Mark Halperin and John Heilemann of With All Due Respect on Bloomberg TV said that President Obama left Hillary Clinton "out to dry" in his interview with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes because he is still "pissed" about her use of a private email server.
"On every other way hung out to dry. And why? Because he’s pissed," Heilemann said Monday afternoon. "The president, according to every source that you and I ever talked to in the White House, is furious over the thing that she did with her email. He feels as though she violated the spirit and the letter of the law within his administration and he’s still angry about it and he can’t help but let that show."
President Obama told Kroft that, while he did not believe Clinton’s actions compromised national security, his secretary of state made a mistake and could have been more forthcoming.
"As a general proposition, when we’re in these offices, we have to be more sensitive and stay as far away from the line as possible when it comes to how we handle information, how we handle our own personal data," Obama said in the testy interview. "And, you know, she made a mistake. She has acknowledged it."
Obama said that he believes Clinton "could have handled the original decision better" and should have disclosed her email activity sooner.
"You know there are so many ways that could have been better for her—that would have no political cost," Halperin said of Obama's comments.
With Vice President Joe Biden still mulling a run to replace his current boss, it remains to be seen whether Obama would support him over the Democratic frontrunner. Halperin and Heilemann later said that Obama’s weak defense of Clinton may indicate whom he would support to be his successor.
"We call that in the political parlance ‘minimal cover,’" Heilemann said.
Clinton is scheduled to testify to the Select Committee on Benghazi on October 22.