Former Maryland governor and possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley punted Thursday morning when asked to weigh in on the scandal involving Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized personal email account when she served as secretary of state.
“I don’t feel compelled to answer that,” O’Malley, who supported the former first lady when she sought office in 2008 against then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said in response to Bloomberg News’ John Heilemann during an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“Secretary Clinton is perfectly capable of defending her own service in office,” the former governor added.
O’Malley was also asked a hypothetical regarding official government email accounts.
“If you were president,” MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski said, “would you require your secretary of state to use the official server of the State Department?”
“Would that be important to you as commander in chief?” she asked.
O’Malley declined to answer, but not before he took what could be construed as a veiled dig at Clinton, who is currently the presumed Democratic nominee for 2016.
“Well, sure, it would be important to me,” O’Malley said. “But more important than email policies would be making our economy work, getting wages to go up, indexing the minimum wage, raising the threshold for overtime pay, making the investments that create jobs and give people a shot at giving their kids a better life.”
Later, when asked to describe the difference between Clinton and himself if he were to run, O’Malley underscored his 15 years of executive experience.
