Sen. Bernie Sanders came to Hillary Clinton’s defense at Tuesday's debate over the thorny issue of her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, saying that the American people are “sick and tired” of the issue.
Clinton was pressed repeatedly by CNN moderator Anderson Cooper about the importance of the issue. Asked for his take, Sanders responded bluntly.
“I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Sanders said, to loud cheers and a standing ovation from the Democratic crowd.
Clinton said that her use of a private server was “allowed by the State Department … but it wasn’t the best choice.”
“I have been as transparent as I know to be,” Clinton said.
Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who trails Clinton and Sanders distantly in the polls, had a harsher take. He said Clinton's emails brought her credibility and ethics into question.
But when asked whether she wanted to respond to that criticism, Clinton had a crowd-pleasing zinger of her own: "No."
She also slammed the intention of a Republican-led House committee that was formed to investigate how four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. The committee is now focusing on Clinton's email server, ostensibly in relation to the Benghazi inquiry.
Clinton is scheduled to testify in front of the committee on Oct. 22.
“Let’s just take a minute there and point out that this committee is basically an arm of the Republican National Committee,” Clinton said. “It is a partisan vehicle -- as admitted by the House Republican Majority Leader [Kevin] McCarthy -- to drive down my poll numbers. Big surprise.”
The committee investigating the Benghazi attacks ignited a political firestorm after McCarthy suggested in an interview that the committee’s work was responsible for Clinton’s dropping poll numbers.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee,” McCarthy said on Fox News. “What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”
McCarthy ultimately withdrew from the race for House speaker, telling reporters that those comments and the fallout were to blame.