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Hillary Rodham Clinton once again sought to move past the controversy over her use of a personal email server that has plagued her campaign for months. But this time, she had a nationwide audience to make her case that the issue has become nothing more than a partisan attack.

She called the House committee investigating her email “a partisan vehicle” that is nothing more than an arm of the Republican National Committee. But, she said, efforts to lower her poll ratings have not worked.

“I am still standing,” she said. “I am happy to be part of this debate. And I intend to keep talking about the issues that matter to the American people.”

In that, she got some blunt, unlikely support from her main rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“I think the secretary is right,” Mr. Sanders said. “That is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

That might have been a clever move for Mr. Sanders, making him look kind to his rival even as he seeks to push the campaign back to the issues. But it also helped Mrs. Clinton dodge what might have been one of the toughest issues of her first debate. And Mr. Sanders somewhat inexplicably gave away the email issue as a way to criticize Mrs. Clinton in the future.