MSNBC's Morning Joe panel blasted President Obama on Monday for absolving Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing while the federal investigation into her private email server is still underway, saying the president is acting like a Clinton campaign surrogate and rigging the legal process in her favor.
During a Fox News Sunday interview from the prior day, Obama defended Clinton when asked about her email scandal, telling interviewer Chris Wallace that she in no way jeopardized American national security while serving as his secretary of state and downplayed the significance of compromising classified information. He added, however, that Clinton displayed a "carelessness" with managing her emails.
The president also assured Wallace he is not interfering with the FBI investigation into Clinton’s private email server and that no political pressure of any kind will be applied to the Justice Department to prevent potential charges against Clinton for mishandling classified information.
"Can you guys believe what you just heard?" co-host Joe Scarborough asked the panel with a bewildered look on his face after playing clips from the Obama interview. "He said he wasn’t going to talk to the attorney general about the pending investigation, but he just did, as he did back in October when he said, ‘No national security issues here. Nothing to see, move along.’’
Scarborough referenced a New York Times article from October in which FBI agents complained that the president should let them conduct their investigation before drawing conclusions about its outcome before they finish.
"And he just did it again!" Scarborough exclaimed. "And then in the same interview [he] said, ‘I’m not talking to my attorney general about it.’ Talk about a rigged process."
"It seemed ill-advised to say I got no connection to this but here’s what I know about it and here’s my conclusion," Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin added. "In theory, he shouldn’t really know the facts of the case."
Scarborough agreed and pointed out that Obama must have someone informing him of the facts of the case to conclude that national security was not harmed by Clinton’s emails, noting that the reason the FBI is devoting so much time and manpower to the investigation is precisely to see if national security was compromised by mishandling classified information.
"Campaigning for Hillary, may as well endorse her," co-host Mika Brzezinski said.
"If I were a Bernie Sanders supporter, I would not appreciate the president of the United States ... [weighing] in on [Clinton’s side] on national television," Bloomberg’s Jon Heilemann added.
Political commentator Nicolle Wallace said, "it certainly felt like someone putting their finger on the scale for someone for whom the investigation has not been wrapped up."
Brzezinski pointed out that 22 of the emails found on Clinton’s home-brewed private server released by the State Department have been deemed "top secret" and would cause "exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed," according to a VICE News report from last month.
"Are the president’s standards much lower when it comes to America’s national security than his own State Department?" Scarborough asked.
"It’s as if he’s like the Clinton campaign communications director in trying to exonerate her before the investigation is completed," Halperin said.
"Isn’t this the same president ... that wanted to throw reporters in jail and was more aggressive with reporters about classified secrets being leaked than any president?" Scarborough then asked. "And this is the president that’s saying no big deal when the State Department is saying that there are at least 22 emails that would cause ‘exceptionally grave damage to America’s national security if released.’ If a reporter passed that information on, this president would have them in jail already."
"The system is rigged," Brzezinski said.