Hill Republicans blast Clinton’s email explanation

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill expressed incredulity Tuesday at Hillary Clinton’s explanation regarding her use of a personal email account during her tenure as secretary of state, with one GOP congressman calling her remarks “not plausible.”

In making her first public comments since the scandal broke last week, Clinton, a potential candidate for the presidency in 2016, acknowledged that it “would have been better” to have used an official government account — but said she used the personal one as a “matter of convenience.”

She also briefly addressed her use of a private email server, but said it contains personal communications between her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and vowed to keep it private.

Clinton made her remarks Tuesday afternoon at the United Nations following an event on women’s empowerment.

But if Clinton’s goal was to calm the controversy, she was apparently unsuccessful.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the press conference “raised more questions than it answered.”

“Secretary Clinton didn’t hand over her emails out of the goodness of her heart – she was forced to by smart, determined, and effective oversight by the House Select Committee on Benghazi,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. “The American people deserve the truth.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., head of the House Benghazi committee seeking her emails, also said there were unanswered questions, and said Clinton would be called to appear before the committee to discuss her role on the night of the 2012 attack and her use of a personal email account while serving as secretary of state.

“If possible, I have more questions now than I did this time yesterday,” Gowdy told Greta Van Susteren Tuesday on “On the Record.”

“I have no interest in her yoga routine. Trust me,” Gowdy said, a reference to one of Clinton’s descriptions about the contents of her personal emails. “I have no interest in that. But I have every interest in public record, whether it’s related to Libya or not, and I have no interest in her personal attorney determining what is a public record and what is not a public record.”

Gowdy said he wants to see Clinton turn her server over to a third-party arbiter who can determine which documents should be public and which should remain private.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., called Clinton’s explanation’s “not plausible.”

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