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Kaine: '2016 Is Over,' Clinton Investigation Is Not What Comey Testimony Is About

June 9, 2017

Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) told CNN host Alisyn Camerota on Friday that "2016 is over" in reference to Hillary Clinton's email investigation during an appearance on "New Day."

Camerota played a moment from former FBI Director James Comey's congressional testimony on Thursday in which he admitted that his choice to publicly reopen Clinton's email investigation was influenced by Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s meeting with former President Bill Clinton.

"In an ultimately conclusive way that was the thing that capped it for me that I had to do something separately to protect the credibility of the investigation, which meant both the FBI and the Justice Department," Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Camerota asked Kaine to comment on Comey's statements.

Kaine explained that Comey's hearing was about why the sitting president fired the FBI director and if he did so with the intention to undermine the Russia investigation.

"Alisyn, I thought that was pretty much irrelevant in the hearing yesterday. 2016 is over, this is about 2017," Kaine said.

"This is about a sitting president and why he fired the FBI director in a historic move, and was that connected as he suggested to the Russians in his office the next day with his desire to undermine the Russia investigation. So look, 2016 is in the rearview mirror now," Kaine continued.

"So again, there were some interesting tidbits in the lengthy testimony yesterday that I don't really think are that relevant or that important to what we're talking about now in 2017," he said.