Matthews: Clinton’s Emails Were ‘Political,’ Maybe Her ‘Doing Favors’ For Supporters

MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews said he thinks Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails were “political” and maybe “some supporter of hers in California she was doing favors for” on Thursday.

Matthews asked Clinton campaign surrogate former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D), “what was wrong with doing it…obviously it got her into trouble. She — you always apologize for something that gets you into trouble. But what was essentially, and character-wise wrong with the decision to use her private email? what was wrong with that? I mean, if you apologize for something, it should be for something you did wrong. She said she didn’t do anything wrong, so why is she –.”

Granholm responded that Clinton was talking about the decision “in retrospect” and that Clinton “didn’t violate any laws.” Matthews cut in to ask again, “Well, then what did she do wrong?”

Granholm continued that Clinton was saying, “in retrospect, especially as this has played out, it would have been better to use two servers. But, here’s what I think about this. Because of the Quinnipiac poll and the concern that we’ve seen among, especially base Democrats, the fact she’s leaning into this, and that she is saying, I regret that this happened. I wish I had done it a different way. And that she’s going to testify in front of the Benghazi committee, and that she’s asking the Department of State to release the emails quicker, and that she voluntarily turned over her server. I mean, all of that should, eventually, put this behind us. Because how much more money can the Republicans put into creating this story about her as a liar? That’s exactly what has gone on is that they’ve spent a huge amount of money trying to craft that particular image that you see in the Quinnipiac poll.”

Matthews then stated that he thinks “liar” is “a terrible word.” And “I think a word — a softer word may be, too secretive, too afraid of exposure, maybe because of her years of dealing with us. But definitely, what she did wrong, if she did anything wrong was, she didn’t trust her email to get into public circulation, for whatever reason. I think it was just political mail is all it was. I don’t know, of course she should keep to it herself. My view. It was political mail.”

He added, “I don’t think it’s about funerals and weddings. I think it was about, some supporter of hers in California she was doing favors for, or checking in with, saying, ‘How’s the family?’ This is wonderfully political and positive.”

Matthews also stated that while Clinton’s campaign “looked wonderful” and “presidential” the day before, “then this kind of stuff happens. And I go, How come one day’ — it’s like following the Phillies (who are currently have the worst record in baseball), they win one, they lose two. They win one or two, then they lose three. And this is driving me crazy.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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