Clinton: Email scandal "moving toward a resolution"
After almost a year of controversy over her use of a private email server during her tenure at the State Department, Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she thinks the issue will soon be behind her.
"I think we're getting closer and closer to wrapping this up," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Asked by moderator John Dickerson about Bryan Pagliano, the former State Department staffer who helped set up her private email server and was granted immunity by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to give an interview, Clinton said she's "delighted" he's cooperating in the investigation. Questions about whether or not anyone will be indicted in the situation are overblown, she said.
"There is no basis for that. It's a security review," she said. "I'm delighted that he has agreed to cooperate, as everyone else has. And I think that we'll be moving toward a resolution of this."
Clinton said she hopes the more than 2,000 emails that were retroactively classified will spark a discussion about inter-agency disputes over classification.
"This really raises serious questions about this whole process. So I'm hoping that, you know, we'll get through this and then everybody can take a hard look at the inter-agency disputes and the arguments over retroactive classification," she said. "Remember, I'm the one who asked that all my emails be made public. I've been more transparent than anybody I can think of in public life."
Despite her delegate lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton would not say whether Sanders should exit the race and clear her path to the nomination.
"Well, I think that's up to him," she said. "I'm just very pleased at where my campaign is right now. I was really gratified by the results yesterday, we'll net delegates. And we're feeling good about the upcoming contests."
Asked about the lower turnout numbers among Democrats this year and whether it's concerning for the general election, Clinton noted that she's gotten more votes than any other candidate in either party so far.
"I don't know exactly what that means," she said of the turnout drop. "You know, I've gotten more votes than anybody running on either side. I've gotten more votes than Donald Trump, although I'm sure he doesn't want to hear that. And we've gotten it from a wide, broad base."
The conversation then turned to Libya, and to a New York Times series outlining Clinton's role in the United States' actions there. Clinton, asked how big a role she played in convincing President Obama to take action there, said it was ultimately up to Obama.
"I think he listened to everybody, just as he did when we were involved in the intense review of intelligence as to whether or not the president should order action to go after bin Laden," she said. "These decisions are obviously, ultimately the president's. I think we should remember where we were, the kinds of threats and actions that Qaddafi was taking. And I have to say that when I look at this, an absence of action by NATO, by Arab League members would have probably turned Libya into Syria, which I think would've been an even more dangerous situation. So we all give our best judgment."
As for the current situation in Libya, Clinton acknowledged the transition there hasn't been great.
"No, it's not good--I'm not saying that it is," she said. "But it's sure better than Syria. I think maybe 1,500 people were killed last year compared to probably 150,000 in Syria. But what is happening is a very concerted effort led by the UN, supported by the United States, Europe and others to try to create a unity government in Libya enabling the people of Libya to get what they voted for."
"This has only been a few years. ... Yeah, we've got work to do," she said. "But I actually am, you know, slightly hopeful that they will all realize they're going to do better if they work together. They stand against terrorist elements. We will support them."