Hillary Clinton’s fellow Democratic presidential candidates helped shield the former secretary of state from incoming criticism about her use of a personal email address while holding the nation’s top diplomatic post.
Bernie Sanders, a socialist running as a Democrat, was first to rush to Clinton’s side at the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas.
“Let me say this. Let me say something that may not be great politics. I think the secretary is right,” Sanders interjected. “And that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
“Thank you, me too, me too,” Clinton said as the crowd roared.
While Lincoln Chafee reiterated his concerns about Clinton’s ethics, Martin O’Malley did not want to miss the opportunity to align himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Clinton.
“I believe that now that we’re finally having debates Anderson, that we don’t have to be defined by the email scandal and what the FBI is asking about it,” O’Malley told debate moderator Anderson Cooper. “We can talk about affordable college, making college debt-free and all the issues.”
O’Malley’s support for Clinton at the CNN debate stands in contrast to his past statements on the trail that the Democratic Party had become defined by Clinton’s email scandal.
