Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day,” veteran journalist Carl Bernstein weighed in on the controversy surrounding Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
Host Chris Cuomo asked Bernstein if Clinton was evading the truth more than other politicians, to which Bernstein said, “Politicians lie.”
“We don’t know except in terms of judging individual candidates,” Bernstein replied. “Politicians lie. Hillary Clinton has been around public life for almost 40 years now and what we see is whenever she is in any kind of trouble, she is unwilling to open up and be transparent. It has dogged her for years and years, and right now it’s the biggest problem with her campaign.”
As for the server, Bernstein argued it “solidified the impression” she was dishonest, as some polling as indicated.
“The server is what — the server question is what has solidified this impression,” Bernstein said. “Because she’s been less than truthful. She’s been less than open. She has looked for all kinds of excuses, much like she did when she was in the White House as first lady and the travel office debate came up — something that should not have been a huge problem for her. The same as the server question. Had she at the beginning when The New York Times revealed the existence of the server said if what seems to be the case, ‘Look, my enemies are out to get me. The vast right-wing conspiracy as I’ve called it? Well it exists and they are going to go after every email I have so i did not want them to be subjected to that kind of scrutiny.’ Had she said something along those lines, as difficult as I might be she wouldn’t be in the mess she’s in now. It solidified the impression of her as someone who can’t tell the truth.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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