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Senator Rand Paul on Hillary Clinton's emails: 'Convenience' shouldn't trump national security

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says "convenience" should not "trump national security" when it comes to Hillary Clinton's emails.
/ Source: TODAY

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says "convenience" should not "trump national security" when it comes to Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Nothing seems to ever be gone for good on the Internet," he said in an exclusive interview with TODAY's Matt Lauer. "My sense of trust is a little bit lost."

On Monday, Clinton acknowledged that "it would have been better" to use a government email address along with the personal one she used while secretary of state.

She also said she released more than 55,000 pages of email to the federal government, but did not submit correspondence she deemed personal.

“I’m not sure that can be trusted since we can’t trust her to do the right thing the first time,” said Paul, who, like Clinton, is expected to make a White House run in 2016.

Paul also defended a letter he and 46 other Republicans sent to Iranian leaders over their opposition to the Obama administration’s talks with Tehran on nuclear weapons. Paul said he favors discussions, “but I want to strengthen the president’s hand.”

"I want to strengthen his hand by saying, you know what, we’ve got a lot of hardliners and we’re going to have to get this agreement by Congress, and in doing so, maybe the president will negotiate a more appropriate deal where we actually get Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions,” he said.

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This article was originally published Mar. 11, 2015 at 7:46 a.m. ET.