President Clinton isn’t buying into the scandal swirling around his wife’s use of personal emails during her time as Secretary of State.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the 42nd President of the United States said the controversy is merely “catnip” that the Republican Party is tossing at his wife in order to distract voters from the real issues like student loan debt, income inequality, mental health care and more.
“I actually am amazed she’s borne up under it as well as she has; I’ve never seen so much expended on so little,” Clinton said.
He also pointed blame at the media, which the former president suggested has a knack for picking a candidate to target.
“The press has to have somebody every election — we’re going to give them you. You better not run,” he said, recounting a phone call he received from the George H. W. Bush administration in 1992, warning him not to run for president.
Clinton credited some in the media: “There have been a shocking number of really reputable press people who have explained how you can’t receive or transmit classified information, how the government has no central authority for classification and that Defense, State and the intelligence agencies have their own.”
He concluded: “I mean, there have been a lot of really fine things. It’s just that they don’t seem to show up on television very much. And it is what it is.”
Clinton’s full interview with Zakaria will air on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET.