‘Can We Say Definitively That Statement Is Not Accurate?’: Fox News Host Grills Clinton on Emails

Hillary Clinton was pressed Monday during a Fox News town hall over whether she emailed classified information as secretary of state using her private home server.

Host Bret Baier asked the Democratic front-runner a series of rapid fire questions about the issue, noting she "chose not to answer the email part" during Sunday's debate.

"I've heard Others say that neither you nor your lawyers had been apprised that you are a target of the investigation. Is that true?" he asked.

"Absolutely true," Clinton replied.

"Have you or your lawyers been apprised that any members of your current or former staff are targets of the investigation?" Baier asked.

"Absolutely not," Clinton answered.

"At the time you and your staff deleted nearly 32,000 emails, about half of the total volume, were you aware that the server was going to be sought as evidence by federal authorities?" Baier asked.

"No, but let me clarify this," Clinton said before arguing that "nothing I sent was marked classified."

"And specifically, with respect to your question, every government official, and this is a legal theory -- not just a theory, it's a legal rule, gets to choose what is personal and what is it official," she added.

"Sure, but there were some that were just recently discovered and turned over," Baier said.

"No, that was in the State Department, not in me. I've turned over everything," Clinton fired back.

Baier continued to press her on the email issue.

"Let me just clarify, the State Department has redacted and declared 2,101 of your work emails classified, at least at the confidential level, 44 classified as secret, 22 classified as top secret. So you said at a March press conference in 2015: 'I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.' So can we say definitively that that statement is not accurate?" he asked.

"No, you can't," Clinton said, contending the information was classified after she sent or received it.

"So your contention now is the 2,101 emails contained information that shouldn't be classified at any time, they should be — now or then, you're just saying it shouldn't have been classified?" Baier asked.

"Well, what I'm saying is, it wasn't at the time," Clinton said. "Now if you — let's take Mary Smith who has some information in the government. And she is FOIAed, Freedom of Information Act, give us your information, your memos, your emails, whatever it might have been. That then goes through a process. So even though the agency she works in has none of this is classified, others start to have a chance to weigh-in. So others might say, you know, that wasn't at the time, but now with circumstances, we don't want to release it, so, therefore, we have to classify it."

"I've asked ... release it, and once the American people see it, they will know how absurd this is," Clinton added.

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