Hillary Clinton parries aggressive debate question on her email server

Hillary Clinton answers a question about her email servers

(Image credit: Gaston De Cardenas/AFP/Getty Images)

At Wednesday's CNN/Univision Democratic debate, Jorge Ramos hit Hillary Clinton with a rapid series of questions about the private email server she used as secretary of state, including who gave her permission to use private email. Clinton repeated that it was a mistake not to use her government server. "It wasn't the best choice," she said. "It wasn't prohibited, it wasn't in any way disallowed."

Ramos pressed: "But who gave you permission?" Clinton said that her predecessor, Colin Powell, had similarly used a private email address, and also been hit with retroactively classified emails. "There was no permission to be asked," she said. "It was permitted." Ramos asked again if she would drop out of the race if the FBI indicted her over the emails. "Oh my goodness, that is not going to happen," Clinton said. "I'm not even going to answer that question." Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.