The White House Friday implied that President Obama learned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private email account only after “reading the newspaper.”
“I have no idea when the president first learned,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters of the simmering controversy. “I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if he had learned about that by reading the newspaper. The president has a lot of things on his plate. I’m not sure the details of a senior administration official’s email arrangement lands on the president’s desk with any regularity.”
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination, has faced immense pressure in recent days after a GOP investigation revealed that she relied exclusively on personal email during her tenure at the State Department — and even established a private server to handle the digital messages.
Clinton, in a tweet this week, said she wanted to make the tens of thousands of emails her staffers turned over to the State Department public. However, she did not say what she would do with the messages not given to State officials.
Other than the tweet, Clinton has not publicly addressed the controversy.
The White House has tried to distance itself from the political storm in recent days, with little success.
Critics say that the Obama either gave Clinton special treatment or did little to ensure senior officials were meeting his pledge to run the “most transparent administration in history.”
