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Geist: Clinton Did Not Adequately Explain Email Controversy on Today Show

October 6, 2015

NBC co-host Willie Geist said Tuesday that Hillary Clinton did not adequately explain her email controversy during her appearance on the Today show.

"I don’t think she totally explained to everyone’s satisfaction the emails or why the Benghazi committee should be disbanded, but I think she handled herself well," Geist said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Clinton was asked about her email controversy by Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, one of a few substantive topics broached during the hour-long program.

"Do you get how bad it looks?" Guthrie asked. "It looks like you set up your personal server, you set up your email, so that you would have control of those emails and you and you alone would decide when you would release them, whether you would release them. And in fact, that is exactly what has happened."

In her answer, Clinton went so far as to claim that she was the most transparent official "in American history" on her email.

"As long as we’ve had them [the emails] I’ve gone longer and farther to try to be as transparent as possible. Nobody else has done that," Clinton said.

"I have gone further than anyone I am aware of in American history," Clinton said.

Clinton’s unusual email arrangement came to light in 2014 as a result of a State Department probe into the email use of former secretaries of state.

Classified information, including information deemed "top secret," has been found in Clinton’s emails. This information is never supposed to leave the classified email system maintained by the U.S. government, for reasons of national security.

Transcript below:

It was interesting up there. There was a room full of people who were Democrats and independents, and a lot of them—just from taking an informal survey—were for Bernie Sanders in that room. They wanted to hear her side of it. They’re interested in his message and obviously he’s winning in the polls up there. They wanted to see if she could convince them, one way or another, that they ought to vote for her over Bernie Sanders.

I’m not sure she achieved that, necessarily. Savannah [Guthrie] was tough on her early on, I thought she handled it pretty well. I don’t think she totally explained to everyone’s satisfaction the emails or why the Benghazi committee should be disbanded, but I think she handled herself well.