Senator Mike Lee Surprised By Bill Clinton, Lorretta Lynch Meeting At Phoenix Airport
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Utah Senator Mike Lee reacted skeptically to a meeting on a private jet in Phoenix between former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch that attraction media scrutiny due an ongoing investigation into former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as a member of President Obama's cabinet.
Lee told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that he understands why some people could see the encounter as inappropriate.
"I was surprised to see that. It made me a little uncomfortable to say the least, to discover that the meeting had taken place. I will say this, immediately a lot of questions started running through my ahead, among them, how uncomfortable must that have been for her? This may well have been the sort of thing where she saw him coming and wasn't quite sure what to do. I don't know that you can just run from a former President of the United States and say no, I'm not going to talk to you. But it does raise all kinds of questions about what might've come up during that conversation and about whether, assuming they did just run into each other by chance, Bill was able to hold his tongue and not talk about all of these accusations against himself, his wife and his foundation."
However, Lee stated he believes Lynch's statement when she conveyed that nothing inappropriate occurred and pointed out that if protocols were being violated, there are easier ways to do so than to meet at an airport in Phoenix.
"I instinctively do believe it. That doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't some political pressure that's felt. It doesn't mean that there isn't political pressure that's exerted. These are both very sophisticated lawyers. They're both people who know that they shouldn't be discussing this. That doesn't mean that there could never be any political calculation that could come into it and they wouldn't have to necessarily discuss it with each other in order for that political pressure to be felt, in order for that political pressure to have some effect."
The Senator weighed in on the scandal surrounding Clinton's emails, commenting that even if the then Secretary intended to do nothing wrong, that does not excuse her from the consequences of her actions.
"She may not have started this whole thing thinking I'm going to violate federal law. But, nonetheless, it does appear that she compromised classified information and that is a problem."