--- 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: 2026-08-19T07:47:04.230Z 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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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 26, 2015 7:29 PM UTC  Bill Clinton in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 26, 2015. Bill Clinton in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 26, 2015. Adam Bettcher—Getty Images 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/). ```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":"2026-08-19T07:47:04.230Z","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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/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"}}]}] ```