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JULY 1, 2016 –Labor Secretary Tom Perez spoke with moderator Chuck Todd in a personal political capacity, telling him that Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s meeting with former President Bill Clinton on the airport tarmac was “not something that was planned in advance” and that “it was a chance meeting.”
See below for the transcript of this exchange; video is available here: http://nbcnews.to/29bMnc7.
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MANDATORY CREDIT: NBC NEWS’ “MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD”
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CHUCK TODD:
I’ve got to ask you about the kerfuffle involving Attorney General Lynch, former President Clinton, the tarmac decision. Secretary Lynch – excuse me – Attorney General Lynch has since said that she is just going to take the recommendation from the prosecutors and the F.B.I. and not get involved in any other judgment on that. Appropriate decision by her?
TOM PEREZ:
I have great respect for Loretta Lynch. I’ve known her for years. She’s a person of great integrity, and I trust her. And I know that at the end of the day on this –
(OVERTALK)
CHUCK TODD:
Was the meeting a mistake in hindsight?
TOM PEREZ:
Well, again, this was, as I understand it, a chance meeting where they ran into each other on, I think, the tarmac of an airport. This wasn’t, “I called you up and said, ‘Can we meet next Wednesday at 3:00?'” It was a chance meeting at the airport. And anyone who knows Bill Clinton knows that if he runs into someone at the airport, by chance, he’s going to come up and say hello to them. And so I think it’s really important for your listeners to appreciate that this was not something that was planned in advance. It happened, and she has spoken, I think, very clearly about what she intends to do. And again, I have tremendous respect for Loretta Lynch and tremendous respect as someone who worked at the Justice Department in both a career capacity and a non-career capacity. I have great respect for the dedicated career professionals at the Department of Justice.
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