Donald Trump made a bold move during the first half hour of Sunday night’s presidential debate, declaring that if he is elected, he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.
“I didn’t think I was going to say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it, but if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception,” Trump said to his opponent’s face. “There has never been anything like it. We’re going to have a special prosecutor.”
Trump’s declaration came in response to Clinton’s call for Trump to apologize. The Democratic nominee noted Trump never apologized for his past remarks about the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, Judge Gonzalo Curiel of Indiana or the “racist lie” that President Obama was not born in the United States.
“He owes the president an apology, he owes the country an apology, and I want him to take responsibility for his actions and his words,” Clinton said.
Trump responded first by saying Clinton is the one who owes Obama an apology, because her 2008 presidential campaign first looked into whether Obama was eligible to be president. Then he pivoted to the ubiquitous email scandal.
“But when you talk about apology, I think the one you should really be apologizing for and the thing that you should be apologizing for are the 33,000 emails that you deleted and you acid washed, and then the two boxes of emails and other things last week that were taken from an office and are now missing,” Trump charged.
Trump said people he speaks to around the country are furious about Clinton’s destruction of her emails – after those emails had been subpoenaed, no less.
“So we’re going to get a special prosecutor and we’re going to look into it, because you know what?” Trump asked. “People have been destroyed, their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you have done. It’s a disgrace, and honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself.”