In light of the latest batch of emails released by the state department, anyone accusing Hillary Clinton of power grabs or intentional misuses of power in the White House during her tenure as Secretary of State might be giving her way too much credit.
Hillary Clinton and her staff were confused about attending high-level White House meetings. Top presidential aides didn’t know how to reach the secretary of state, months into the administration. And when it came to using fax machines … well, Clinton was no pro.
These are just a few of the colorful details emerging about Clinton’s day-to-day life in the early part of the Obama administration, according to 3,000 pages of emails released overnight by the State Department. And they depict a different side of the now-2016 Democratic presidential candidate — showing her at times aloof, even out of touch with the president’s inner circle, as she presided over American diplomacy at Foggy Bottom.
Perhaps the most entertaining email is a December 2009 exchange between Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin. In it, Abedin urges Clinton to “hang up the fax line” so someone can send a fax.
…Again messaging Abedin and one other aide in June 2009, Clinton wrote: “I heard on the radio that there is a Cabinet mtg this am. Can I go? If not, who are we sending?”
Reportedly, there was no full Cabinet meeting that day; it was only for lower-level officials. But then a few days later, Clinton fired off another email to staff saying she arrived for a morning White House meeting “and was told there was no mtg.”
“This is the second time this has happened. What’s up???” Clinton wrote.
Apparently, what’s up is that Hillary Clinton was totally out of touch in the White House. Was she “out of touch” to this degree because she wan’t getting along with presidential staff? Or was she simply not performing her duties as Secretary of State? For as many answers as there are in these emails, there are probably even more questions that Hillary will need to answer in the months leading up to Election Day 2016.
