Here’s a full transcript of the Clinton press conference, courtesy of Time.
We’ll draw our live coverage to a close here. Thanks for all your comments.
Updated
Here are Hillary Clinton’s opening remarks on the emails, courtesy of my colleague Jon Swaine:
I know there have been questions about my email, so I want to address that directly and then I will take a few questions from you. There are four things I want the public to know.
First, when I got to work as secretary of state I opted, for convenience, to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the state department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and my personal emails instead of two.
Looking back, it would have been better if I had simply used a second email account and carried a second phone. But at the time, this didn’t seem like an issue.
Second, the vast majority of my work emails went to government employees at their government addresses, which meant they were captured and preserved immediately on the system at the state department.
Third, after I left office, the state department asked former secretaries of state for our assistance in providing copies of work-related emails from our personal accounts. I responded right away and provided all my emails that could possibly be work-related, which totalled roughly 55,000 printed pages, even though I knew that the state department already had the vast majority of them.
We went through a thorough process to identify all my work-related emails and deliver them to the state department. At the end I chose not to keep my private, personal emails, emails about planning Chelsea’s wedding or my mother’s funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends, as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes. No one wants their personal emails made public. I think most people understand that and respect that privacy.
Fourth, I took the unprecedented step of asking that the state department make all my work-related emails public for everyone to see.
I am very proud of the work that I and my colleagues and our public servants did during my four years as secretary of state, and I look forward to people being able to see that for themselves.
Again, looking back, it would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two email accounts. But I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously it hasn’t worked out that way.
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Summary
Hillary Clinton has broken her silence on the controversy over her use of a private email account and private server during her time as secretary of state. Here is a summary of the press conference she gave at the UN in New York:
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She said she had deleted half the emails sent and received on the private account because they were personal. She gave the example of emails about her daughter’s wedding and those about her mother’s funeral. “No one wants their personal emails made public and I think most people understand that,” she said. She said it was every federal employee’s decision which were private and which were professional, but she erred on the side of deeming emails work-related.
- She said that the private server also contained personal communications from her husband, former president Bill Clinton, adding: “The server will remain private.” She defended using the server, saying it was on property guarded by the secret service and there were no security breaches.
- She said that in retrospect she should not have used a private email account but she had chosen to use one email account for both work and private mail for “convenience”. It would have been “smarter” to have used two devices, she said.
- She said she had fulfilled all obligations in turning emails over to the state department after they had been requested, and said she was also taking the unprecedented step of making them public.
- She also attacked the Republicans who wrote a letter to Iran that threatened the US could renege on any deal made with Barack Obama, saying the letter was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership. She said the purpose of the letter was either to help the Iranians or to hinder Obama. Either does discredit to the Republicans, she said.
With that she brings the press conference to a close.
Her private, deleted emails were “personal and private ... They had nothing to do with work. I didn’t see any reason to keep them.”
Why did she not go along with state department rules for a long period of time, and why has she caught the White House by surprise? And does this affect her decision about running for the presidency?
The laws when she was secretary of state allowed her to use her private email for work, she says.
She reiterates that she emailed everybody else at their .gov addresses, so these were “captured in the state department or any other government department that I was emailing to”.
The state department subsequently sent a letter to former secretaries of state asking for work-related emails on a personal email account, she says. She erred on the side of providing anything that could be connected to work.
That was my obligation - I fully fulfilled them and took the unprecedented step of making them public, she says.
She did not email classified material to anyone on her email, she says in answer to the next question.
How could the public be assured she did not delete professional but “unflattering” emails?
You would have to ask that question of every federal employee, she says. That is the way our system works. We trust and count on the judgment of thousands, maybe millions, of people to make those decisions.
She says she feels she went “above and beyond" what was required.
Was it appropriate for her to use a server she owned, and did she clear that with state officials? Did they have full access to it?
The system was set up for her husband’s office. It had numerous safeguards. It was on property guarded by the secret service and there were no security breaches, she says. It was “effective and secure”.
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Did she make a mistake in exclusively using the private email and in response to the controversy?
Looking back it would have been “smarter” to have used two devices, she reiterates. But she has confidence anything related to work is now in the possession of the state department.
Did you or aides delete any government emails and how can she prove that? Could an independent arbiter look at her server?
We did not, and we erred on the side of providing anything that could possibly be viewed as work-related, she says.
I have fulfilled my responsibility, she says. I have no doubt we have done exactly what we should have done.
We have more than met the request from the state department.
The server “contains personal communications from my husband and me” and “the server will remain private”.
How did she decide which of the personal emails to get rid of? And could she address the donations from regimes that are seen as anti-women to the Clinton Foundation?
On the emails, she says there were 60,000 in total sent and received - half work-related, half personal. Of the personal ones, “I had no reason to save them.” The guidelines are clear - it is every employee’s choice to determine which are personal.
Once the public sees the email they will have an unprecedented insight into a high government official’s working life.
She says she is proud of the Clinton Foundation and the work it does. We are very clear about where we stand on all of these issues, she says. There can’t be any mistake about my passion concerning women's rights at home and abroad, she says.
Clinton takes questions. Why did she use two email accounts? And if she was a man would this fuss be being made?
She will leave the second for others to answer.
John Kerry was the first secretary of state to rely primarily on a state.gov account, she says.
She repeats that it was her practice to communicate with other officials on their .gov account.
She notes that the state department is to begin to post some of her emails, which she says she is very glad about.
It would have been better to have used two separate phones and two accounts, she reiterates. She thought it would be simpler. It hasn't turned out that way.
She says she took the unprecedented step of making all her work-related emails public.
She provided 55,000 pages of emails when requested. She went through a thorough process - but she chose not to keep her private, personal emails - those on her daughter’s wedding, her mother’s funeral, for example. “No one wants their personal emails made public and I think most people understand that.”
She says most of her emails were to state department email addresses, so those were preserved.
Turning to the email issue, she said she used her personal emails for convenience when she started as secretary of state for “convenience”.
Looking back she should have used two, but at the time it didn't seem to be an issue.
She says want to comment on the Iran negotiations.
She says reasonable people can disagree with what it will take to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
But the recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership.
What was the purpose of the letter? Either to help the Iranians or hinder the commander in chief. Either does discredit to the Republicans.
This remains the great unfinished business of the 21st century, she says.
Clinton on walks past Guernica to press conference https://t.co/ciKFdE2zve
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
She marks the two decades since the international community gathered in Beijing and declared that women's rights are human rights.
Clinton begins by thanking the UN for putting the cause of gender equality “front and center".
Clinton press conference begins
Hillary Clinton enters to a wall of sound from the assembled cameras.
The media awaits (still) https://t.co/hG5qInGjdS
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
Looks like presser will start soon.
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
Clinton has just left conference room.
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
State department spokesperson Jen Psaki said she did not have a cost estimate for the review of the 55,000 pages of Clinton emails but that media reports that it would cost millions of dollars were overstated.
The emails would be released “in one batch” at the end of the State Department’s review, Psaki said, adding that it would release information on the actual website that will be used soon. The release also will include 300 reviewed emails requested by and already sent to the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on a US diplomatic facility in Libya, she said.
They will be redacted using freedom of information standards, she added, blocking any information related to national security, personal privacy, privilege and trade secrets.
The review, involving some 55,000 pages of electronic correspondence, is expected to take months, Psaki said.
Psaki said the department would soon release the text of its letter sent to other former secretaries of state, including Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, both of whom served under Republican president George W Bush.
“We will review the entire 55,000 page set [of emails] and release in one batch at the end of that review to make sure that standards are consistently applied,” Jen Psaki, the state department spokesperson, has said.
Presser due to take place next to the UN's replica of Picasso's Guernica: pic.twitter.com/oDCWcKKGIU
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
Being led to the room where Hillary will address the media. She's running late, apparently. pic.twitter.com/NHxTDGR4R8
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
Press awaiting Clinton: pic.twitter.com/VEgPydFtwa
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
There must be at least 100 journalists and cameramen in this press pack. It's absolutely packed full: pic.twitter.com/2bpNitubL6
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
The US State Department will make Clinton’s emails publicly available on a website after the department reviews them, a department spokeswoman has said.
The public release of those emails from Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state will follow freedom of information procedures and be redacted accordingly, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in a daily briefing.
Margaret Brennan of CBS writes:
It will take "several months" for @statedept to review @HillaryClinton's emails as they are sorted by hand; all to be posted to a website
— margaret brennan (@margbrennan) March 10, 2015
Updated
With that Clinton’s speech comes to a close. There’s an exodus in the gallery as reporters run to the press conference.
Clinton argues that “we can be gratified that we have stuck together as a world [on the issue of gender equality], that we have continued to make the case”
But she cites her time as secretary of state, when she reports other world leaders would “glaze over” when the issue was raised, as evidence there is more to do.
“There was a moment when I saw their eyes glazed over – counterparts around the world when discussing gender issue,” she states.
But she argues “that began to change” when the issue was directly linked to the economy.
Clinton now moves on to discuss the issues facing the gender equality movement today.
“We are not there yet,” she says on the issue. She cites statistics that one in three women are subjected to violence during the lifetime and criticised states, including India and China, which have passed laws to combat gender violence but have not properly implemented them.
She states that the “only way to achieve broad based growth... is to build economies that work for everyone and include everyone.”
She states that if the US close the gender gap in work force participation between men and women, the ecomony would grow by 10%
Clinton is now directly referencing her speech to the UN 20 years ago
“20 years later is not only [the] time to take stock,” she says, adding there is “a need to keep the ambition of Beijing alive”.
“All the evidence tells us that despite the obstacles that remain there’s never been a better time in history to be born a female,” Clinton continues.
Clinton thanks the secretary general for his leaderhip on the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
She says she addresses the conference at a “pivotal moment in the cause of gender equality,” and calls on the world to “build on promise of past...”
“Gender equality is not just morally right, but is the smart thing to do,” she says. Adding that the number of people around the world recognising the issue “is growing in numbers and may in some areas be reaching a critical mass.”
Ban Ki-moon is using his opening address to call on companies around the world to improve their gender equality criteria and go to greater lengths to record the levels of gender diversity on their boards.
“What gets measured gets done,” he says.
Clinton is now taking the stage.
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Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka the under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women issued the welcoming address to delegates and sent a particular welcome to Clinton, who she described as a “future president”.
The entire room erupted in applause.
UN secretary general Ban ki-Moon is now addressing the conference and also thanked Clinton for her leadership on the issue of female empowerment.
Organisers have just issued a release confirming that Clinton will hold a press conference immediately after her address. The press conference is due to begin at 2pm.
Hillary Clinton has just arrived and is taking her seat at the head of the conference next to the UN secretary general:
Hillary arrives: pic.twitter.com/KLnRLNOcyf
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
We’re hearing that Clinton is due to give a press conference after her speech wraps up here. It’s scheduled to start in five minutes but the conference is running behind already.
Outside the chamber a host of TV cameramen are lined up awaiting the presser. Organisers have not, however, confirmed the timing or location of the conference.
It’s likely Clinton will use the conference to address the ongoing controversy surrounding her use of a private email account throughout her tenure as Secretary of State.
As I mentioned in my opening post, Clinton’s speech today marks the twentieth annieversary of her landmark address to a UN conference in Beijing in 1995.
In that influential speech, she argued “it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights”.
Here’s a full video of the address:
I’m blogging in the ECOSOC chamber at the UN headquarters in New York. We’ve just been told that events are due to get under way in the next five minutes.
It’s buzzing in here and the hallways outside are absolutely packed full of people trying to get in.
Here’s a picture from the scene:
View from the press gallery at the UN. Waiting for Hillary with @Bencjacobs pic.twitter.com/nBCV0uj0bV
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) March 10, 2015
Hillary Clinton is to take questions from the press for the first time on Tuesday since the controversy broke over her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
The likely Democratic candidate for president was already due to speak at the Women’s Empowerment Principles annual event at the UN. She will now follow this with a press conference.
As my colleague Ben Jacobs reports here, thus far, the former secretary’s only public remarks about the row – under federal law, correspondence including emails to and from government officials must be preserved for history – have been in the form of a tweet.
I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 5, 2015
Clinton has not taken direct questions from the press since September last year.
On Monday evening an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 86% of potential Democractic primary voters said they could see themselves voting for Clinton, indicating a large level of support if she decided to run.
Clinton’s UN speech on Tuesday marks 20 years since her landmark speech given at a UN conference in Beijing. The then-first lady famously argued that “it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights”.
Clinton’s track record on women’s rights has, however, been criticized in recent days as donation records to her family’s foundation revealed the acceptance of tens of millions of dollars from states in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights are routinely violated.
I’ll cover the speech, and the press conference, live here.
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