Tim Kaine says Hillary Clinton has learned from email ‘mistake’

Hillary Clinton will be "real transparent" with Americans after learning lessons from the controversy over her use of a private email server, her running mate, Tim Kaine, said yesterday, expressing optimism that she could improve her trust deficit with voters over the next month.

Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Mr Kaine's primary objective was to help Mrs Clinton move on from her latest email imbroglio: her inaccurate statement last week that the FBI director, James Comey, had called her answers about her private email server "truthful".

Mr Comey told Congress last month he could not say if Mrs Clinton had lied to Americans about her email practices.

While Mrs Clinton said on Friday that she “may have short-circuited” by suggesting that Mr Comey had unconditionally vouched for her, Mr Kaine focused on Mrs Clinton’s admission that her use of the private server had been a “mistake” – a word he repeated four times – and that she had apologised for the matter.

“I know that this is something that she’s learned from, and we’re going to be real transparent, absolutely,” he said.

Mr Kaine suggested that more voters may trust Mrs Clinton "even a month from now," reflecting an ABC News-Washington Post poll yesterday in which Mrs Clinton held an edge in trustworthiness over Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

Asked which candidate was more honest and trustworthy, 49 per cent respondents chose Mrs Clinton and 40 per cent chose Mr Trump, while the margin was narrower – 46 per cent to 43 per cent – among registered voters. Both results were Mrs Clinton’s best against Mr Trump since the poll started asking the question in May. – (New York Times service)