Clinton denies sending classified emails

CLEAR LAKE - In the wake of a new report about her use of a personal email server while she served as U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Clinton on Friday reiterated her assertion that she neither sent nor received materials on the server that were deemed classified at the time.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, talked about the emails during an interview with the Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau before Friday night's Wing Ding, a local party fundraiser.

Earlier Friday, an Associated Press report said an email that then-Secretary of State Clinton received on her personal email server contained no material from classified documents, but a conversation that possibly points back to highly classified material.

'I never sent or received any email that was deemed classified, that was marked classified,” Clinton said when asked whether she could recall receiving any emails that contained conversations that may have referenced classified material.

'What's happening now is a common process, although people are concerned about it,” she said. 'When you make emails public, which I asked for, to be honest - when you make emails public, then other agencies get to weigh in, and they say, ‘That should have been (classified), that could have been, that would have been.' But it wasn't, and the State Department has verified that.”

As federal agencies and the media pore over the tens of thousands of emails released from Clinton's server, more stories such as Friday's could emerge in coming weeks.

Clinton said she is not concerned any potential news will damage her campaign.

'If anybody's looking for some big secret, they're not going to find it there. That's not how classified material is handled. There are two separate systems,” Clinton said. 'Even people who know a lot about this say it didn't happen, so I'm not really worried about it. …

'I feel very confident that this will, like so many of these things, burn itself out because there's just nothing to be concerned about.”

Clinton remains a strong frontrunner in the Democratic primary race, but some recent polls have contained red flags on her perceived trustworthiness, a possible effect of the email issue.

In a CNN/ORC poll published this week, 28 percent of potential Democratic caucusgoers said they think Clinton is the most honest and trustworthy candidate. That came after a July 30 Quinnipiac University national poll found 57 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, 'Clinton is not honest and trustworthy,” while 37 percent disagreed.

'Well, I don't like reading that,” Clinton said. 'But I am confident that by the end of this campaign, as we go into the caucuses on Feb. 1, then the primaries that follow in New Hampshire and South Carolina, that people are going to know where I stand, and they're going to know I'm on their side, and they're going to know that I'm fighting to reshuffle the deck so that it is not stacked for those who are on top.”

Clinton this week unveiled her plan to address college affordability, a popular issue for Democrats.

Clinton's plan would attempt to tackle the country's $1.2 trillion in student debt by providing grants to states to ensure students do not have to take out loans to pay for college and by creating new refinancing options for those already saddled with debt.

To pay for the $350 billion package, Clinton - who calls student debt and college affordability economic issues - would cap tax deductions of wealthy Americans.

The plan already has met with resistance from Republicans, who call it another big government, tax-and-spend measure.

'First of all, we're going back to where it was capped when Ronald Reagan was president. And it didn't bother a lot of folks on the other side of the aisle when it was pursued back then,” Clinton said. 'But also, look, we need to start making investments. And the most important investments are in our young people. And the people at the top have been greatly advantaged in the last years.

'We need to start unstacking the deck and begin to pay attention to how we help the great majority of Americans who deserve a break. That's a fight I'm willing to have. Capping deductions for people really well off versus making college affordable and getting the debt load down: I think that's the kind of contrast that people are going to respond to.”

During the interview, Clinton also fielded questions about reports that Vice President Joe Biden is considering entering the race, saying she thinks Biden will make a decision that is best for him, and she welcomes a competitive primary.

Clinton also declined to join the criticism by some Democrats, including candidate Martin O'Malley, who have said there should be more than the six primary debates scheduled by the national party. The first is not until Oct. 13.

'I think there's a small number of candidates, we're all working really hard to get around the early states and the rest of the country,” Clinton said. 'I'll show up when the debates are held and make my views known.”