Martin O’Malley, former Maryland governor and long-shot presidential candidate, said Thursday he feared Hillary Clinton’s email scandal is tarnishing the Democratic Party.
“I think we as a party … are making a huge mistake when we allow the brand on our side of this national debate everyday to be questions about what did Hillary Clinton know? When did she know it? Did she wipe her server?” O’Malley said in an interview on a New Hampshire radio station. “These are not the issues and the answers to problems that the American people, feel even if the answers come out, will make life better around their kitchen table.”
The Maryland Democrat, who has trailed Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders in the polls, said the controversy over Clinton’s private email server has raised “serious and legitimate questions.”
Clinton’s campaign has attempted to dismiss the scrutiny of her emails as the result of politically-motivated attacks based on a bureaucratic disagreement over which of her records should be classified.
But the scandal has slowly eroded the former secretary of state’s once-untouchable lead in the Democratic field, allowing Sanders to surge ahead in New Hampshire and opening the door for a potential late challenge from Vice President Joe Biden.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday revealed the top three words voters used to describe Clinton were “liar,” “dishonest,” and “untrustworthy.”
