Hillary Clinton on Sunday compared concerns over her private email server to criticism of her handling of the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack.
Both are coordinated partisan campaigns, Clinton said.
“This is very much like Benghazi,” Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The Republicans will continue to use it, beat up on me.”
“That’s the way they are,” Clinton said.
In equating the two issues, Clinton hopes voters who have decided the Benghazi probe is a partisan witch hunt will conclude the same about her private email account. But while accusations about Clinton’s response to Benghazi has mostly been a Republican hobby horse, the email issue, despite growing out of the same investigation, has drawn concern from a more politcally diverse group of critics. The New York Times, rarely accused of conservative bias, has aggresively advanced reporting on Clinton’s private server.
Clinton expressed confidence she would be exonerated of wrongdoing.
“After 11 hours of testimony, answering every single question in politics, which I had requested for months, it’s clear that they’re grasping at straws. This will turn out the same way.”
Perceptions about Clinton’s lack of trustworthiness could be the difference maker in the Democratic primary, a day out from the Iowa caucuses.
In a close matchup, Clinton leads rival Bernie Sanders 45 percent to 42 percent in the final Des Moines Register poll released Saturday, a statistical tie, within the margin of error.
