--- title: Bill Clinton Says Clinton Email Scandal Is GOP 'Catnip' description: "that is catnip to the people who get bored talking about 'what's your position on student loan relief,'" Clinton says canonical: https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-26T19:29:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:32:08.342Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bill Clinton Says Media Is Overhyping Hillary Email Scandal og:description: "that is catnip to the people who get bored talking about 'what's your position on student loan relief,'" Clinton says og:url: https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc3a07790a432ce9/698865b00a4a2205409c6479/bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Starkey Hearing Foundation 2015 So The World May Hear Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Clinton Says Media Is Overhyping Hillary Email Scandal twitter:description: "that is catnip to the people who get bored talking about 'what's your position on student loan relief,'" Clinton says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc3a07790a432ce9/698865b00a4a2205409c6479/bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Clinton Says Media Is Overhyping Hillary Email Scandal > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=45af460f-511c-411d-83f8-3cb8e545339a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Email Chain Brings Up Questions Over Clinton's Server [Watch (HLS stream): Email Chain Brings Up Questions Over Clinton's Server](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YSU0sl70.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2015-09-26. Email Chain Brings Up Questions Over Clinton's Server_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 26, 2015 7:29 PM UTC Email Chain Brings Up Questions Over Clinton's Server by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 26, 2015 7:29 PM UTC Former President Bill Clinton called the controversy surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email address and server while in office “[catnip](http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/25/politics/bill-clinton-fareed-zakaria-donald-trump-interview/)” for Republicans in an interview released Saturday. “The other party doesn’t want to run against her and if they do they want her as mangled up as possible,” Clinton told [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/25/politics/bill-clinton-fareed-zakaria-donald-trump-interview/)‘s Fareed Zakaria. “They know that if they leak things and say things they know that that is catnip to the people who get bored talking about ‘what’s your position on student loan relief.'” Clinton told Zakaria that the scandals surrounding his wife, who is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for President, is reminiscent of trouble he faced when he sought the nomination in 1991\. Clinton said when he ran, the George H.W. Bush administration reached out to warn him not to seek the Presidency. “The press has to have somebody every election—we’re going to give them you. You better not run,” he said they told him. The 42nd president went on to praise some members of the media for trying to debunk the controversy surrounding his wife. “There have been a shocking number of really reputable press people who have explained how you can’t receive or transmit classified information, how the government has no central authority for classification and that Defense, State and the intelligence agencies have their own,” Clinton said. The full interview will air [Sunday at 10a.m](http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/25/politics/bill-clinton-fareed-zakaria-donald-trump-interview/). ## Transcript [00:00] The latest batch of Hilary Clinton's emails aren't even [00:02] out, and there's already some more controversy. This [00:05] latest ding for Clinton is the discovery of an exchange [00:07] with David Petraeus, who was in charge of the US [00:10] Central Command at the time. While the content of the [00:12] emails is relatively mundane enough, [ MUSIC ] CNN [00:14] reports that it was simply Petraeus and Clinton getting [00:17] to know each other, the problem here is with timing. [00:19] Clinton's camp says she only started using her private [00:22] email server, HDR22 @ clintonemail. com in March [00:26] 2009. Before that she used an account she no longer [00:29] has access to. She's also, under oath, that she's given [00:32] up all of her work related emails during her time as [00:35] Secretary of State, but this email chain was from [00:37] January 10, 2009 to February 1, 2009 and some of [00:41] her later emails when her HDR22Clinton email account. [00:44] For some this Could make her March 2009 claim [00:48] slightly more murky. The revelation likely won't help [00:51] Clinton's campaign, which has been dogged by her [00:54] email. That was a mistake, I'm sorry about that, I take [00:58] responsiblity. I'm trying to be as transparent as I [01:00] possibly can. Her Press Secretary Brian Fallen [01:03] responded to the news saying we always said the [01:05] emails given to State dated back only to March '09. [01:09] That was when she started using clintonemail. com. [01:11] The latest batch of Clinton emails will be released at [01:13] the end of September. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/"},"headline":"Bill Clinton Says Media Is Overhyping Hillary Email Scandal","datePublished":"2015-09-26T19:29:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:32:08.342Z","description":"\"That is catnip to the people who get bored talking about 'what's your position on student loan relief,'\" Clinton says","url":"https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Bill Clinton","hillary clinton emails","Democrats 2016","2016 Democrats"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc3a07790a432ce9/698865b00a4a2205409c6479/bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc3a07790a432ce9/698865b00a4a2205409c6479/bill-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Starkey Hearing Foundation 2015 So The World May Hear Gala","caption":"Starkey Hearing Foundation 2015 So The World May Hear Gala","creditText":"Adam Bettcher—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/","name":"Bill Clinton Says Media Is Overhyping Hillary Email Scandal"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Email Chain Brings Up Questions Over Clinton's Server","description":"Email Chain Brings Up Questions Over Clinton's Server","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YSU0sl70/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-26T17:13:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YSU0sl70.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/","duration":"PT1M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4051197/bill-clinton-hillary-email-scandal/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```