A CNN panel Sunday put Hillary Clinton on blast as they discussed her email scandal and trust issues that loom over her presidential campaign.
Prior to the panel's discussion, CNN's John King recapped the last week of Clinton trying to put her email scandal to rest by playing a couple of clips of Clinton responding to questions regarding her honesty in cooperating with the FBI and telling the truth to the American people.
Last Sunday, she told Fox News host Chris Wallace that FBI Director Jim Comey said that her answers on the email scandal were "truthful." Following this interview, the Washington Post's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, gave her "Four Pinocchios" on this statement, its worst rating for dishonesty.
Clinton then admitted on Friday at an address to the National Association of Black and Hispanic Journalists that she may have "short-circuited" in her previous responses regarding questions on the email scandal and that she would clarify in the future.
After playing the clips, King signaled the panel to help him analyze Clinton's statements.
"Help me. Help me," King joked.
The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler was baffled by Clinton's response to the email scandal and said that there are so many ways that Clinton could have responded to questions on her email.
"My sort of alternative universe is she says, you know what, this was a lapse in judgment, but I expect you to judge my judgment over many decisions and overall I think I would be a good president and here is why. But she can't do that," Meckler said.
The Atlantic's Molly Ball joined in and pointed out that she believes she has the mindset that she shouldn't have to deal with this criticism and that her dissenters are the same ones that raised "phony scandals" against the Clintons in the 90s.
"Well, that doesn't follow. Right? This is not phony. This is the real thing," Ball said on the email scandal.
CNN's Manu Raju called Clinton's response to the email scandal "baffling" as he pointed out that Clinton's biggest vulnerability is honesty and trustworthiness. Raju also called it "shocking" that she would say that Comey was vindicating her at the testimony hearing.
"I was at the hearing. Director Comey was not vindicating her. He was blasting her for her statements over and over again, saying that, if she were an employee of the FBI, potentially she could have been disciplined, could have been fired. [She] may have actually put the nation's secrets at risk by potentially hostile actors gaining access to her e-mail server," Raju said.
While Clinton had a great week in the polls, NPR's Domenico Montanaro said he believes that Clinton's campaign is taking too much "comfort" in her poll numbers and that it could be a vulnerability for the campaign if they get too comfortable.