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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton doubled down on defending her email practices as Secretary of State, arguing that the use of a personal account was allowed, and rules have since been clarified.

This report makes clear that personal email use was the practice for other secretaries of state, Clinton told ABC News in an interview in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was allowed. And the rules have been clarified since I left.

Yesterday, a report released by the State Departments Office of Inspector General said that Clinton shouldn't have used a private email server to conduct official business and would have not been allowed to do so had she asked. It also found that she should have turned over emails after her tenure and violated department policy.

She has faced the issue for more than a year as she battles to become the Democratic nominee.

Clinton explained why she did not cooperate with State Department investigators, despite repeatedly saying she would talk to anyone, anytime about her emails.

"I have talked about this for many, many months," she said. "I testified for 11 hours before the Benghazi committee. I have answered numerous questions. We have posted information on our website and the information that we had is out there. Its been clearly public and my email use was widely known throughout the department, throughout the government, and I have provided all of my work related emails, and Ive asked that they be made public."

Clinton has not been charged with a crime and her spokesman, Brian Fallon, said the former secretary's email use was in line with former secretaries of state. He also said that political opponents were using the report in a misleading way.

Ive said many times, if I could go back, I would do it differently," she told ABC News. "I know people have concerns about this.

Clinton also weighed in on a potential debate between Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump and her main rival, Bernie Sanders.

Well, I understood they said that was a joke, Clinton quipped, adding Im gonna look forward to debating Donald Trump.

In an interview on ABCs "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Trump said if he and Sanders had a one-on-one they would have high ratings.

The Vermont senator quickly responded on Twitter, writing, "Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary."

When asked if she has reached out to the Sanders campaign in an effort to unify the party, Clinton said both campaigns are certainly communicating.

I know that were both trying to do our best in the upcoming contest, but I have every reason to believe that after June 7th, we will begin to unify the Democratic party, Clinton said.

Clinton also opened the door to party concessions, saying she and Sanders are going to talk about everything.

Were gonna go into the convention unified, were gonna come out even more unified, and were going to defeat Donald Trump in November.

The Democratic front-runner also didn't dismiss the idea of changing her platform to a $15 minimum wage. "Were gonna have those conversations at the platform committee," she said. (Clinton is for a $12 federal min wage with $15 in some cities. Sanders is for $15 nationwide).

Back in April, Clinton told MSNBCs Rachel Maddow that she shouldnt need to make conditions for Sanders to support her. "I did not put down conditions," Clinton said. "I didn't say, 'You know what, if Senator Obama does x, y and z, maybe I'll support him."

ABCs Justin Fishel and Cecilia Vega contributed to this report.

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Hillary Clinton Doubles Down on Email Scandal, Saying 'It ...

The Inspector General's office said on May 25 that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email account was "not an appropriate method" for preserving those emails. (Peter Stevenson,Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

One of the two big dominoes in the Hillary Clinton email controversy toppled today: The State Departments inspector general released its report on the email practices of Clinton and a number of other past secretaries of state. (The other major domino is, of course, the FBI investigation into Clintons decision to exclusively use a private email server while serving as the nations top diplomat.)

The report, which you can read in its entirety here, badly complicates Clintons past explanations about the server and whether she complied fully with the laws in place governing electronic communication. And it virtually ensures that Clintons email practices will be front and center in Donald Trumps fusillade of attacks against her credibility and honesty between now and Nov. 8.

Heres the key passage from the Roz Helderman and Tom Hamburger articleon the report:

The inspector general, in a long-awaited review obtained Wednesday by The Washington Post in advance of its publication, found that Clintons use of private email for public business was not an appropriate method of preserving documents and that her practices failed to comply with department policies meant to ensure that federal record laws are followed.

The report says Clinton, who is the Democratic presidential front-runner, should have printed and saved her emails during her four years in office or surrendered her work-related correspondence immediately upon stepping down in February 2013. Instead, Clinton provided those records in December 2014, nearly two years after leaving office.

Clinton used an inappropriate method of preserving her documents. Her approach would not have been approved if it had been requested by a more junior member of the State Department staff. The report also suggests that despite a Clinton aides insistence that the method of preserving her emails had been submitted to a legal review back in 2010, there is no evidence that such a review took place. And, heres the kicker: Clinton refused to sit for a formal interview.

Oomph. Double oomph. Heck, that might merit a triple oomph.

The Clinton campaign will push back hard on this report as it hasagainst anything that suggests she was at all in the wrong inthe creation and protection of her email server. Here's how her press secretary, Brian Fallon, put it on Twitter:

Clintons team has spent months casting the State Department inspector generals office as overly aggressive and working hand in hand with congressional Republicans to cast the former secretary of state in the worst possible light.

Thats a very hard story to sell, given that the current inspector general was appointed by President Obama. Itis,by the way, the same problem Clinton faces when she tries to cast skepticism on the ongoing FBI investigation. This is an FBI that is overseen by an attorney general Loretta E. Lynch who was also appointed by Obama. Its tough to make the case that a Democratic administration filled with Democratic appointees are all somehow out to get the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Then there is the argument, which Fallon makes above, that Clinton was far from the first secretary of state to use less-than-airtight methods to ensure the preservation and security of her email correspondence. As the IG report makes clear, she wasnt. Again, Helderman and Hamburger:

The 83-page report reviews email practices by five secretaries of state and generally concludes that recordkeeping has been spotty for years.

It was particularly critical of former secretary of state Colin Powell who has acknowledged publicly that he used a personal email account to conduct business concluding that he too failed to follow department policy designed to comply with public-record laws.

There are two very important differences among Clinton, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, and former secretariesPowell and Condoleezza Rice when it comes to email practices.

The first is that Clinton is the first and, to date, only secretary of state to exclusively use a private email address and server to conduct her business as the nations top diplomat. All of the other names above maintained both a private and a government-issued email address. That alone doesnt make her guilty. But it does make her unique.

Second, Clinton is the only one of that group who is currently (a) running for president and (b) the very likely nominee for one of the countrys two major parties.

A spokesman for the State Department said May 25 that the department "could have done a better job" of preserving email records of former secretaries. The news conference comes after State Department inspector general criticized Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's email practices. (Reuters)

Because of her elevated status in our political world, she is and should be subject to more scrutiny than, say, Powell, who hasnt voiced an interest in running for president in 20 years. Thats particularly true because Clinton has put her time at State at the center of her argument for why she should be elected the 45th president of the United States. Look at what I have done and judge me by it, she says. That has to include the bad as well as the good.

This is a bad day for Clintons presidential campaign. Period. For a candidate already struggling to overcome a perception that she is neither honest nor trustworthy, the IG report makes that task significantly harder. No one will come out of this news cycle with the exception of the hardest of the hard-core Clinton people believing she is a better bet for the presidency on May 25 than she was on May 23.

Clinton remains blessed that Republicans are on the verge of nominating Donald Trump, a candidate whose numbers on honesty, trustworthiness and evenreadiness to lead are worse and in some cases, far worse than hers. But Trumps task of casting her as Crooked Hillary just got easier.

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Hillary Clintons email problems just got much worse - The ...

Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being Ive ever known in my life. Frank Sinatra, as Maj. Bennett Marco

His brain has not only been washed, as they say ... It has been dry-cleaned. Khigh Dhiegh, as Dr. Yen Lo

These lines from the 1962 classic film The Manchurian Candidate came to mind after I listened to President Obamas endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

The president said, I dont think theres ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.

Really? She would be equal to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and himself? Notice President Obama didnt say she is more qualified, because that would diminish him and when it comes to narcissism, Obama and the Clintons make Donald Trump look like a shrinking violet.

In his effusive praise of Hillary Clinton, the president did not mention any specific accomplishments that might qualify her for the office. That is because there are none. There is a lot of symbolism, of course, but no substantive results as secretary of state, an unremarkable single term as a senator from New York, and eight years as first lady when, in 1993, she couldnt get the Clintons health reform legislation through a majority Democratic Congress. There is, however, a long list of dubious and possibly criminal achievements.

Besides the questions surrounding Clintons use of a private server and whether secret government documents were compromised and possibly hacked by Americas adversaries, there is another issue the major media have completely ignored.

It involves an institution known as Laureate Education, the parent company of Walden University, an online, for-profit school, which in its practices, critics of Trump University might say sounds like the allegations made against that school. Several students at Walden claimed to have been repeatedly delayed and given added costs as they tried to obtain their degrees, leaving them in considerable debt. A lawsuit was filed by the students, but a spokesperson for Walden told me the suits were resolved and the students have re-enrolled.

Bill Clinton was paid an obscene $16.5 million between 2010 and 2014 to serve as an honorary chancellor for Laureate International Universities.

With the Clintons, the money tree never ceases bearing fruit. Are people seeking to buy influence with this amount of cash, or do they just like Bill and Hillary?

The major media mainly ignore such things because they function largely as an auxiliary to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

This and many other things from what conservative critics call the Clinton crime foundation ought to be red meat for Donald Trump. He should ask why the media are engaging in a near total blackout of Laureate Education and the enormous flow of money to the Clintons and their foundation from governments, institutions and individuals.

Speaking of qualifications, perhaps no president, or presidential candidate, has been bought and paid for more than Hillary Clinton. She comes to this contest not with a long list of accomplishments, but with a trail of receipts and IOUs. If she becomes president, donors might reasonably be expected to collect on their investment.

Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated op-ed columnist. He joined Fox News Channel in 1997 as a political contributor.His latest book is "What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America" is available in bookstores now. Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.

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Hillary Clinton: The most qualified? | Fox News

BARCELONA Hillary Clinton is too weak and her conclusions after Sundays terror attack in Orlando too timid to be our next president.

Monday, the presumptive Democratic nominee labeled the radical Islamic terrorist who attacked an Orlando nightclub A madman filled with hate, with guns in his hands and just a horrible sense of vengeance and vindictiveness in his heart, apparently consumed by rage against LGBT Americans and by extension, the openness and diversity that defines our American way of life.

The former secretary of state has incredibly bad judgement: she missed the rise of Russia and laughingly pushed a reset button on our strategy to isolate them; she reviewed the intelligence on Boko Haram and decided against putting the group on the terrorist watch list, she was unwilling to stop ISIS in Syria before they began to take hold, and she now diminishes the Orlando terrorist attack to a simple and tragic instance of gay hate.

Radical Islam isnt going to stop attacking us because of a shaming campaign labeling them mean people by Hillary Clinton and her supporters.

She talks of unity and prayers, albeit important messages, but is unable to offer serious government action. While listing the survivors names and occupations, calling the Orlando mayor, and thanking the first responders for their efforts is sweet, it isnt going to stop the growing terrorist threat we face in the U.S.

It is the goal of the terrorists to attack anyone they believe to be apostates.

Hillary doesnt get that. She talks of unity and prayers, albeit important messages, but is unable to offer serious government action. While listing the survivors names and occupations, calling the Orlando mayor, and thanking the first responders for their efforts is sweet, it isnt going to stop the growing terrorist threat we face in the U.S.

The Orlando attacker pledged his allegiance to the caliphate and it is clear that more people will do the same. Every American woman and man who acts Western are targets. Gays are not separate from this agenda. This is the real war on women. This is the real war on gays. This is a war on the West.

As Secretary of State Clinton missed this growing war with Islamic radicals. Her tenure as Barack Obamas lead diplomat saw the Arab Spring turn into the Islamic Awakening. And she was ill-equipped to stop it.

She failed to respond quickly and forcefully enough against ISIS when she was in charge, and that led to her presiding over the growth of ISIS and Boko Haram. It is troubling to hear her now support the exact same strategy weve been pushing for years with our 63 coalition partners one that has failed to even take out the command and control center of ISIS.

Clinton also reacted to the terrorist attack in Orlando with the typical liberal political suggestion of more gun control policies. Her judgement during and after a crisis should be a serious concern for all Americans. She failed to see that the Orlando attacker not only went through a background check but had also been investigated by the FBI. If an FBI investigation isnt going to catch a terrorist before they act, then an increased background check is a weak and insufficient response.

The fact is that the FBI was suspicious of the Orlando attacker months ago. They were investigating him. But since he didnt have a prior arrest record, the politically correct mob demanded that law enforcement agencies leave him alone. Hillary has even mocked policies that push to follow Muslims on suspicions of threats. So while she calls for more action, she ridicules the very thing that could stop the attacks.

Hillarys call Monday to, keep the pressure on ramping up the air campaign, accelerating support for our friends fighting to take and hold ground, and pushing our partners in the region to do even more is a weak, stay-the-course response to a frightening trend.

In other words, she suggests we hug our neighbor and hope that others do something more.

Richard Grenell is a Fox News Contributor. He served as the spokesman for four U.S. Ambassadors to the U.N. including John Negroponte, John Danforth, John Bolton and Zalmay Khalilzad. Follow him on Twitter@Richard Grenell..

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Hillary Clinton's response to Orlando proves she's too weak ...

The protesters began chanting "black lives matter" a few minutes into her speech.

At first, the former secretary of state acknowledged them: "Yes they do and I'm gonna talk a lot about that in a minute," she said.

She then tried ignoring the protesters, shouting her remarks over the chants.

"I have some issues to discuss and proposals to make if our friends will allow me to do it. They may actually find them to their liking," Clinton said, while continuing to speak over the disruption, one of the loudest she had faced on the campaign trail.

As the protests continued, Clinton supporters began chanting "Let her talk, Let her talk." Others chanted, "Hillary! Hillary" very loudly, seemingly to drown out the protesters.

Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who had introduced Clinton just minutes before, personally tried to break up the protests, putting his hands on the shoulders of the protesters and speaking with them.

That effectively quelled the protesters, who were escorted out shortly after the uproar.

Friday evening, #AUCShutItDown, an Atlanta-based group affiliated with Black Lives Matter, said in a statement that they protested Clinton's event so they could press her to directly address issues facing the African-American community, particularly in regard to policing.

"Unfortunately, rhetoric DOES NOT save us, nor does it give confidence to black voters that we can trust Hillary to prioritize the necessity of ensuring our safety," the group said. "We've been waiting for weeks to see the platform that addresses these issues from Hillary Clinton's campaign. We will wait no more."

Clinton went on finishing her speech -- which focused on criminal justice reform and race -- to sizable applause from the crowd.

"I am glad the congressman and the mayor have my back," she said, acknowledging that Lewis and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed had joined her on stage.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said the candidate would not meet with the protesters.

After walking off stage, Clinton was met by LaDavia Drane, her director of African-American outreach.

"It's always an adventure," Clinton proclaimed.

Speaking to CNN after the event, Lewis said he believes the protesters "represent another time, another period."

"It is unfortunate that they didn't listen to the secretary," he added.

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Hillary Clinton protested by Black Lives Matter