[Costello:] The State Department unleashes a new avalanche of e-mails that passed through Hillary Clinton's unsecured server. More than 7,000 pages in all. No bombshells and no evidence that secrecy laws were violated, but the State Department stopped short of exonerating the former secretary of state.
[Unidentified Reporter:] Can you say from that podium categorically that Secretary Clinton followed the rules and the law?
[Mark Toner, State Department Deputy Spokesman:] I'm just not going to answer that question. It's not our goal, it's not our function in this regard in releasing these e-mails. Our goal and our sole purpose when we look at these e-mails is to decide well, first, to publish them according to the FOIA request that we've received, but in doing that looking at them and deciding whether any of that material needs to be redacted and subsequently classified.
[Costello:] Elise Labott is CNN's global affairs correspondent. She's been poring through these 7,000 e-mails. She joins us live from Washington. What have you turned up, Elise?
[Elise Labott, Cnn Foreign Affairs Reporter:] Well, Carol, we're hearing that 125 of these e-mails, of these 7,000 e-mails, have been upgraded to classified. Now the information wasn't classified at the time but it's since been upgraded to classified because it was released to the public. One of the things that really kind of comes out in these e-mails is Clinton's reliance on outside advisers, particularly Sid Blumenthal, who you remember was a former adviser to her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and has really become a subject of the House committee on Benghazi investigating the attack on the consulate. A lot of memos to Secretary Clinton. She had said that they were unsolicited but in one e-mail that he sent her in May 2010 following the UK elections and sharing his analysis, Secretary Clinton said to Blumenthal, "I shared your e-mails with Bill who thought they were brilliant, keep them coming." So obviously they weren't always unsolicited. She really in these e- mails shows that she relied on his advice and it wasn't just about foreign affairs. It was also about the political. In November 2010 Blumenthal sends a message to Secretary Clinton really slamming then House speaker John Boehner labeling it, quote, "post midterm strategy," showing a long list of information he got from some sources on the Republican side. And let me quote you from this e-mail. "Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to principle." So clearly even though Secretary Clinton you know, she says politics has always been in her DNA, still following the politics behind the scenes. There's also a memo, Carol, from her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who seems to be also an informal adviser. She went to Haiti after the earthquake on behalf of the Clinton Foundation and reporting back her insights and her analysis about what she found on the ground. So there's a lot of things like that. There's some personal about how she likes her tea and charging her iPad but there's also some very sensitive information in those e-mails. A lot of it redacted.
[Costello:] All right. Elise Labott, thanks so much. We appreciate it. And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Right now in Miami the former Florida governor Jeb Bush is holding a town hall meeting with high school students. He seems to be taking a sharper edge in the presidential race these days and here is one reason. Listen to this Donald Trump ad attacking Bush and his views on illegal immigration.
[Jeb Bush , Presidential Candidate:] Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's kind of it's a it's an act of love.
[Costello:] OK. But Governor Bush is fighting back. CNN's Athena Jones is in Washington with a closer look at that. Good morning.
[Athena Jones, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. That was a tough ad from Donald Trump, a short video on instagram. It's one of his favorite social media sites to use, but Jeb Bush is firing back. Let's go ahead and play that and then talk about it on the other side.
[Donald Trump , Presidential Candidate:] I lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life, OK, so, you know, my views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa.
[Unidentified Male:] Partial birth abortion.
[Trump:] I'm very pro-choice. I am pro-choice in every respect and as far as it goes. As far as single payer, it works in Canada, it works incredibly well in Scotland.