Hillary Clinton slammed Donald Trump and issued a strong defense of the Clinton Foundation Wednesday amid the Republican nominee’s claims that she used public office for personal gain.
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in her first national news interview in nearly a month, Clinton pushed back against Trump’s accusations and issued perhaps her most succinct answers on her use of a private email server during her time leading the State Department.
“What Trump has said is ridiculous,” Clinton said. “My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policy decisions based on what I thought was right.”
She added: “I know there’s a lot of smoke, and there’s no fire.”
Trump has recently upped his attacks on Clinton and her family’s namesake foundation, saying that foreign governments and business leaders gave primarily to get something in return.
“It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins,” Trump said Tuesday night at a rally in Austin, Texas. “The specific crimes committed to carry out that enterprise are too numerous to cover in this speech.”
Clinton has reportedly told FBI investigators that her use of the private server was inspired by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has pushed back against the suggestion, saying, “her people have been trying to pin it on me.”
Cooper asked the Democratic nominee about the disparity in the two former diplomats’ claims.
“I am not going to relitigate in public my private conversation with him,” Clinton replied. “I have been asked many, many questions in the past year about emails and what I have learned is that when I try to explain what happened, it can sound like I am trying to excuse what I did. And there are no excuses. I want people to know that the decision to have a single email account was mine. I take responsibly for it. I apologize for it. I would certainly do differently if I could.”
Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has laid out some steps the foundation will take if his wife wins. It will only accept donations from US citizens, legal residents and US-based independent foundations, and the 42nd president will step down from the board and stop fundraising.
Asked by Cooper about why more protections are needed with the foundation if she becomes president rather than her time leading the State Department, Hillary Clinton claimed she “went above and beyond anything that was required” legally while at State.
“Obviously, if I was president, there will be some unique circumstances,” Clinton said.
