Bret Baier to Tim Kaine: Did President Obama Lie About When He Knew About Clinton's Private Server?

Fox News Sunday host Bret Baier grills Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine about Clinton campaign emails released by WikiLeaks.





BAIER: Senator, a lot of information is coming out, as you know, in these WikiLeaks e-mails, including some pretty embarrassing things from communication in the Clinton staff and campaign. Are you comfortable with what is -- has been said in some of those e-mails about Catholics, about Latinos, Governor Richardson a needy Latino, about former NAACP leader Ben Jealous, taking him to be powerless? What’s your reaction to the specifics we’re learning and the substance of those e-mails?



KAINE: Yes, Bret, let me do it, but before I get to specifics, I want to talk about a couple of them, you know, we just got to be a little bit careful about these because since they're part of an effort by both Russia and WikiLeaks, and neither of those are kind of neutral transmitters of information, you can't just automatically assume that everything is on the up and up with these e-mails.



Just as an example, there's one e-mail that references me that is completely inaccurate. And whether it's inaccurate because the sender didn't know what he or she was talking about or it's been doctored, I don't know. I don't take all these at face value.



But let's talk about the Catholic one. Jen Palmieri, who is Catholic. She's said, yes, I sent that e-mail and I had some opinions and I shared them.



But I do know what Hillary Clinton thinks about Catholicism because she picked a Catholic running mate. And we talked a lot about my faith background and she and I feel like that’s a connection for us. She's Methodist but had a powerful experience as a young person that still drives her today in her own faith practice. So I know with respect to Catholics, she views this as an asset because it creates a connection between us in terms of our approach to service.



So, yes, look, some of these e-mails that are leaked, if they're accurate, they show people offering, you know, opinions and mouthing off a little bit here and there. But that's the kind of thing that happens.



BAIER: But, Senator, there's more substantive things that raise questions about -- for example, the e-mail investigation. Here is President Obama talking about what he knew and when to CBS News. Take a listen.



CBS NEWS: Mr. President, when did you first learn that Hillary Clinton used an e-mail system outside the U.S. government for official business while she was Secretary of State?



BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.



CBS NEWS: Did you know about Hillary Clinton's use of private e-mail server --



OBAMA: No.



CBS NEWS: -- while she was Secretary of State?



OBAMA: No.



BAIER: At the same time, Senator, he was using a pseudonym and an e-mail address to communicate with Secretary Clinton. And there's communication and there are e-mails from staff that suggest they wanted to hold that back and were talking about what to do.



Did the president lie there?



KAINE: Well, I don't know because -- I actually do not know if he's communicating by e-mail with Hillary, does he know that it's a private server? I mean, I don't exactly know if I send somebody an e-mail exactly what their setup is. I don't really think about that much, and I can't imagine that the president, with all that's on his mind would either.



I do know is this, that there was an extensive, as you know, Bret, investigation by the FBI under the direction of a wonderful and tough career public servant, Jim Comey. Jim was in the U.S. attorney's office in the eastern district of Virginia when I was the mayor of Richmond. And he's somebody with the highest standards of integrity.



And he reached a conclusion after a very long investigation that no reasonable prosecutor would take this to the next step. I think that still has not been effectively challenged. I know there are people who would like to re-litigate that, but given the depth of that investigation and his own credibility, I think his conclusion, you know, probably gets it right.

Watch the rest of the interview below: