WASHINGTON — The message from Hillary Rodham Clinton: Trust me. But in a 21-minute news conference to address why she used a private e-mail account as secretary of state, the favorite for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016 did little to try to build trust among those willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Granted, that may be a thin slice of America. Few people inspire more clear-cut devotion and antipathy than the former first lady, senator and diplomat. Still, as she nears the launch of her presidential campaign, Clinton might have used the occasion of a rare news conference to reach out, to make a special effort to refute claims she’s overly secretive and legalistically clever.

For instance, she might have taken up the suggestion of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who demanded Clinton ask a neutral arbiter to review the contents of her private e-mail server.

But Clinton didn’t.

She remained poised before a pack of reporters, giving no ground. The server will remain private. She said she had exercised her right to decide which of roughly 60,000 e-mails at issue were work-related and which concerned personal topics, such as her mother’s funeral and her daughter’s wedding. She deleted and did not archive those in the second group, she said.

In hindsight, she said, “it might have been smarter” to have used both a government e-mail account and a personal account while secretary of state. At the time, she said, “it didn’t seem like an issue.” But she went on to defend her use of a private e-mail server stored at her home, saying it was initially set up for the office of her husband, Bill.

“I fully complied by every rule I was governed by,” she said.

The public, she said, must trust she properly culled government e-mails from private and irrelevant messages.

Predictably, Republicans howled in protest. Democrats defended Clinton, if somewhat wanly.

“I thought she did fine, given the circumstances,” said Jim Manley, a former media aide to Democratic senators.

“But these issues are not going away.”

Said South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, “Most people can connect with the inconvenience of multiple e-mail addresses, two or more cell phones, other devices. So for me, it’s enough. But for those who are looking to find fault, it won’t be sufficient.”

Indeed, Clinton’s defenders say nothing could placate her fierce critics, who flock to talk radio and websites that cater to conservatives. As first lady, Clinton once denounced a “vast right-wing conspiracy” bent on ruining her and her husband.

But Clinton made life easier for her critics in early 2009 when, upon assuming the State Department post, she took the unusual step of handling all her e-mails on a personal account and a private server. And by deleting the messages she deemed personal, she has no way to prove she gave the State Department’s record-keepers every e-mail having anything to do with government.

“Because only Hillary Clinton controls her personal e-mail account and admitted she deleted many of her e-mails, no one but Hillary Clinton knows if she handed over every relevant e-mail,” Priebus said.