Democratic VP candidate defends Clinton on classified emails

Washington, Sep 5: Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine has defended his running mate Hillary Clinton saying that she was unable to discern classified information in emails while she was secretary of state.

Kaine's comments came in response to a question on ABC news about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) probe into Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state (2009-2013), Politico reported on Sunday. 

In July, the Democratic presidential nominee said she had never received training on how to handle classified information. 

According to reports released by the FBI on September 2, she was shown an email with a "C" marking on it, indicating that it was classified, Clinton told the FBI she thought the letter was there to help organise the paragraphs alphabetically.

The Virginia senator, who said he deals often with classified information as a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said that such information could be difficult to identify, especially when it is not properly marked, Politico reported.

"There were emails that contained classified information that had been improperly marked," Kaine said. 

"So when she received the email, the material that was classified, which is supposed to be flagged and identified as classified, in many instances was improperly labelled," Politico quoted Kaine as saying.

"...unless it is specifically pulled out and identified, it is difficult to know sometimes whether a statement or a paragraph is classified or not. And that's what she was saying," he added.

Kaine also pushed back against the assertion that Clinton has refused to hold a news conference for more than 270 days, pointing to reporters' questions that the Democratic nominee took early last month at the joint convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. 

He said members of the media will soon be travelling with Clinton on her plane, something Kaine said Trump has not yet allowed, Politico added.