Dems Criticize Lynch-Bill Clinton Meeting as Sending 'Wrong Signal'

Democrats aren't happy about the "wrong signal" telegraphed by a private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch — who's overseeing the probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server — and Bill Clinton.

In a rare rebuke of the presumptive nominee by a member of her own party, Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons sharply criticized the meeting between the prosecutor and former president.

"I don't think it sends the right signal," he tells CNN's "New Day" program in an interview Thursday. "I think she should have steered clear even of a brief, casual, social meeting with the former president."

David Axelord, a former adviser to both Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, was even more pointed, calling the meeting "foolish."

I take @LorettaLynch & @billclinton at their word that their convo in Phoenix didn't touch on probe. But foolish to create such optics.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) June 30, 2016

Lynch has explained she and the former president talked about grandchildren, and described the meeting as "primarily social."

She also denied discussion the email probe or House Benghazi panel's investigation, which was released the day after their meeting.

Another ex-adviser to Bill Clinton, pollster Doug Schoen, tells Fox News the former president "was in his own way taking the temperature of the attorney general, not alleging that there was any impropriety."

But, he adds, "given the timing, this was a meeting that probably best shouldn't have been held."

Coons, as well, said he thinks Lynch "has generally shown excellent judgment and strong leadership of the department, and I'm convinced that she's an independent attorney general."

"But I do think that this meeting sends the wrong signal," he asserted.

Two other top Democrats rushed to Lynch's defense.

"No one can ever question [Lynch's] strong feelings about the rule of the law. And her ethics, I repeat, are the best," declared Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Politico reports.

Added New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer; "She has said nothing was discussed related to the investigation. So you have two choices: to say this didn't matter or that she's lying. I think that it didn't matter. I don't think she lying."