Hillary Clinton Emails: Huckabee Questions What They Could Reveal About Benghazi

Former Arkansas governor says there should be full review.

ByABC News
March 8, 2015, 5:24 PM
Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas fields questions from Bruce Rastetter at the Iowa Ag Summit on March 7, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas fields questions from Bruce Rastetter at the Iowa Ag Summit on March 7, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

— -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says it is important to scrutinize Hillary Clinton's email correspondence during her tenure as Secretary of State, as lawmakers investigate what happened in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed including the U.S. ambassador.

Huckabee, who has said he is considering a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, made the remarks at the Iowa Agriculture Summit on Saturday, following revelations last week that Clinton violated State Department policy by conducting government business using a private email account.

"Did those emails reveal things about Benghazi that she asked, 'What difference did it make?'" said Huckabee, referring to Clinton's 2013 testimony before the House Oversight Committee. "Maybe it doesn't make a difference, but we won't know until we find out. And so yes, I think it makes a huge difference."

Clinton's private emails were a major topic of discussion at the summit, which featured speeches from several potential GOP presidential candidates.

But Huckabee told ABC's David Wright that it's not just Republicans who are criticizing Clinton's use of a private email account.

"I think it has been very interesting that you have seen Obama people like Robert Gibbs, John Kerry and others, who are essentially distancing themselves from Hillary on this," he said. "They haven't circled the wagons; they've circled the firing squad."

Huckabee stopped short of saying that all public officials should be required to turn over emails from any private accounts.

"It depends on what their laws are," Huckabee said. "If the law said you had to maintain every email for public inspection, that's what you got to do. If the law didn't force you to do that -- then you'd be stupid to give people the opportunity to just sift through every correspondence you've had just through their own curiosity sake."