“It was wrong.”  That’s what former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct official business when she was secretary of state.

During an appearance on Face the State on WFSB-TV (CBS Hartford) this morning, Lieberman, a former prosecutor and one time Connecticut attorney general, talked about the Benghazi attacks which he investigated in his final year in the senate.  He told me they didn’t get much information from the State Department then, but he said the current congressional committee probing Benghazi should have access to more information, including Clinton’s emails.

Lieberman feels an independent party should review Clinton’s server.    “It is important.  An ambassador and other Americans were killed. What lessons do you learn to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Part of it is the private email trail that went on here.” 

Lieberman met Clinton and her husband when the two were students at Yale University Law School and said he found her to be trustworthy, but now “she has to over time to re-convince people that they can believe in her her. That’s what they want in a president.”

The former Connecticut attorney general turned senator also talked about his new role as co-chair of the non-partisan No Labels organization and was asked about the current primary system, of which our state seems to be left out of.   “It’s really not fair…Iowa and New Hampshire have disproportionate influence.”    Connecticut’s primary is scheduled for the end of April 2016, nearly three months after the two states Lieberman mentioned.  In 2012, candidates came here for fundraisers, but there were no campaign events.

We also talked about Lieberman’s place in history as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in the hotly contested Election of 2000, which was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.   Lieberman proudly rattles the number of votes he and Al Gore beat the Bush-Cheney ticket by, and I asked him how the course of history might have been altered had his team won the White House.     “I don’t think we would have gone into Iraq.” 

Watch the interview right here:

Part 1: http://www.wfsb.com/clip/13342276/face-the-state-checks-in-with-joseph-lieberman

Part 2: http://www.wfsb.com/clip/13342280/lieberman-reflects-on-past