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Mika: Clinton's Email Defense Strategy 'Dependent on People Not Being Smart'

August 24, 2015

MSNBC's Morning Joe panel piled on Hillary Clinton Monday for her "dismissive" and "condescending" response to the unfolding scandal surrounding her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

"This is a strategy that is basically dependent on people not being smart, which I think is really condescending," MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski said.

"Let's back up to whether or not having your own server at your home and then based out of the bathroom in Colorado was policy. Was it? Can anyone here at the table tell me that she followed policy? Look me in the eye and tell me that she followed policy and didn't break rules," Brzezinski challenged.

Clinton addressed the swelling controversy at a press conference that she abruptly cut short last week.

The Democratic presidential candidate said she was the target of a partisan smear campaign and joked about wiping her email server—just as she did days before by mentioning her love of Snapchat, a social media platform whose messages delete themselves. The jokes were poorly received.

"I was struck by how the approach seems to be dismissive of this or make jokes about it or make light of it, but this is a serious issue in an age where China every day is trying to hack government employees," MSNBC co-host Willie Geist said. "We've seen stories time after time going after that this is deadly serious. If they don't treat it that way, they're going to be in a lot of trouble because it's not going away."

Reuters reported last week that many of Clinton’s emails were classified by the State Department at the time they were sent and received, a revelation that contradicts the campaign’s adamant denials that Clinton sent or received classified information that was considered to have that designation at the time.