy over her private email arrangement, the subject of a federal probe.
But while he didn’t say he regretted his debate remarks, Sanders told The Journal in the interview Wednesday that the investigation of Clinton’s email should continue.
“You get 12 seconds to say these things,” Sanders told the newspaper of the debate format.
“There’s an investigation going on right now. I did not say, ‘End the investigation.’ That’s silly. … Let the investigation proceed unimpeded,” he added.
Clinton followed up her lauded debate performance with testimony — during which the email issue sprang up — before the House panel investigating the September, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Monday found that fewer Americans consider now the issue an “important factor” in casting a vote than before her testimony.
Forty-two percent of the public considers Clinton’s email issue an important one, down 5 points from before the hearing, while 48 percent say it’s not an important factor, up 4 points.