Hillary Clinton admits it ‘would have been better’ to use official government email as Secretary of State

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deleted approximately half of the emails she sent and received during her tenure in the Obama administration, she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

While speaking at the United Nations in New York Tuesday, Clinton finally addressed the controversy surrounding her use of a private email address during her time at the State Department.

“Looking back, it would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two separate email accounts,” Clinton said, adding that she opted for using the personal email as a “matter of convenience.”

Clinton attempted to address questions of transparency and security at the press conference, which she held after delivering a speech on gender equality.

She said she deleted nearly 30,000 emails she deemed “personal” — which she said contained information about things like family vacations, planning for her daughter’s wedding, and yoga. She said she turned over all of the work-related emails from her time at the Department of State.

But the determination over what was “personal” and what was work-related was left to her, she admitted. She defended this by saying that “anything that could be in any way connected” to official government business was turned over.

“I have absolute confidence that anything that could be in any way connected to work is in the possession of the State Department,” Clinton said.

She added: “No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy.”

Clinton also said she never emailed any classified material through her personal email. She didn’t say if anything classified was ever emailed to her.

She said the email server she used was originally set up for her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during his time in the White House. She said the server is secure, noting that it was on their property in Chappaqua, New York, and was guarded by members of the Secret Service.

“The server,” she said, “will remain private.”

Brett LoGiurato is the senior national political correspondent at Fusion, where he covers all things 2016. He’ll give you everything you need to know about politics, with a healthy side of puns.