The head of the Democratic National Committee on Monday dismissed the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s emails as secretary of State, saying it won’t decide the election.
“This election is not about Hillary Clinton’s emails,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.” “It’s about whether or not we’re going to be able to help people who feel like they’re not on the firmest ground right now have more confidence that they can help their kids be better off and reach the middle class.
{mosads}“[Clinton] handled the email process correctly and according to the letter of the law. In terms of what she was doing with compliance, she was compliant. She has released 55,000 pages of emails. She’s actually said she would not have used private email.”
Wasserman Schultz also rejected suggestions that she has Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic presidential primary.
“There is no just no shred of evidence to suggest that I’m favoring Hillary Clinton,” she said of the Democratic presidential front-runner.
“I’m not doing a very good job wrapping up the nomination for her if I were favoring Hillary Clinton. If I wanted to support a candidate, I would do exactly that — leave the DNC chair and go support a candidate.”
Wasserman Schultz additionally argued that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump would drag America backward should he become President Obama’s successor.
“The economic progress, the social justice progress, the human rights progress, the civil rights progress, all of it would be rolled back if, God forbid, we elect Donald Trump president,” she said. “[Trump] has espoused the most un-American, vitriolic, misogynistic, vile policies of any presidential candidate in modern times.”
The FBI confirmed last month that it is investigating Clinton’s private email server used during her tenure at State.
Critics argue the storage device prevented accountability and may have exposed sensitive national intelligence during Clinton’s tenure at the agency. Clinton has countered that her technology habits were legal and did not reveal any classified information to bad actors.