Fiorina: I don't buy Clinton's explanation on private server
In an interview Friday that set the political world talking, Hillary Clinton said she was "sorry" people were still confused about her private email use, adding that she "didn't really stop and think" about what kind of email system would be appropriate while serving as secretary of state.
But one presidential candidate doesn't believe that explanation: Republican hopeful Carly Fiorina.
"I don't think it's plausible for her to say, 'Oh, I wasn't paying any attention,'" the 2016 GOP contender told "Face the Nation" host John Dickerson. "She clearly was paying attention."
In an interview to air Sunday on CBS News, Fiorina explained that there seemed to be significant effort on Clinton's part when it came to installing the server in her Chappaqua, New York, home.
"It takes a lot of work to install a private server system in your basement," Fiorina said. "It takes a lot of work to make sure that you are having the right connections to conduct both personal and professional business over that system."
She offered further proof that Clinton had paid attention to the email system by pointing to the outside hire of Bryan Pagliano, an IT professional who worked at the State Department, to maintain the server.
"We know, for example, that she hired into the State Department a political operative who had done IT work on her campaign and for her PAC," Fiorina said. "That IT operative was paid $5,000, not by taxpayers, but by Mrs. Clinton herself to do IT work on that basement server."
"That actually takes a lot of work," the former tech executive said, "and a lot of effort."
On Saturday, Clinton acknowledged that her family personally paid an outside salary to Pagliano for the server's installation and maintenance.
"We obviously paid for those services because during a period of time we continued to need his technical assistance," Clinton told reporters in New Hampshire. But, the Democratic front-runner added, she didn't believe it was a problematic arrangement.
A House panel investigating the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, subpoenaed Pagliano earlier this month. Pagliano declined to appear in a deposition, informing the committee chair, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, that he would instead invoke his Fifth Amendment rights.
Fiorina also hit Clinton for "failing the character test" with the controversies plaguing her campaign.
"Hillary Clinton has obviously lied about Benghazi, about her servers, about her emails," Fiorina said. "She clearly has exchanged confidential, classified information over a personal server and a personal device."
Fiorina also weighed in on the flood of Syrian refugees entering Europe, saying the crisis was occurring because President Obama failed to intervene in the conflict three years ago. But she said that the U.S. doesn't have an obligation to do more.
"The United States I believe has done its fair share in terms of humanitarian aid," Fiorina said. "The United States honestly, sadly, cannot relax our entrance criteria. We are having to be very careful about who we let enter this country from these war torn regions to ensure that terrorists are not coming here. I think the Europeans need to continue to step up here both in terms of the amount of money they provide for humanitarian relief. They have not done as much as the United States has done on that front."
The United States has provided extensive monetary aid but has accepted just a fraction of the refugees absorbed by European countries. Germany, for example, has registered 40,000 Syrian refugees, while the U.S. has taken in only about 1,500. The U.S. has provided more than $4 billion in humanitarian aid to support those affected by the Syrian conflict, according to the State Department. The European Union and its member states have contributed upward of 3.7 million Euros.
CBS News Political Reporter Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this story.