Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Saturday that Hillary Clinton's lengthy meeting with the FBI in the email probe reinforced "her central role in deliberately creating a culture which put her own political ambitions above State Department rules and jeopardized our national security."
"Hillary Clinton has just taken the unprecedented step of becoming the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the FBI as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct," Priebus said.
"In over 2,000 emails, Clinton's decision exposed classified information, including 22 that included top secret intelligence, just so she could skirt transparency laws in order to hide her shady dealings as secretary of state.
"When you factor in Clinton directed this server be established to cover up the tangled web of donors, State Department actions and her family foundation, we must ask ourselves if this is the kind of leadership we want in the White House," the chairman said in a statement.
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee,
met with FBI investigators for three and a half hours in the probe on the use of a private server she kept in her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., during her four years as the nation's top diplomat.
The inquiry continues to fuel questions about Clinton's viability as a presidential candidate — and her campaign has tried to play down the investigation as a distraction.
The interview also came the same week as the special House Benghazi Committee released its 800-page report on the 2012 Libyan attacks that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two former Navy SEALs.
The assaults occurred on Clinton's watch at the State Department.
"Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement.
Clinton would not comment further on her interview, he said.
In his statement, Priebus also referenced Monday's meeting former
President Bill Clinton had with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her private plane on the tarmac at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.
The Benghazi report was released the next morning.
"The American people need to have confidence that the Obama Justice Department is conducting a fair and impartial investigation, but when the attorney general meets secretly with Bill Clinton just days before Hillary’s interrogation is conducted discreetly over a holiday weekend, it raises serious concerns about special treatment," Priebus said.
"Others have lost their security clearances, their jobs, or even gone to jail for doing far less — and Clinton needs to be held to the same standard as everyone else," he said.
RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer also tweeted about Clinton's meeting: