State Department spokesman John Kirby on Thursday defended a State Department practice of marking sections of emails for then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a “(C)” for classified though he couldn’t say whether it followed federal rules regarding designations for classified material.

“The degree to which it’s governed by regulation or [executive] order, I don’t know,” Kirby told reporters during his daily press briefing Thursday. “I’m happy to look [into it]. But I think we need to take 10 steps back and take a deep breath and look at this in perspective.”