The left-leaning New York Times editorial board on Tuesday backed up the FBI director's denunciation of Hillary Clinton's handling of sensitive government material during her tenure as head of the State Department.

After FBI chief James Comey's lengthy rebuke of Clinton, the Times said the Democratic nominee "has done damage to her reputation" by skirting established federal policies on sending and receiving classified government information.

"If there was ever a time that Mrs. Clinton needed to demonstrate that she understands the forthrightness demanded of those who hold the nation's highest office," said the Times, "this is that moment."

Comey said earlier in the day that as secretary of state, Clinton and her team were "extremely careless" to have managed their official government business communications on a private email server that was found to be lacking in security and that "hostile actors" had possibly compromised.

Comey said 110 emails contained information that was classified at the time they were sent, including eight emails that were top secret. That finding marked a direct contradiction to Clinton's previous statements, in which she said she never sent any information that was classified at the time it was sent.

Still, Comey said the FBI did not see a criminal case to be made against Clinton and would not recommend she be indicted by the Department of Justice.