MSNBC political analyst Ben Ginsberg told Howard Dean on Wednesday that he is not sure if Democrats want to engage in a national security argument in light of Hillary Clinton’s personal email scandal.
Many observers have said Clinton’s home-brewed server posed a national security risk to the United States. FBI Directer James Comey said that Gmail had a more secure server than the one located at her house.
"But their presence is especially concerning because all of the emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail," Comey said.
Dean shifted the focus on Wednesday and described Donald Trump and his campaign manager Paul Manafort as national security risks.
He said that Trump has allowed himself to be influenced by the Russians, due to Manafort’s old job advising pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych, and insisted this was not about politics.
MSNBC’s Chris Jansing asked Dean if anyone on the stage of the Democratic National Convention should bring this issue up.
Dean said he was not sure.
"But this is a very serious problem," he added. "It is not going to go away. It is not about emails or fighting or some political crap, this is about the security of the United States of America. I believe it shows that Trump naively has allowed himself to be influenced by the Russians. Manafort has a history of this, doing things against the best interest of the United States, siding essentially with the Russians and the Ukraine. This is a very serious national security issue."
Ginsberg cut in and said that the Democrats really should not bring up national security in light of Clinton’s email scandal.
"If we’re going to be talking about national security, that’s going to bring us right back to the issue of Mrs. Clinton’s home-brewed server and how that potentially compromised national security," he said. "So, I’m not sure that’s an argument that the Democrats want to have, and this bringing it back to Russia really emphasizes her weakness in setting up the home brewed server."