NBC host Matt Lauer asked Hillary Clinton Wednesday whether her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state disqualified her for the presidency, interrogating her for the first part of the Commander-in-Chief forum about the way she handled classified material.
"The word judgment has been used a lot around you, Secretary Clinton, over the last year and a half, and in particular concerning the use of your personal email and server to communicate while you were secretary of state. You've said it's a mistake. You've said you made not the best choice. You were communicating on highly sensitive topics," Lauer said. "Why wasn't it more than a mistake? Why wasn't it disqualifying, if you want to be commander-in-chief?"
"Well, Matt, first of all, as I have said repeatedly, it was a mistake to have a personal account," Clinton said. "I would certainly not do it again. I make no excuses for it. It was something that should not have been done."
"But the real question is, the handling of classified material, which is, I think what the implication of your question was and for all the viewers watching you tonight, I have a lot of experience dealing with classified material, starting when I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, going into the four years as secretary of state," Clinton added. "Classified material has a header, which says ‘top secret,’ ‘secret,’ ‘confidential.’ Nothing, and I will repeat this and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice, none of the emails sent or received by me had such a header."
However, according to FBI Director James Comey, some of the materials that went through Clinton's email were marked classified when they were sent.
Lauer then asked Clinton if any of the emails referred to America's covert drone program, which Clinton confirmed that some did. He reminded her that Comey said that a reasonable person would have known an unclassified system was not the right place to have such a conversation.
"Well, Matt, I just respectfully point to the hundreds of experienced foreign policy experts, diplomats, defense officials, who were communicating information on the unclassified system, because it was necessary to answer questions," she said.