Hillary Clinton defends personal email use: I didn't want to carry two phones

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In her first public comments on the percolating controversy that has upended her presumed presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said she used only a personal email account while serving as secretary of state because she did not want to carry two devices and instead "opted for convenience."

Pushing back on questions that she may have skirted record-keeping rules, Clinton said she "went above and beyond" what was required of her and "erred on the side of providing anything that could be possibly viewed as work-related" to the State Department. Of the 60,000 emails sent or received by the account during her tenure, Clinton said about half were personal and would remain private.

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"Looking back, it would have been better if I simply used a second email account," she said.

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.