New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Wednesday on New Day that Hillary Clinton looked "very defensive" answering questions from CNN Tuesday about her private email server.
Asked by Brianna Keilar to explain the deletion of more than 30,000 emails from that server, Clinton claimed again everything she did regarding her emails was permitted. She said she had gone above and beyond with her disclosures. Clinton appeared irritated about the line of questioning.
"The emails, she was very defensive answering questions about that," Haberman said. "I was very struck by it. She still, I think, thinks this is an unfair issue. She's clearly very angry about the congressional hearings into this topic, thinks that it has gone too far. She had one line where she said I didn't have to turn over anything ... That's not a great answer to that question considering that she was using private email for government-related business."
Clinton remarked that people "should and do trust me" when Keilar brought up Clinton's low marks in honesty and trustworthiness among voters. She went on to blame conservatives for trumpeting baseless attacks against her, calling to mind for co-host Alisyn Camerota the "vast right-wing conspiracy" she blamed for derailing her husband's administration in the 1990s.
"She sort of blamed the right-wing conspiracy again by saying it's the Republicans who have cast her as untrustworthy," Camerota said. "She's always been trustworthy and it's just this massive Republican program to make she and her husband seem otherwise, but is that a winning answer?"
"Hillary Clinton has tended to fare very well politically when she is viewed as a victim ... That is going to be her main answer," Haberman said. "It's a winning answer for your base, it's a winning answer for your supporters to say, 'Look, I'm under attack.'"