Trump: Clinton’s ‘conduct is disqualifying’
Donald Trump blasted Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night over recently released FBI documents from an investigation into the former secretary of State’s private email server, calling her conduct “disqualifying.”
“The new revelations about Hillary Clinton from the just-released FBI documents make more clear than ever that she fails to meet the minimum standard for running for public office,” Trump said during a speech in Greenville, N.C.
“If she applied for a low-level job at the State Department today … she couldn’t even get a security clearance based on what she’s done.”
The FBI on Friday released notes from its interview with Clinton, which contained a number of revelations that Republicans have been using as ammunition against her.
{mosads}”People who have nothing to hide don’t smash phones with hammers,” Trump said. ”People who have nothing to hide don’t bleach their emails, or destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required under federal law.”
“No one takes all the risks Hillary Clinton took unless they are trying to cover up massive crimes,” he added.
The FBI documents showed that Clinton told her interviewers that she was unaware of many of the specifics regarding her email server.
For instance, she appeared to not know that a small parenthetical “C” at the beginning of a paragraph in a message was used to indicate that a passage is classified.
The “C” in that instance stands for “confidential,” one level of classification. On Sunday, Trump mistakenly blasted Clinton in a tweet for not knowing that it stood for “classified.”
In his speech Tuesday night, Trump made sure he didn’t repeat the error.
“It’s clear from the FBI report that Hillary Clinton lied about her handling of confidential information,” he said. “She repeatedly told the country that she understood the classified system, then she told the FBI she didn’t understand that the letter “C” meant confidential, or even classified, in the documents she emailed.”
Earlier Tuesday, Clinton apologized for her misunderstanding of the State Department’s email classification system, adding that she takes the issue “seriously.”
“I have learned that trying to explain what happened made it sound to some people like I was trying to excuse it. There are no excuses,” she told ABC News. “I take responsibility. I made a mistake. I’ve apologized, and obviously I wish I could do differently what happened. I certainly would never do that again.”
Clinton also told ABC she hopes the FBI report ends “selective cherry picking and leaks” from congressional Republicans.
Updated 8:26 p.m.
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