A senior adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign astonished a CNN host on Friday when he said that not even waterboarding would get Hillary Clinton to tell the truth about her private email server.
Appearing on CNN’s At This Hour, Barry Bennett left host Kate Bolduan astounded with his comment while they were discussing the Clinton email scandal.
Bolduan first played a clip of Trump at a campaign rally Thursday in San Jose, California describing how he would, as president, have his attorney general look further into Clinton’s email practices "from a fair standpoint" and suggesting she should go to jail.
"Is that a real threat, Barry?" Bolduan asked.
"Well it’s a real problem, that’s for sure," Bennett responded. "If this [President Obama’s] attorney general tries to block it, then a special counsel should be appointed."
Bennett then blasted Clinton for being dishonest about the federal investigation into her email server throughout the entire process.
"She has continued to lie about it, right? She told us the lawyers signed off on it. The inspector general said that’s not true. She said she would cooperate with all the investigations. She stonewalled the IG, and now everybody’s taking the fifth.
"You couldn’t get the truth out of Hillary if you waterboarded her," Bennett then said, leaving Bolduan momentarily speechless.
"What?" Bolduan said with a shocked look on her face.
"You couldn’t get the truth out of her with a waterboard," Bennett replied.
"And you brought in waterboarding," Bolduan said resignedly, causing Bennett to chuckle. "If DOJ, Barry, finds that there was nothing illegal that happened, should Donald Trump still have his [attorney general] in a Donald Trump administration investigate her?"
"I’m more interested in the FBI, but if the DOJ tries to stop the FBI, then yes," Bennett said.
An awkward pause soon followed, with Bolduan nodding her head slowly before asking another question.
The State Department inspector general, an independent watchdog appointed by President Obama, released a report last week showing that Clinton failed to comply with National Archives and Records Administration regulations on the use of personal email accounts by senior administration officials during her tenure as secretary of state.