State Dept.: Criticizing ‘E-mail Czar’ over Hillary Donation Undermines Democracy

KIRBY: "Guys, I just want to make one point real clear here. I mean, I get the sensitivity. But there's nothing wrong with a federal employee, or any other U.S. citizen making donations to campaigns -- I'm going to get you in a minute [indecipherable]. But this is an important point. This is the United States of America. It's a democracy. People are allowed to do this kind of thing. And to suggest that, that, just by dint of making a contribution to whatever political cause or campaign, that it disqualifies somebody from a job that they're taking on. And I remind you, this is a leader who has some four decades of experience and was retired -- and agreed to come back to serve the country once again.

"I think that's a very bad place for us to be. If we're going to start criticizing people for campaign contributions they make in their private time, in retirement no less. I just don't think that's where we want to be as a country. I just got done talking about our concerns in Turkey, and media freedoms, and civil society, and how we expect the Turks to live up to their core values and their democratic institutions. I think we need to do that here, too."
LEE: "No one's criticizing her for making a donation. If there's any criticism, it's directed at the State Department for choosing someone who has demonstrated a -- I don't want to say bias, but -- demonstrated a preference in a political candidate who happens to be at the very center of the issue she has been named to take on. That's the -- Whether she's the most appropriate person for the job is the question. No one's criticizing her donation to anyone."
KIRBY: "Well the implication was that because she had done this, she is somehow not supremely qualified --"
LEE: "--I don't think it's whether she's qualified or not, I think it's a question of whether the choice, given the donation, lends itself to the appearance of a conflict of interest."