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Mitchell: Clinton 'Building in Deniability' Over Email Scandal

September 27, 2015

In her reaction to Hillary Clinton’s Meet The Press interview Sunday morning, Andrea Mitchell said she noticed Clinton is "building in deniability" when it comes to the handling of her private emails and the fact that over 900 emails regarding Libya not turned over to the State Department were discovered this week.

"She is carefully saying that ‘I'm not an IT person. I'm not technical,’ we know that about her. ‘It was the IT people. It was the lawyers who decided which e-mails to delete, which to turn over,’" Mitchell said. "So she's building in deniability here."

By creating separation between her and the process taken to determine her work-related emails and deliver them to the State Department, Clinton is hoping to push responsibility away from her and shift the focus to others, according to Mitchell.

The email scandal was a major focus of Chuck Todd’s interview with the Democratic candidate, highlighting her struggle to push beyond her troubles. In a tense exchange with Todd, Clinton asserted that the email story was out of her control and that all she could do was be as transparent as possible.

"She's basically not dealing with the question that there is this continued drip-drip-drip and she cannot get to the policies that she wants to talk about," Mitchell said.

Without an end in sight, Mitchell said the email stories continue to drown out Clinton’s message.

"This is all overshadowing what she wants to be talking about and that is the reason why she is hurting in the polls," she said.

Clinton's interview was her second straight weekend on a Sunday show, after appearing on Face The Nation last week.