Conservative leaders have slammed Hillary Clinton's explanation regarding the use of her private email account after widespread concerns over missing emails relating to Benghazi, saying her reasoning is not plausible and indicates a serious lack of transparency.
Clinton, who is the former Secretary of State and is likely to run for President in 2016, defended her actions during a news conference on Tuesday following a speech at a U.N. conference on women's economic status.
"Looking back, it would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two separate e-mail accounts," she said. "I thought using one (mobile) device would be simpler. Obviously, it hasn't worked out that way."
She also said her private email server contains personal communications between her and her husband, Bill Clinton, and she has vowed to keep those private.
Clinton's explanation didn't sit well with many Republican leaders, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who called Clinton's explanation's "not plausible."
"Her statement did little to answer the many legitimate questions about the mishandling of these emails, including the security risks involved with her use of a non-government server for official communications," Issa said in a statement. "She also did not explain why she believed she had the right, for two years, and over the course of multiple investigations, to keep these e-mails from Congress, from the press, and from the American people."
National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, also called her press conference "completely disingenuous" in a statement released late Tuesday.
"If she had an ounce of respect for the American people, she would have apologized for putting our national security at risk for 'convenience,'" Priebus said. "She would've agreed to hand over her secret server to an independent arbiter. And she would've reassured the nation that her influence is not for sale to foreign governments. She did none of that."
Additionally, house speaker John Boehner said the press conference "raised more questions than it answered."
"Secretary Clinton didn't hand over her emails out of the goodness of her heart - she was forced to by smart, determined, and effective oversight by the House Select Committee on Benghazi," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. "The American people deserve the truth."
A week prior, Boehner said Clinton's actions indicated she lacked transparency.
"President [Barack] Obama frequently promised that his would be 'the most transparent administration in history,'" said Boehner in a press release from his office. "Perhaps he forgot to mention this commitment to his first secretary of state?"
In an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Rep. Trey Gowdy, head of the House Benghazi committee seeking Clinton's emails, said she must appear before the committee to discuss her role on the night of the 2012 attack in addition to answering questions regarding her use of a personal email account.
"If possible, I have more questions now than I did this time yesterday," Gowdy told Van Susteren, according to Fox News.
"I have no interest in her yoga routine. Trust me," Gowdy said, "I have no interest in that. But I have every interest in public record, whether it's related to Libya or not, and I have no interest in her personal attorney determining what is a public record and what is not a public record."
Meanwhile, Rev. Franklin Graham, President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said that events surrounding Clinton should serve as a reminder that one day, all truth will be made known, and humanity will be required to give an account of their actions before God.
"I don't know what the truth is, but God does," he wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. "One day we'll all stand before God at His judgment seat and everything in our lives will be laid bare. There won't be any such thing as a private email. Are you prepared to stand before God and give an account to Him for everything?"
