Archive for the ‘Hillary Clinton’ Category

Susan Sarandon: Hillary Clintons Health Issues Could …

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER Susan Sarandon refused toendorse Democrat presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical matchup between Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, telling Larry King in an interview that a number of unforeseen things could still happen to prevent Clinton from clinching her Partys nomination.

In an interview with King on Monday, the 69-year-old Oscar-winning actress said she would wait and see what happens before endorsing a candidate in what is presumed to be a Trump-Clinton general election matchup this fall.

Im not saying I endorse Hillary, the Thelma and Louise star told King. Im not. Im gonna say Im gonna wait and see what happens. Theres a lot of things that could happen.

When pressed by an incredulous King as to what might happen to prevent Clinton from advancing to the general, a defiant Sarandon replied: So many things.

She could have health issues. She could not get the nomination, Sarandon added.

You think Bernie [Sanders] could get it? King asked.

Yeah, I think he can, she responded. Hes a miracle that hes even in this. I think that now hes been to the Pope, maybe theres another miracle thats going to happen.

Clinton currently leads Sanders by a wide margin in both pledged delegates and so-called superdelegates, Democrat party insiders and officials who may cast a vote for whomever they please regardless of primary outcome. According to CBS News, Clinton needs only to win 17 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to secure the Democrat nomination outright.

Clintons health has long been an issue in this years election cycle, most recently when the candidate disappeared fromthe ABC Democratic presidential debate stage in December for an extended period of time for what her campaign said was an extended bathroom break. Breitbart News previously reported that a law enforcement source believed the extended break stemmed from a flare-up of a previous brain injury, though the Clinton campaign refuted the report.

Sarandon is one of Sanders most vocal celebrity supporters. In February, the actress wrote on Twitter that it is insulting that other people think she would vote for Clinton based on gender alone, writing: I dont vote with my vagina. The actress has also said that passionate and principled Sanders supporters may have trouble voting for Clinton in a general election.

Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

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Top 9 highlights from Hillary Clinton’s FBI report …

The top finding: Clinton seemed repeatedly unable to recall key information about her use of a private email server as secretary of state. Here are some other highlights from the new documents.

On 39 separate occasions, Clinton told the FBI that she did not "recall" or remember key elements of the training or classified information process.

In regards to an email with classification markings, Clinton said she did not know what they meant and speculated it indicated paragraph markings.

According to the report, Clinton said "she did not pay attention to the 'level' of classified information and took all classified information seriously. CLINTON was not concerned the displayed email contained classified information. CLINTON believed the email amounted to a 'condolence call' and questioned the classification level."

Clinton repeatedly said she had no reason to think emails to her contained info that was inappropriate for personal email. She said she trusted those emailing understood what was appropriate.

"Clinton did not recall receiving any emails she thought she should not be on an unclassified system," the report read. "She relied on State officials to use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address."

Clinton defended discussion of the Obama administration's controversial drone program in emails on her server, saying she felt conversation was "part of the routine deliberation process" and "did not give her cause for concern" regarding classification. She recalled many conversations about future strikes "that never occurred."

The former secretary of state said she thought drone strike information classification "depended on the context," noting it was an important tool but "frequently in the press."

Clinton said it was well known she used that email address: "At least a hundred, if not several hundred State employees" had that contact info.

Yet some State employees said they did not know her actual address since she appeared merely as the letter "H" in the sender field of the email. And "the majority" of Clinton's aides interviewed by the FBI, including her most senior staffers, did not know of the home server until it became publicly reported or after Clinton left the State Department.

Clinton said she did not have conversations with anyone "with regard to using the server to avoid" Freedom of Information Act regulations. Clinton denied that avoiding FOIA rules was a reason for setting up the system.

Clinton's correspondence with confidante Sidney Blumenthal has drawn particular scrutiny. But Clinton said that while Blumenthal is a "prodigious" writer, she said the information he provided was "sometimes accurate and sometimes not."

Regarding an email asking an aide to remove markings, Clinton said she was directing him to create talking points and "had no intention to remove classification markings." She explained she thought a "non paper" was a way to convey the unofficial stance of the US government to foreign governments.

Clinton's team had an "oh s*** moment" in late March of last year, according to the report. A few weeks after The New York Times first revealed the information about Clinton's private email use, a person -- whose name has been redacted -- "deleted the Clinton archive mailbox" and "used BleachBit to delete the exported .PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton's emails."

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Top 9 highlights from Hillary Clinton's FBI report ...

Hillary Clinton: Single-payer health care will "never …

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa January 29, 2016.

REUTERS

Just a few days before the Iowa caucuses, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton stressed to voters in Des Moines just how unfeasible she considers her opponent Bernie Sanders' plan to pursue a single-payer health care system.

"I want you to understand why I am fighting so hard for the Affordable Care Act," she said at Grand View University after hearing from a woman who spoke about her daughter receiving cancer treatment thanks to the health care law. "I don't want it repealed, I don't want us to be thrown back into a terrible, terrible national debate. I don't want us to end up in gridlock. People can't wait!"

She added, "People who have health emergencies can't wait for us to have a theoretical debate about some better idea that will never, ever come to pass."

Derry O'Connor of Des Moines told CBS News that he plans to caucus for Clinton in part because of her stance on health care. He echoed Clinton's sentiments that a single-payer system is out of reach.

"I think if they ever got there, it would be very good," O'Connor said. "I don't see it happening. Look what happened when they tried to expand Medicaid to all the states in the country."

The debate over health care underscores the difference between Clinton's campaign pitch as a pragmatic, effecitve leader and Sander's pitch as a candidate with vision.

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The Vermont senator explained why a government-run healthcare system would help people who are uninsured.

"That's what our campaign is about, it is thinking big," Sanders said at a primary debate earlier this month. Accomplishing goals like implementing single-payer health care (or "Medicare for all") is dependent on reducing the influence of big corporations, he argued. "Nothing real will get [done] unless we have a political revolution where millions of people finally stand up."

In that debate, Clinton stressed how difficult it is to stand up to the existing health insurance industry. But she also suggested there were other reasons the U.S. has yet to adopt a single-payer system.

"As someone who has a little bit of experience standing up to the health insurance industry, that spent, you know, many, many millions of dollars attacking me, and probably will so again... I think it's important to point out that there are a lot of reasons we have the health care system we have today," she said. "I know how much money influences the political decision-making... However, we started a system that had private health insurance."

Clinton has, of course, been pushing for health care reform for decades. Her point of view on a single-payer system has changed dramatically over the years.

In 1994, when advocating for comprehensive health care reform as first lady, Clinton told reporters that if Congress didn't pass a reform bill that year, the nation would eventually embrace a single-payer plan.

"If, for whatever reason, the Congress doesn't pass health care reform, I believe, and I may be to totally off base on this, but I believe that by the year 2000 we will have a single payer system," she said. " I don't even think it's a close call politically. I think the momentum for a single payer system will sweep the country... It will be such a huge popular issue... that even if it's not successful the first time, it will eventually be. "

CBS News' HannahFraser-Chanpong contributed to this report.

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Hillary Clinton Hits Trump for ‘Dropping In’ on Mexico

Hillary Clinton today used her first public event in nearly a week to bash Donald Trump for dropping in on Mexico, saying building relationships takes more than a photo op.

"You don't build a coalition by insulting our friends or acting like a loose cannon. You do it by putting in the slow, hard work of building relationships," the Democratic presidential nominee and former secretary of state said during remarks at the American Legion's national convention in Cincinnati, referring to her Republican opponent.

"Getting countries working together was my job every day as your secretary of state. It's more than a photo op. It takes consistency and reliability. Actually, it's just like building personal relationships. People have got to know that they can count on you, that you won't say one thing one day and something totally different the next.

"And," she added, "it certainly takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and then flying home again. That is not how it works."

Trump accepted an invitation from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Tuesday to meet today before Trump gives a speech on immigration tonight in Phoenix.

Clinton's campaign responded swiftly to news of the trip.

"What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions," Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement Tuesday.

The campaign confirmed that Clinton, too, has received an invitation to meet with Pena Nieto. Clinton, who last met with him in 2014, has yet to accept, but her campaign says she hopes to meet with him soon.

During her speech to the American Legion, she also hit Trump for his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and how Trump agreed when Putin criticized American exceptionalism.

"There's no question we face real threats and real enemies that we need to confront and defeat. My opponent is wrong when he says America is no longer great," Clinton said.

On the topic of Russia, she homed in on cybersecurity in light of recent hacks that her campaign believes were part of attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election.

"Russia has hacked into a lot of things. China has hacked into a lot of things. Russia even hacked into the Democratic National Committee," she said. "Maybe even some state election systems. So we've got to step up our game, make sure we're well defended and able to take the fight to those who go after us."

Clinton also told the veterans' organization that she will address the mental health of U.S. service members when they return home and make sure the families of fallen troops get the respect they deserve.

"I will never, ever disrespect Gold Star families who've made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Or prisoners of war who endured so much in our name. To insult them is just so wrong, and it says a lot about the person doing the insulting," she said, referring to Trump's attacks on the parents of slain U.S. soldier Humayun Khan after they appeared onstage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Trump will address the American Legion convention Thursday.

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Hillary Clinton Hits Trump for 'Dropping In' on Mexico

FBI releases Hillary Clinton interview notes – CNNPolitics.com

Clinton told the FBI she "could not recall any briefing or training by State related to the retention of federal records or handling classified information," according to the bureau's notes of their interview with Clinton. The documents indicate Clinton told investigators she either does not "recall" or "remember" at least 39 times often in response to questions about process, potential training or the content of specific emails.

Much of the report reiterated what FBI Director James Comey testified in open hearings before Congress, including that more than six dozen email chains contained classified information at the time they were sent and that there appeared to have been hacking attempts on her server, though there is no evidence they were successful. Still, the report added fuel to the criticisms of Clinton and the narrative that her team acted "extremely careless," as Comey said.

"Today the FBI is releasing a summary of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's July 2, 2016 interview with the FBI concerning allegations that classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on a personal e-mail server she used during her tenure," the agency said in a statement. "We also are releasing a factual summary of the FBI's investigation into this matter."

The publication of the FBI report is likely to give a new burst of political life to the controversy over Clinton's private server.

The episode plays directly into Republican claims that Clinton is dishonest, abhors transparency and lacks the ethical standards required of someone who sits in the Oval Office. It also allows Trump's campaign to suggest to voters that they will be setting up a repeat of the cycle of scandals, controversy, and investigations that dragged on through the entire presidency of Bill Clinton and which tainted Hillary Clinton at the same time.

"Clinton's reckless conduct and dishonest attempts to avoid accountability show she cannot be trusted with the presidency and its chief obligation as commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces," Trump campaign senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement following the report's release.

Clinton's campaign responded to the release of the FBI report saying they were "pleased."

"While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case," Clinton's national press secretary Brian Fallon said in a statement.

The FBI report also provided detail on mass deletions of Clinton's email server by the company maintaining her server, Platte River Networks, after the existence of it came to light.

According to the investigation report, top Clinton adviser Cheryl Mills told a PRN worker whose name was redacted in December 2014 that Clinton wanted her email to only be retained for 60 days, and instructed him to reset the retention policy on her email account.

But the individual told the FBI he realized that he had failed to do so until after The New York Times published its bombshell story revealing Clinton's private server and email use, prompting an "'oh s***' moment."

"In a follow-up FBI interview on May 3, 2016, (name redacted) indicated he believed he had an 'oh s***' moment and sometime between March 25-31, 2015, deleted the Clinton archive mailbox from the PRN server and used BleachBit to delete the exported .PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton's emails," the report stated.

The mass deletion occurred after the March 2, 2015, Times story and after a March 3, 2015, preservation order from the House Benghazi Committee to retain and produce documents related to her email accounts.

Mills had sent this request to PRN and this individual on March 9, 2015, and under repeat questioning by the FBI, the individual admitted he was aware that the request existed and meant he shouldn't disturb the files on PRN's server.

Both Mills and Clinton told the FBI they were not aware of the mass deletion that March.

One of the findings revealed in the report is that former Secretary of State Colin Powell "warned" Clinton that her emails could become government record in 2009.

According to the report summarizing the FBI's investigation, Clinton emailed Powell just after inauguration in 2009 about his use of a BlackBerry as secretary of state.

"Powell warned Clinton that if it became 'public' that Clinton had a BlackBerry, and she used it to 'do business,' her emails could become 'official record(s) and subject to the law,'" the report stated. "Powell further advised Clinton, 'Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.'"

But the FBI said Clinton described her understanding of Powell's comments as saying that work-related emails would be official record, adding "Powell's comments did not factor into her decision to use a personal email account."

Before it became public, interest in the contents of the report had intensified after it was reported that Clinton told the FBI a conversation with Powell recommending she use private email helped convince her to do so.

Powell repudiated the idea that he shares any responsibility for her choice in the following days, however, and Clinton told CNN's Anderson Cooper last month that she takes full responsibility.

"I've been asked many, many questions in the past year about emails. And what I've learned is that when I try to explain what happened it can sound like I'm trying to excuse what I did," she told CNN. "And there are no excuses. I want people to know that the decision to have a single e- mail account was mine. I take responsibility for it. I've apologized for it. I would certainly do differently if I could."

The report also described the way Clinton used her BlackBerry mobile devices. Clinton has cited her desire to use a single BlackBerry as part of her motivation to use a personal email address.

Clinton's aide Huma Abedin told the FBI that Clinton often would use a new BlackBerry for a few days before returning to an older model because of her familiarity, according to the report.

The FBI found that 13 different mobile devices were used with her two known phone numbers, and thus may have sent emails with her private account.

After Clinton switched to a new device, the previous incarnation would often disappear, and a former Bill Clinton aide, Justin Cooper, said he could recall two times he destroyed the old device either by breaking it in half or hitting it with a hammer.

The findings also noted that Clinton stored her BlackBerry in a desk drawer in her office, which was not authorized. Her office was in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), and thus the use of mobile devices in the office was prohibited.

The former Assistant Secretary of State for State Diplomatic Security Service Eric Boswell told the FBI that he "never received any complaints about Clinton using her personal BlackBerry inside the SCIF."

The notes revealed that Clinton relied heavily on her staff and aides to determine what was classified information and how it should be handled.

"Clinton did not recall receiving any emails she thought should not be on an unclassified system," the FBI notes said. "She relied on State official to use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address."

Clinton was also asked about the (C) markings within several documents that James Comey testified before Congress represented classified information. The emails that were sent and received from her server containing these markings became the subject of intense debate on the Hill, as her critics seized on them as evidence that she mishandled information.

But Clinton told the FBI she was unaware of what the marking meant.

"Clinton stated she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order," the interview notes stated.

The former secretary of state said she did understand when an email was marked "confidential" at the top, and "asked the interviewing agents if that was what 'c' referenced," according to the notes. The confidential label had been placed there by the FBI after the fact.

She also said she didn't "pay attention to the 'level' of classified information and took all classified information seriously."

"If they can't," Clinton replies, "turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure."

That email had been the fuel behind speculation that Cilnton had demanded her aide send classified information through a nonsecure channel by removing markings. But Clinton told the FBI that she understood the request as routine.

"Clinton thought a 'nonpaper' was a way to convey the unofficial stance of the US government to a foreign government and believed this practice went back '200 years,'" she said, according to interview notes. "When viewing the displayed email, Clinton believed she was asking Sullivan to remove the State letterhead and provide unclassified talking points. Clinton stated she had no intention to remove classification markings."

Comey in July took the unprecedented step of announcing in a press conference the FBI's conclusion that there was not enough evidence to merit a criminal prosecution, before handing over his findings to the Justice Department.

The DOJ followed that recommendation and decided no prosecution was merited.

After Comey testified about the decision before Congress, members requested access to his agency's report. Last month, the bureau gave members of Congress access to the notes, as well as notes from interviews with other Clinton staff and aides, but kept that version of the report classified.

Comey testified that no transcript of the interview exists, only the notes taken on it. Clinton was not under oath.

The FBI's release Friday did not include the notes of interviews with Clinton's aides.

CNN's Stephen Collinson, Josh Gaynor, Wes Bruer and Adam Levine contributed to this report.

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