Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (néeRodham;[a] born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat. She was the 67thUnited States secretary of state in the administration ofBarack Obama from 2009 to 2013, aU.S. senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and thefirst lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 as the wife ofBill Clinton. A member of theDemocratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political party and the only woman to win the popular vote for U.S. president. However, she lost the electoral college toRepublican Party nomineeDonald Trump. She is the only first lady of the United States to have run for elected office.
Following her loss, she wrote multiple books and launchedOnward Together, apolitical action organization dedicated to fundraising for progressive political groups. In 2011, Clinton was appointed the Honorary Founding Chair of the Institute for Women, Peace and Security atGeorgetown University, and the awards named in her name has been awarded annually at the university. Since 2020, she has served asChancellor of Queen's University Belfast. In 2023, Clinton joinedColumbia University as a Professor of Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs.
Hillary Diane Rodham[1] was born on October 26, 1947, at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.[2][3] She was raised in aMethodist family who first lived in Chicago. When she was three years old, her family moved to the Chicago suburb ofPark Ridge.[4] Her father,Hugh Rodham, was of English and Welsh descent,[5] and founded a small but successful textile business.[6] Her mother,Dorothy Howell, was a homemaker ofDutch,English,French Canadian (fromQuebec),Scottish, andWelsh descent.[5][7][8] She grew up with two younger brothers,Hugh andTony.[9]
As a child, Rodham was a favorite student among her teachers at thepublic schools she attended in Park Ridge.[10] She participated in swimming and softball and earned numerous badges as aBrownie and aGirl Scout.[10] She was inspired by U.S. efforts during theSpace Race and sent a letter toNASA around 1961 asking what she could do to become an astronaut, only to be informed that women were not being accepted into the program.[11] She attendedMaine South High School,[12][13] where she participated in thestudent council and school newspaper and was selected for theNational Honor Society.[2][14] She was elected class vice president for her junior year but then lost the election for class president for her senior year against two boys, one of whom told her that "you are really stupid if you think a girl can be elected president".[15] For her senior year, she and other students were transferred to the then-new Maine South High School. There she was aNational Merit Finalist and was voted "most likely to succeed." She graduated in 1965 in the top five percent of her class.[16]
Rodham's mother wanted her to have an independent, professional career.[8] Her father, who was otherwise a traditionalist, felt that his daughter's abilities and opportunities should not be limited by gender.[17] She was raised in a politicallyconservative household,[8] and she helpedcanvassChicago's South Side at age 13 after the very close1960 U.S. presidential election. She stated that, while investigating with a fellow teenage friend shortly after the election, she saw evidence ofelectoral fraud (a voting list entry showing a dozen addresses that was an empty lot) against Republican candidateRichard Nixon;[18] she later volunteered to campaign for Republican candidateBarry Goldwater in the1964 election.[19]
Rodham's early political development was shaped mostly by two people. Her high school history teacher, Paul Carlson, was one. Like her father, Carlson was a ferventanti-communist, who introduced her to Goldwater'sThe Conscience of a Conservative. Another was Donald Jones, her Methodist youth minister, who, like her mother, was concerned with issues ofsocial justice. She was with Jones' youth group when she saw and afterwards briefly metcivil rights leaderMartin Luther King Jr. when he gave a speech in 1962 at Chicago'sOrchestra Hall.[20][b]Carlson and Jones came into conflict in Park Ridge; Clinton would later see that as "an early indication of the cultural, political and religious fault lines that developed across America in the [next] forty years".[22]
Wellesley College years
Rodham andFrancille Rusan (right) campaigning forWellesley College government president in 1968, an election which Rodham later won
By herjunior year, Rodham became a supporter of the antiwarpresidential nomination campaign of DemocratEugene McCarthy.[32] In early 1968, she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association, a position she held until early 1969.[30][33] Following theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty.[32] In her student government role, she played a role in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in thestudent disruptions common to other colleges.[30][34] A number of her fellow students thought she might some day become the first female president of the United States.[30]
To help her better understand her changing political views, ProfessorAlan Schechter assigned Rodham to intern at theHouse Republican Conference, and she attended the "Wellesley in Washington" summer program.[32] Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican representativeCharles Goodell to help GovernorNelson Rockefeller's late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination.[32] Rodham attended the1968 Republican National Convention inMiami Beach. However, she was upset by the way Richard Nixon's campaign portrayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the convention's "veiled" racist messages, and she left the Republican Party for good.[32]Rodhamwrote her senior thesis, a critique of the tactics of radical community organizerSaul Alinsky, under Professor Schechter.[35] Years later, while she was the first lady, access to her thesis wasrestricted at the request of the White House, and it became the subject of some speculation. The thesis was later released.[35]
In 1969, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts,[36] with departmental honors in political science.[35] After some fellow seniors requested that the college administration allow a student speaker at commencement, she became the first student in Wellesley College history to speak at the event. Her address followed that of thecommencement speaker, SenatorEdward Brooke.[33][37] After her speech, she received a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes.[30][38][39] She was featured in an article published inLife magazine,[40][41] because of the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Brooke.[37] She also appeared onIrv Kupcinet's nationally syndicated television talk show as well as in Illinois and New England newspapers.[42] She was asked to speak at the 50th anniversary convention of theLeague of Women Voters in Washington, D.C. the next year.[43] That summer, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes inMount McKinley National Park andsliming salmon in a fish processing cannery inValdez (which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthy conditions).[44]
Yale Law School and postgraduate studies
Rodham then enteredYale Law School, where she was on the editorial board of theYale Review of Law and Social Action.[45] During her second year, she worked at theYale Child Study Center,[46] learning about new research on early childhood brain development and working as a research assistant on the seminal work,Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (1973).[47][48] She also took on cases of child abuse atYale–New Haven Hospital,[47] and volunteered at New Haven Legal Services to provide free legal advice for the poor.[46] In the summer of 1970, she was awarded a grant to work atMarian Wright Edelman's Washington Research Project, where she was assigned to SenatorWalter Mondale'sSubcommittee on Migratory Labor. There she researched variousmigrant workers' issues including education, health and housing.[49] Edelman later became a significant mentor.[50] Rodham was recruited by political advisorAnne Wexler to work on the 1970 campaign of Connecticut U.S. Senate candidateJoseph Duffey. Rodham later crediting Wexler with providing her first job in politics.[51]
Rodham began a year of postgraduate study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.[59] In late 1973, her first scholarly article, "Children Under the Law", was published in theHarvard Educational Review.[60] Discussing the newchildren's rights movement, the article stated that "child citizens" were "powerless individuals"[61] and argued that children should not be considered equallyincompetent from birth to attaining legal age, but instead that courts should presume competence on a case-by-case basis, except when there is evidence otherwise.[62] The article became frequently cited in the field.[63]
Marriage, family, legal career and first ladyship of Arkansas
During her postgraduate studies, Rodham was staff attorney for Edelman's newly foundedChildren's Defense Fund inCambridge, Massachusetts,[64] and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children.[65] In 1974, she was a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., and advised theHouse Committee on the Judiciary during theWatergate scandal.[66] The committee's work culminated with the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974.[66]
By then, Rodham was viewed as someone with a bright political future. Democratic political organizer and consultantBetsey Wright moved from Texas to Washington the previous year to help guide Rodham's career.[67] Wright thought Rodham had the potential to become a future senator or president.[68] Meanwhile, boyfriend Bill Clinton had repeatedly asked Rodham to marry him, but she continued to demur.[69] After failing theDistrict of Columbiabar exam[70] and passing the Arkansas exam, Rodham came to a key decision. As she later wrote, "I chose to follow my heart instead of my head".[71] She thus followed Clinton to Arkansas, rather than staying in Washington, where career prospects were brighter. He was then teaching law and running for a seat in theU.S. House of Representatives in his home state. In August 1974, Rodham moved toFayetteville, Arkansas, and became one of only two female faculty members at theUniversity of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Arkansas.[72][73]
Rodham became the first director of a newlegal aid clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law.[75] During her time in Fayetteville, Rodham and several other women founded the city's first rape crisis center.[75]
In 1974, Bill Clinton lost an Arkansas congressional race, facing incumbent RepublicanJohn Paul Hammerschmidt.[76] Rodham and Bill Clinton bought a house in Fayetteville in the summer of 1975 and she agreed to marry him.[77] The wedding took place on October 11, 1975, in a Methodist ceremony in their living room.[78] A story about the marriage in theArkansas Gazette indicated that she decided to retain the name Hillary Rodham.[78][79] Her motivation was threefold. She wanted to keep the couple's professional lives separate, avoid apparent conflicts of interest, and as she told a friend at the time, "it showed that I was still me".[80] The decision upset both mothers, who were more traditional.[81]
Later in 1977, President Jimmy Carter (for whom Rodham had been the 1976 campaign director of field operations in Indiana)[87] appointed her to the board of directors of theLegal Services Corporation.[88] She held that position from 1978 until the end of 1981.[89] From mid-1978 to mid-1980,[d] she served as the first female chair of that board.[90]
Following her husband's November 1978 election asgovernor of Arkansas, Rodham became that state's first lady in January 1979. She would hold that title for twelve nonconsecutive years (1979–1981, 1983–1992). Clinton appointed his wife to be the chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee the same year,[91] in which role she secured federal funds to expand medical facilities in Arkansas's poorest areas without affecting doctors' fees.[92]
In 1979, Rodham became the first woman to be made a full partner in Rose Law Firm.[93] From 1978 until they entered the White House, she had a higher salary than her husband.[94] During 1978 and 1979, while looking to supplement their income, Rodham engaged in the trading ofcattle futures contracts;[95] an initial $1,000 investment generated nearly $100,000 when she stopped trading after ten months.[96] At this time, the couple began their ill-fated investment in theWhitewater Development Corporation real estate venture withJim andSusan McDougal.[95] Both of these becamesubjects of controversy in the 1990s.[97]
Two years after leaving office, Bill Clinton returned to the governorship of Arkansas after winningthe election of 1982. During her husband's campaign, Hillary began to use the name "Hillary Clinton", or sometimes "Mrs. Bill Clinton", to assuage the concerns of Arkansas voters; she also took aleave of absence from Rose Law to campaign for him full-time.[99] During her second stint as the first lady of Arkansas, she made a point of using Hillary Rodham Clinton as her name.[e]
Clinton became involved in state education policy. She was named chair of the Arkansas Education Standards Committee in 1983, where worked to reform the state's public education system.[105][106] In one of the Clinton governorship's most important initiatives, she fought a prolonged but ultimately successful battle against theArkansas Education Association to establish mandatory teacher testing and state standards for curriculum and classroom size.[91][105] In 1985, she introduced Arkansas's Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth, a program that helps parents work with their children in preschool preparedness and literacy.[107]
Clinton continued to practice law with the Rose Law Firm while she was the first lady of Arkansas.[108][109] The firm considered her a "rainmaker" because she brought in clients, partly thanks to the prestige she lent it and to her corporate board connections. She was also very influential in the appointment of state judges.[109] Bill Clinton's Republican opponent in his 1986 gubernatorial reelection campaign accused the Clintons of conflict of interest because Rose Law did state business; the Clintons countered the charge by saying that state fees were walled off by the firm before her profits were calculated.[110] Clinton was twice named byThe National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America—in 1988 and 1991.[111] When Bill Clinton thought about not running again for governor in 1990, Hillary Clinton considered running. Private polls were unfavorable, however, and in the end he ran and was reelected for the final time.[112]
From 1982 to 1988, Clinton was on the board of directors, sometimes as chair, of theNew World Foundation,[113] which funded a variety ofNew Leftinterest groups.[114] Clinton was chairman of the board of the Children's Defense Fund[2][115] and on the board of theArkansas Children's Hospital's Legal Services (1988–1992).[116] In addition to her positions with nonprofit organizations, she also held positions on the corporate board of directors ofTCBY (1985–1992),[117]Wal-Mart Stores (1986–1992)[118] andLafarge (1990–1992).[119] TCBY and Wal-Mart were Arkansas-based companies that were also clients of Rose Law.[109][120] Clinton was the first female member on Wal-Mart's board, added following pressure on chairmanSam Walton to name a woman to it.[120] Once there, she pushed successfully for Wal-Mart to adopt more environmentally friendly practices. She was largely unsuccessful in her campaign for more women to be added to the company's management and was silent about the company's famously anti-labor union practices.[118][120][121] According to the journalist Dan Kaufman, awareness of this later became a factor in her loss of credibility with organized labor, helping contribute to her loss in the 2016 election, where slightly less than half of union members voted forDonald Trump.[122][123]
Clinton received sustained national attention for the first time when her husband became a candidate for the1992 Democratic presidential nomination. Before theNew Hampshire primary,tabloid publications printed allegations that Bill Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair withGennifer Flowers.[124] In response, the Clintons appeared together on60 Minutes, where Bill denied the affair, but acknowledged "causing pain in my marriage".[125] This joint appearance was credited with rescuing his campaign.[126] During the campaign, Hillary made culturally disparaging remarks aboutTammy Wynette's outlook on marriage as described in her classic song "Stand by Your Man".[f]
Later in the campaign, she commented she could have chosen to be like women staying home and baking cookies and having teas, but wanted to pursue her career instead.[g] The remarks were widely criticized, particularly by those who were, or defended, stay-at-home mothers. In retrospect, she admitted they were ill-considered. Bill said that in electing him, the nation would "get two for the price of one", referring to the prominent role his wife would assume.[132] Beginning withDaniel Wattenberg's August 1992The American Spectator article "The Lady Macbeth of Little Rock", Hillary's own past ideological and ethical record came under attack from conservatives.[133] At least twenty other articles in major publications also drew comparisons between her andLady Macbeth.[134]
Hillary Clinton's official portrait asFirst Lady, 1994
When Bill Clintontook office as president in January 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first lady. Her press secretary reiterated she would be using that form of her name.[e] She was the first in this role to have apostgraduate degree and her own professional career up to the time of entering theWhite House.[135] She was also the first to have an office in theWest Wing of the White House in addition to the usual first lady offices in theEast Wing.[59][136] Duringthe presidential transition, she was part of the innermost circle vetting appointments to the new administration. Her choices filled at least eleven top-level positions and dozens more lower-level ones.[137][138] AfterEleanor Roosevelt, Clinton was regarded as the most openly empowered presidential wife in American history.[139][140]
Some critics called it inappropriate for the first lady to play a central role in public policy matters. Supporters pointed out that Clinton's role in policy was no different from that of other White House advisors, and that voters had been well aware she would play an active role in her husband's presidency.[141]
Clinton presenting her health care plan to Congress in 1993
In January 1993, President Clinton named Hillary to chair atask force on National Health Care Reform, hoping to replicate the success she had in leading the effort for Arkansas education reform.[142] The recommendation of the task force became known as theClinton health care plan. This was a comprehensive proposal that would require employers to provide health coverage to their employees through individualhealth maintenance organizations. Its opponents quickly derided the plan as "Hillarycare" and it even faced opposition from some Democrats in Congress.[143]
Failing to gather enough support for a floor vote in either the House or the Senate (although Democrats controlled both chambers), the proposal was abandoned in September 1994.[144] Clinton later acknowledged in her memoir that her political inexperience partly contributed to the defeat but cited many other factors. The first lady's approval ratings, which had generally been in the high-50 percent range during her first year, fell to 44 percent in April 1994 and 35 percent by September 1994.[145]
The Republican Party negatively highlighted the Clinton health care plan in their campaign for the1994 midterm elections.[146] The Republican Party saw strong success in the midterms, and many analysts and pollsters found the healthcare plan to be a major factor in the Democrats' defeat, especially amongindependent voters.[147] After this, the White House subsequently sought to downplay Clinton's role in shaping policy.[148]
Along with senatorsTed Kennedy andOrrin Hatch, Clinton was a force behind the passage of theState Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, which gave state support to children whose parents could not provide them health coverage. She participated in campaigns to promote the enrollment of children in the program after it took effect.[149]
Enactment ofwelfare reform was a major goal of Bill Clinton's presidency. When the first two bills on the issue came from a Republican-controlled Congress lacking protections for people coming off welfare, Hillary urged her husband to veto the bills, which he did.[150][151] A third version came up during his 1996 general election campaign that restored some of the protections but cut the scope of benefits in other areas. While Clinton was urged to persuade the president to similarly veto the bill,[150] she decided to support the bill, which became theWelfare Reform Act of 1996, as the best political compromise available.[150][151]
International diplomacy and promotion of women's rights
Footage of Clinton's speech in its entirety. At approximately the 14:45 mark, Clinton utters the famous line, "Women's rights are human rights"
Clinton traveled to 79 countries as first lady,[153] breaking the record for most-traveled first lady previously held byPat Nixon.[154] She did not hold asecurity clearance or attendNational Security Council meetings, but played a role in U.S. diplomacy attaining its objectives.[155]
Ina September 1995 speech before theFourth World Conference on Women inBeijing, Clinton argued forcefully against practices that abused women around the world and in the People's Republic of China itself. She declared, "It is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights."[156] Delegates from over 180 countries heard her declare,
If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights andwomen's rights are human rights, once and for all.[157]
In delivering these remarks, Clinton resisted both internal administration and Chinese pressure to soften her remarks.[153][157] The speech became a key moment in the empowerment of women and years later women around the world would recite Clinton's key phrases.[158]
During the late 1990s, Clinton was one of the most prominent international figures to speak out against the treatment ofAfghan women by the Taliban.[159][160] She helped createVital Voices, an international initiative sponsored by the U.S. to encourage the participation of women in the political processes of their countries.[161]
One prominent investigation regarding Clinton was theWhitewater controversy, which arose out of real estate investments by the Clintons and associates made in the 1970s.[162][97][162] As part of this investigation, on January 26, 1996, Clinton became the first spouse of a U.S. president to besubpoenaed to testify before a federalgrand jury.[163] After several Independent Counsels had investigated, a final report was issued in 2000 that stated there was insufficient evidence that either Clinton had engaged in criminal wrongdoing.[164]
Chelsea, Bill, and Hillary Clinton walking downPennsylvania Avenue to start Bill's second presidential term in 1997
Another investigated scandal involving Clinton was theWhite House travel office controversy, often referred to as "Travelgate".[165] Another scandal that arose was theHillary Clinton cattle futures controversy, which related to cattle futures trading Clinton had made in 1978 and 1979.[166] Some in the press had alleged that Clinton had engaged in a conflict of interest and disguised a bribery. Several individuals analyzed her trading records; however, no formal investigation was made and she was never charged with any wrongdoing in relation to this.[167]
An outgrowth of the "Travelgate" investigation was the June 1996 discovery of improper White House access to hundreds of FBI background reports on former Republican White House employees, an affair that some called "Filegate".[168] Accusations were made that Clinton had requested these files and had recommended hiring an unqualified individual to head the White House Security Office.[169] The 2000 final Independent Counsel report found no substantial or credible evidence that Clinton had any role or showed any misconduct in the matter.[168]
In early 2001, a controversy arose over gifts that were sent to the White House; there was a question whether the furnishings were White House property or the Clintons' personal property. During the last year of Bill Clinton's time in office, those gifts were shipped to the Clintons' private residence.[170][171]
Clinton also published a weeklysyndicated newspaper column titled "Talking It Over" from 1995 to 2000.[179][180] It focused on her experiences and those of women, children and families she met during her travels around the world.[2]
In 1998, the Clintons' private concerns became the subject of much speculation when investigations revealed the president had engaged in an extramarital affair with 22-year-old White House internMonica Lewinsky.[181] Events surrounding theLewinsky scandal eventually led to theimpeachment of the president by the House of Representatives; he was later acquitted by the Senate. When the allegations against her husband were first made public, Hillary Clinton stated that the allegations were part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy".[182][183] Clinton characterized the Lewinsky charges as the latest in a long, organized, collaborative series of charges by Bill's political enemies[h] rather than any wrongdoing by her husband. She later said she had been misled by his initial claims that no affair had taken place.[185] After the evidence of President Clinton's encounters with Lewinsky became incontrovertible, she issued a public statement reaffirming her commitment to their marriage. Privately, she was reported to be furious at him and was unsure if she wanted to remain in the marriage.[186] The White House residence staff noticed a pronounced level of tension between the couple during this period.[187]
Public response to Clinton's handling of the matter varied. Women variously admired her strength and poise in private matters that were made public. They both sympathized with her as a victim of her husband's insensitive behavior and criticized her as being anenabler to her husband's indiscretions. They also accused her of cynically staying in a failed marriage as a way of keeping or even fostering her own political influence. In the wake of the revelations, her public approval ratings shot upward to around 70 percent, the highest they had ever been.[188]
Save America's Treasures initiative
Clinton was the founding chair ofSave America's Treasures, a nationwide effort matching federal funds with private donations to preserve and restore historic items and sites.[189] This included the flag that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the First Ladies National Historic Site inCanton, Ohio.[59]
Working with Arkansas interior decorator Kaki Hockersmith over an eight-year period, Clinton oversaw extensive, privately funded redecoration efforts of the White House. Overall the redecoration received a mixed reaction.[193]
Clinton hosted many large-scale events at the White House. Examples include a state dinner for visiting Chinese dignitaries, a New Year's Eve celebration at the turn of the 21st century, and a state dinner honoring the bicentennial of the White House in November 2000.[59]
When New York's long-serving U.S. senatorDaniel Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement in November 1998, several prominent Democratic figures, including RepresentativeCharles Rangel of New York, urged Clinton to run for his open seat in theSenate election of 2000.[194] Once she decided to run, the Clintons purchased a home inChappaqua, New York, north of New York City, in September 1999.[195] She became the first wife of the president of the United States to be a candidate for elected office.[196] Initially, Clinton expected to faceRudy Giuliani—the mayor of New York City—as her Republican opponent in the election. Giuliani withdrew from the race in May 2000 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and matters related to his failing marriage became public. Clinton then facedRick Lazio, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives who representedNew York's 2nd congressional district. Throughout the campaign, opponents accused Clinton ofcarpetbagging, because she had never resided in New York State or participated in the state's politics before the 2000 Senate race.[197]
Bill de Blasio was Clinton's campaign manager. She began her drive to the U.S. Senate by visiting all 62 counties in the state, in a "listening tour" of small-group settings.[198] She devoted considerable time in traditionally RepublicanUpstate New York regions. Clinton vowed to improve the economic situation in those areas, promising to deliver 200,000 jobs to the state over her term. Her plan included tax credits to reward job creation and encourage business investment, especially in the high-tech sector. She called for personal tax cuts for college tuition and long-term care.[199]
The contest drew national attention. During a September debate, Lazio blundered when he seemed to invade Clinton'spersonal space by trying to get her to sign a fundraising agreement.[200] Their campaigns, along with Giuliani's initial effort, spent a record combined $90 million.[201] Clinton won the election on November 7, 2000, with 55 percent of the vote to Lazio's 43 percent.[200] She was sworn in as U.S. senator on January 3, 2001, and asGeorge W. Bush was still 17 days away from being inaugurated as president after winning the 2000 presidential election, that meant from January 3–20, she simultaneously held the titles of First Lady and Senator – a first in U.S. history.[202]
First term
2001 reenactment of Hillary Clinton's swearing-in as a U.S. senator by vice presidentAl Gore
Following the September 11terrorist attacks, Clinton sought to obtain funding for the recovery efforts in New York City and security improvements in her state. Working with New York's senior senator,Chuck Schumer, she was instrumental in securing $21 billion in funding for theWorld Trade Center site's redevelopment.[211] She subsequently took a leading role in investigating thehealth issues faced by 9/11 first responders.[212] Clinton voted for theUSA Patriot Act in October 2001. In 2005, when the act was up for renewal, she expressed concerns with the USA Patriot Act Reauthorization Conference Report regarding civil liberties.[213] In March 2006, she voted in favor of theUSA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 that had gained large majority support.[214]
Clinton strongly supported the2001 U.S. military action in Afghanistan, saying it was a chance to combat terrorism while improving the lives of Afghan women who suffered under the Taliban government.[215] Clinton voted in favor of the October 2002Iraq War Resolution, which authorized President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq.[216]
After theIraq War began, Clinton made trips to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit American troops stationed there. On a visit to Iraq in February 2005, Clinton noted that the insurgency had failed to disrupt the democratic elections held earlier and that parts of the country were functioning well.[217] Observing that war deployments were draining regular and reserve forces, she co-introduced legislation to increase the size of the regularU.S. Army by 80,000 soldiers to ease the strain.[218] In late 2005, Clinton said that while immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be a mistake, Bush's pledge to stay "until the job is done" was also misguided, as it gave Iraqis "an open-ended invitation not to take care of themselves".[219] Her stance caused frustration among those in the Democratic Party who favored quick withdrawal.[220] Clinton supported retaining and improving health benefits for reservists and lobbied against the closure of several military bases, especially those in New York.[221][222] She used her position on the Armed Services Committee to forge close relationships with a number of high-ranking military officers.[222] By 2014 and 2015 Clinton had fully reversed herself on the Iraq War Resolution, saying she "got it wrong" and the vote in support had been a "mistake".[223]
In November 2004, Clinton announced she would seek a second Senate term. She easily won the Democratic nomination over opposition from antiwar activistJonathan Tasini.[237][238] The early frontrunner for the Republican nomination,Westchester CountyDistrict AttorneyJeanine Pirro, withdrew from the contest after several months of poor campaign performance.[239] Clinton's eventual opponent in the general election was Republican candidateJohn Spencer, a former mayor ofYonkers. Clinton won the election on November 7, 2006, with 67 percent of the vote to Spencer's 31 percent,[240] carrying all but four of New York's sixty-two counties.[241] Her campaign spent $36 million for her reelection, more than any other candidate for Senate in the 2006 elections. Some Democrats criticized her for spending too much in a one-sided contest, while some supporters were concerned she did not leave more funds for a potential presidential bid in 2008.[242] In the following months, she transferred $10 million of her Senate funds toward her presidential campaign.[243]
Clinton opposed theIraq War troop surge of 2007, for both military and domestic political reasons (by the following year, she was privately acknowledging the surge had been successful).[i] In March of that year, she voted in favor of a war-spending bill that required President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by a deadline; it passed almost completely along party lines[245] but was subsequently vetoed by Bush. In May, a compromise war funding bill that removed withdrawal deadlines but tied funding to progress benchmarks for the Iraqi government passed the Senate by a vote of 80–14 and would be signed by Bush; Clinton was one of those who voted against it.[246] She responded to GeneralDavid Petraeus's September 2007Report to Congress on the Situation in Iraq by saying, "I think that the reports that you provide to us really require a willing suspension of disbelief."[247]
Clinton had been preparing for a potential candidacy for U.S. president since at least early 2003.[252] On January 20, 2007, she announced via her website the formation of a presidentialexploratory committee for theUnited States presidential election of 2008, stating: "I'm in and I'm in to win."[253] No woman had ever been nominated by a major party for the presidency, and no first lady had ever run for president.When Bill Clinton became president in 1993, ablind trust was established; in April 2007, the Clintons liquidated the blind trust to avoid the possibility of ethical conflicts or political embarrassments as Hillary undertook her presidential race. Later disclosure statements revealed the couple's worth was now upwards of $50 million.[254] They had earned over $100 million since 2000—most of it coming from Bill's books, speaking engagements and other activities.[255]
Clinton at the 2007 CDA National Convention
Throughout the first half of 2007, Clinton led candidates competing for the Democratic presidential nomination inopinion polls for the election. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former senatorJohn Edwards of North Carolina were her strongest competitors.[216] The biggest threat to her campaign was her past support of the Iraq War, which Obama had opposed from the beginning.[216] Clinton and Obama both set records for early fundraising, swapping the money lead each quarter.[256]At the end of October, Clinton faredpoorly in her debate performance against Obama, Edwards, and her other opponents.[257][258] Obama's message of change began to resonate with the Democratic electorate better than Clinton's message of experience.[259]
In the first vote of 2008, she placed third in the January3Iowa Democratic caucus behind Obama and Edwards.[260] Obama gained ground in national polling in the next few days, with all polls predicting a victory for him in theNew Hampshire primary.[261] Clinton gained a surprise win there on January 8, narrowly defeating Obama.[262] It was the first time a woman had won a major American party's presidential primary for the purposes of delegate selection.[263] Explanations for Clinton's New Hampshire comeback varied but often centered on her being seen more sympathetically, especially by women, after her eyes welled with tears and her voice broke while responding to a voter's question the day before the election.[264]
The nature of the contest fractured in the next few days. Several remarks by Bill Clinton and other surrogates,[265] and a remark by Hillary Clinton concerning Martin Luther King Jr. andLyndon B. Johnson,[j] were perceived by many as, accidentally or intentionally, limiting Obama as a racially oriented candidate or otherwise denying the post-racial significance and accomplishments of his campaign.[266] Despite attempts by both Hillary and Obama to downplay the issue, Democratic voting became more polarized as a result, with Clinton losing much of her support among African Americans.[265][267] She lost by a two-to-one margin to Obama in the January 26,South Carolina primary,[267] setting up, with Edwards soon dropping out, an intense two-person contest for the twenty-two February5Super Tuesday states. The South Carolina campaign had done lasting damage to Clinton, eroding her support among the Democratic establishment and leading to the prized endorsement of Obama by Ted Kennedy.[268]
On Super Tuesday, Clinton won the largest states, such asCalifornia,New York,New Jersey andMassachusetts, while Obama won more states.[269] They almost evenly split the total popular vote,[270] but Obama was gaining morepledged delegates for his share of the popular vote due to better exploitation of the Democratic proportional allocation rules.[271]
The Clinton campaign had counted on winning the nomination by Super Tuesday and was unprepared financially and logistically for a prolonged effort; lagging in Internet fundraising as Clinton began loaning money to her campaign.[259][272] There was continuous turmoil within the campaign staff, and she made several top-level personnel changes.[272][273] Obama won the next eleven February contests across the country, often by large margins and took a significant pledged delegate lead over Clinton.[271][272] On March 4, Clinton broke the string of losses by winning inOhio among other places,[272] where her criticism of NAFTA, a major legacy of her husband's presidency, helped in a state where the trade agreement was unpopular.[274] Throughout the campaign, Obama dominatedcaucuses, for which the Clinton campaign largely ignored and failed to prepare.[259][271] Obama did well in primaries where African Americans or younger, college-educated, or more affluent voters were heavily represented; Clinton did well in primaries where Hispanics or older, non-college-educated, or working-class white voters predominated.[275][276] Behind in delegates, Clinton's best hope of winning the nomination came in persuading uncommitted, party-appointedsuperdelegates.[277]
Following the final primaries on June 3, 2008, Obama had gained enough delegates to become thepresumptive nominee.[278] In a speech before her supporters on June 7, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[279] By campaign's end, Clinton had won 1,640 pledged delegates to Obama's 1,763;[280] at the time of the clinching, Clinton had 286 superdelegates to Obama's 395,[281] with those numbers widening to 256 versus 438 once Obama was acknowledged the winner.[280] Clinton and Obama each received over 17 million votes during the nomination process[k] with both breaking the previous record.[282] Clinton was the first woman to run in the primary or caucus of every state and she eclipsed, by a very wide margin, CongresswomanShirley Chisholm's1972 marks for most votes garnered and delegates won by a woman.[263] Clinton gave a passionate speech supporting Obama at the2008 Democratic National Convention and campaigned frequently for him in fall 2008, which concluded with his victory over McCain in the general election on November 4.[283]
Hillary Clinton was sworn in as Secretary of State by Associate JudgeKathryn Oberly on January 21, 2009.
Nomination and confirmation
In mid-November 2008, President-elect Obama and Clinton discussed the possibility of her serving assecretary of state in his administration.[284] She was initially quite reluctant, but on November 20 she told Obama she would accept the position.[285][286] On December 1, President-elect Obama formally announced that Clinton would be his nominee for secretary of state.[287][288] Clinton said she did not want to leave the Senate, but that the new position represented a "difficult and exciting adventure".[288] As part of the nomination and to relieve concerns of conflict of interest, Bill Clinton agreed to accept several conditions and restrictions regarding his ongoing activities and fundraising efforts for theWilliam J. Clinton Foundation and theClinton Global Initiative.[289]
The appointment required aSaxbe fix, passed and signed into law in December 2008.[290] Confirmation hearings before theSenate Foreign Relations Committee began on January 13, 2009, a week before the Obama inauguration; two days later, the committee voted 16–1 to approve Clinton.[291] By this time, her public approval rating had reached 65 percent, the highest point since the Lewinsky scandal.[292] On January 21, 2009, Clinton was confirmed in the full Senate by a vote of 94–2.[293] Clinton took the oath of office of secretary of state,resigning from the Senate later that day.[294] She became the first former first lady to be a member of theUnited States Cabinet.[295]
Tenure
During her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton and PresidentObama forged a positive working relationship that lacked power struggles. Clinton was regarded to be a team player within the Obama administration. She was also considered a defender of the administration to the public. She was regarded to be cautious to prevent herself or her husband from upstaging the president.[296][297] Obama and Clinton both approached foreign policy as a largely non-ideological,pragmatic exercise.[285] Clinton met with Obama weekly, but did not have the close, daily relationship that some of her predecessors had had with their presidents.[297] Nevertheless, Obama was trusting of Clinton's actions.[285] Clinton also formed an alliance with Secretary of DefenseRobert Gates with whom she shared similar strategic outlooks.[298]
Russian foreign ministerSergey Lavrov and Clinton holding a "reset button", 2009
As secretary of state, Clinton sought to lead a rehabilitation of the United States' reputation on the world stage. After taking office, Clinton spent several days telephoning dozens of world leaders and indicating thatU.S. foreign policy would change direction. Days into her tenure, she remarked, "We have a lot of damage to repair."[299]
Clinton advocated an expanded role in global economic issues for the State Department, and cited the need for an increased U.S. diplomatic presence, especially in Iraq where the Defense Department had conducteddiplomatic missions.[300] Clinton announced the most ambitious of her departmental reforms, theQuadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which establishes specific objectives for the State Department's diplomatic missions abroad; it was modeled aftera similar process in the Defense Department that she was familiar with from her time on theSenate Armed Services Committee.[301] The first such review was issued in late 2010 and called for the U.S. to lead through "civilian power".[302] and prioritize the empowerment of women throughout the world.[157] One cause that Clinton promoted throughout her tenure was the adoption ofcookstoves in the developing world, to foster cleaner and more environmentally sound food preparation and reduce smoke dangers to women.[285]
In a 2009 internal Obama administration debate regarding theWar in Afghanistan, Clinton sided with the military's recommendations for a maximal "Afghanistan surge", recommending 40,000 troops and no public deadline for withdrawal. She prevailed over Vice PresidentJoe Biden's opposition but eventually supported Obama's compromise plan to send an additional 30,000 troops andtie the surge to a timetable for eventual withdrawal.[222][303]
In March 2009, Clinton presented Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov with a "reset button" symbolizing U.S. attempts to rebuild ties with that country under its new president,Dmitry Medvedev.[304][305] The policy, which became known as theRussian reset, led to improved cooperation in several areas during Medvedev's presidency.[304] However Clinton noted at the time that the U.S. was concerned about Russia's use of energy as a tool of intimidation.[306] Bilateral relations, however, would decline considerably, after Medvedev's presidency ended in 2012 andVladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency.[307]
Clinton with the Israeli President,Shimon Peres in 2009. Behind them is anIsraeli artwork made of basalt ash.
In October 2009, on a trip to Switzerland, Clinton's intervention overcame last-minute snafues and managed to secure the final signing of anhistoric Turkish–Armenian accord that established diplomatic relations and opened the border between the two long-hostile nations.[308][309] Beginning in 2010, she helped organize a diplomatic isolation and international sanctions regime against Iran, in an effort to force curtailment ofthat country's nuclear program; this eventually lead to the multinationalJoint Comprehensive Plan of Action being agreed to in 2015.[285][310][311]
In a prepared speech in January 2010, Clinton drew analogies between theIron Curtain and the free and unfree Internet,[312] which marked the first time that a senior American government official had clearly defined the Internet as a key element of American foreign policy.[313]
In July 2010, she visited South Korea, where she andCheryl Mills successfully worked to convince SAE-A, a large apparel subcontractor, to invest inHaiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage.[314] This tied into the "build back better" program initiated by her husband after he was named the UN Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009 following a tropical storm season that caused $1 billion in damages to Haiti.[315]
The2011 Egyptian protests posed the most challenging foreign policy crisis yet for the Obama administration.[316] Clinton's public response quickly evolved from an early assessment that the government ofHosni Mubarak was "stable", to a stance that there needed to be an "orderly transition [to] a democratic participatory government", to a condemnation of violence against the protesters.[317][318] Obama came to rely upon Clinton's advice, organization and personal connections in the behind-the-scenes response to developments.[316] AsArab Spring protests spread throughout the region, Clinton was at the forefront of a U.S. response that she recognized was sometimes contradictory, backing some regimes while supporting protesters against others.[319]
As theLibyan Civil War took place, Clinton's shift in favor of military intervention aligned her withAmbassador to the UNSusan Rice and National Security Council figureSamantha Power. This was a key turning point in overcoming internal administration opposition from Defense Secretary Gates, security advisorThomas E. Donilon and counterterrorism advisorJohn Brennan in gaining the backing for, and Arab and U.N. approval of, the2011 military intervention in Libya.[319][320][321] Secretary Clinton testified to Congress that the administration did not needcongressional authorization for its military intervention in Libya, despite objections from some members of both parties that the administration was violating theWar Powers Resolution. The State Department's legal advisor argued the same point when the Resolution's 60-day limit for unauthorized wars was passed (a view that prevailed in a legal debate within the Obama administration).[322] Clinton later used U.S. allies and what she called "convening power" to promote unity among theLibyan rebels as they eventually overthrew theGaddafi regime.[320] Theaftermath of the Libyan Civil War saw the country becoming afailed state.[323] The wisdom of the intervention and interpretation of what happened afterward would become the subject of considerable debate.[324][325][326]
During April 2011, internal deliberations of the president's innermost circle of advisors over whether to orderU.S. special forces to conduct a raid into Pakistan againstOsama bin Laden, Clinton was among those who argued in favor, saying the importance of getting bin Laden outweighed the risks to the U.S. relationship with Pakistan.[327][328] Following the completion of the mission on May2 resulting inbin Laden's death, Clinton played a key role in the administration's decision not to release photographs of the dead al-Qaeda leader.[329] During internal discussions regarding Iraq in 2011, Clinton argued for keeping a residual force of up to 10,000–20,000 U.S. troops there. (All of them ended up being withdrawn after negotiations for a revisedU.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement failed.)[222][330]
In a speech before theUnited Nations Human Rights Council in December 2011, Clinton said that, "Gay rights are human rights", and that the U.S. would advocate forgay rights and legal protections of gay people abroad.[331] The same period saw her overcome internal administration opposition with a direct appeal to Obama and stage the first visit toBurma by a U.S. secretary of state since 1955. She met with Burmese leaders as well as opposition leaderAung San Suu Kyi and sought to support the2011 Burmese democratic reforms.[332][333] She also said the 21st century would be "America's Pacific century",[334] a declaration that was part of theObama administration's "pivot to Asia".[335]
During theSyrian Civil War, Clinton and the Obama administration initially sought to persuade Syrian presidentBashar al-Assad to engage popular demonstrations with reform. As government violence allegedly rose in August 2011, they called for him to resign from the presidency.[336] The administration joined several countries in delivering non-lethal assistance to so-calledrebels opposed to the Assad government and humanitarian groups working in Syria.[337] During mid-2012, Clinton formed a plan with CIA Director David Petraeus to further strengthen the opposition by arming and training vetted groups of Syrian rebels. The proposal was rejected by White House officials who were reluctant to become entangled in the conflict, fearing that extremists hidden among the rebels might turn the weapons against other targets.[332][338]
In December 2012, Clinton was hospitalized for a few days for treatment of ablood clot in herright transversevenous sinus.[339] Her doctors had discovered the clot during a follow-up examination for aconcussion she had sustained when she fainted and fell nearly three weeks earlier, as a result of severe dehydration from a viralintestinal ailment acquired during a trip to Europe.[339][340] The clot, which caused no immediate neurological injury, was treated withanticoagulant medication, and her doctors have said she has made a full recovery.[340][341][l]
Overall themes
Clinton, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on Operation Neptune Spear in the White House Situation Room in 2011. Everyone in the room is watching a live feed from drones operating over the Osama bin Laden complex.
Throughout her time in office (and mentioned in her final speech concluding it), Clinton viewed "smart power" as the strategy for asserting U.S. leadership and values. In a world of varied threats, weakened central governments and increasingly important nongovernmental entities, smart power combined militaryhard power with diplomacy and U.S.soft power capacities in global economics, development aid, technology, creativity and human rights advocacy.[320][346] As such, she became the first secretary of state to methodically implement the smart power approach.[347] In debates over use of military force, she was generally one of the morehawkish voices in the administration.[222][298][330] In August 2011 she hailed the ongoing multinational military intervention in Libya and the initial U.S. response towards the Syrian Civil War as examples of smart power in action.[348]
Clinton greatly expanded the State Department's use ofsocial media, including Facebook and Twitter, to get its message out and to help empower citizens of foreign countries vis-à-vis their governments.[320]And in the Mideast turmoil, Clinton particularly saw an opportunity to advance one of the central themes of her tenure, the empowerment and welfare of women and girls worldwide.[157] Moreover, in a formulation that became known as the "Hillary Doctrine", she viewed women's rights as critical for U.S. security interests, due to a link between the level of violence against women and gender inequality within a state, and the instability and challenge to international security of that state.[296][349] In turn, there was a trend of women around the world finding more opportunities, and in some cases feeling safer, as the result of her actions and visibility.[350]
Clinton visited 112 countries during her tenure, making her the most widely traveled secretary of state[351][m] (Time magazine wrote that "Clinton's endurance is legendary".)[320] The first secretary of state to visit countries likeTogo andEast Timor, she believed that in-person visits were more important than ever in the virtual age.[354] As early as March 2011, she indicated she was not interested in serving a second term as secretary of state should Obama bere-elected in 2012;[321] in December 2012, following that re-election, Obama nominated SenatorJohn Kerry to be Clinton's successor.[340] Her last day as secretary of state was February 1, 2013.[355] Upon her departure, analysts commented that Clinton's tenure did not bring any signature diplomatic breakthroughs as some other secretaries of state had accomplished,[356][357] and highlighted her focus on goals she thought were less tangible but would have more lasting effect.[358] She has also been criticized for accepting millions in dollars in donations from foreign governments to theClinton Foundation during her tenure as Secretary of State.[359]
On December 19, a panel led byThomas R. Pickering andMichael Mullen issued its report on the matter. It was sharply critical of State Department officials in Washington for ignoring requests for more guards and safety upgrades and for failing to adapt security procedures to a deteriorating security environment.[362] It focused its criticism on the department'sBureau of Diplomatic Security andBureau of Near Eastern Affairs; four State Department officials at the assistant secretary level and below were removed from their posts as a consequence.[363] Clinton said she accepted the conclusions of the report and that changes were underway to implement its suggested recommendations.[362]
Clinton gave testimony to two congressional foreign affairs committees on January 23, 2013, regarding the Benghazi attack. She defended her actions in response to the incident, and while still accepting formal responsibility, said she had had no direct role in specific discussions beforehand regarding consulate security.[364] Congressional Republicans challenged her on several points, to which she responded. In particular, after persistent questioning about whether or not the administration had issued inaccurate "talking points" after the attack, Clinton responded with the much-quoted rejoinder, "With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they'd they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator."[364][365]In November 2014, theHouse Intelligence Committee issued a report that concluded there had been no wrongdoing in the administration's response to the attack.[366]
The Republican-ledHouse Select Committee on Benghazi was created in May 2014 and conducted a two-year investigation related to the 2012 attack.[367] The committee was criticized as partisan,[367][368] including by one of its ex-staffers.[369] Some Republicans admitted that the committee aimed to lower Clinton's poll numbers.[370][371] On October 22, 2015, Clinton testified at an all-day and nighttime session before the committee.[372][373] Clinton was widely seen as emerging largely unscathed from the hearing, because of what the media perceived as a calm and unfazed demeanor and a lengthy, meandering, repetitive line of questioning from the committee.[374] The committee issued competing final reports in June 2016; the Republican report offered no evidence of culpability by Clinton.[368][367]
During her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton conducted official business exclusively through her private email server, as opposed to her government email account.[375] Some experts, officials, members of Congress and political opponents contended that her use of privatemessaging system software and a private server violated State Department protocols and procedures, and federal laws and regulations governingrecordkeeping requirements. The controversy occurred against the backdrop of Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign and hearings held by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.[376][377]
In a joint statement released on July 15, 2015, the inspector general of the State Department and the inspector general of the intelligence community said their review of the emails found information that was classified when sent, remained so at the time of their inspection and "never should have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system". They also stated unequivocally this classified information should never have been stored outside of secure government computer systems. Clinton had said over a period of months that she kept no classified information on the private server that she set up in her house.[378] Government policy, reiterated in the nondisclosure agreement signed by Clinton as part of gaining her security clearance, is that sensitive information can be considered as classified even if not marked as such.[379] After allegations were raised that some of the emails in question fell into the so-called "born classified" category, an FBI probe was initiated regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server.[380]The New York Times reported in February 2016 that nearly 2,100 emails stored on Clinton's server were retroactively marked classified by the State Department. Additionally, the intelligence community's inspector general wrote Congress to say that some of the emails "contained classified State Department information when originated".[381] In May 2016, the inspector general of the State Department criticized her use of a private email server while secretary of state, stating that she had not requested permission for this and would not have received it if she had asked.[382]
Clinton maintained she did not send or receive any emails from her personal server that were confidential at the time they were sent. In a Democratic debate withBernie Sanders on February 4, 2016, Clinton said, "I never sent or received any classified material—they are retroactively classifying it." On July 2, 2016, Clinton stated: "Let me repeat what I have repeated for many months now, I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified."[383][384]
On July 5, 2016, theFBI concluded its investigation. In a statement, FBI directorJames Comey said:
110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were "up-classified" to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.[385][386]
Out of 30,000, three emails were found to be marked as classified, although they lacked classified headers and were marked only with a small "c" in parentheses, described as "portion markings" by Comey. He also said it was possible Clinton was not "technically sophisticated" enough to understand what the three classified markings meant.[386] The probe found Clinton used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, both sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Comey acknowledged that it was "possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal email account". He added that "[although] we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information". Nevertheless, Comey asserted that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring criminal charges in this case, despite the existence of "potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information". The FBI recommended that the Justice Department decline to prosecute.[385] On July 6, 2016, U.S. Attorney GeneralLoretta Lynch confirmed that the probe into Clinton's use of private email servers would be closed without criminal charges.[387]
Two weeks before the election, on October 28, 2016, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had begun looking into newly discovered Clinton emails. On November 6, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had not changed the conclusion it had reached in July.[388] The notification was later cited by Clinton as a factor in her loss in the2016 presidential election.[389] The emails controversy received more media coverage than any other topic during the 2016 presidential election.[390][391][392]
The State Department finished its internal review in September 2019. It found that Clinton's use of a personal email server increased the risk of information being compromised, but concluded there was no evidence of "systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information".[393]
When Clinton left the State Department, she returned to private life for the first time in thirty years.[394] She and her daughter joined her husband as named members of theBill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation in 2013.[395] There she focused on early childhood development efforts, including an initiative called Too Small to Fail and a $600 million initiative to encourage the enrollment of girls in secondary schools worldwide, led by former Australian Prime MinisterJulia Gillard.[395][396]
In 2014, Clinton published a second memoir,Hard Choices, which focused on her time as secretary of state. As of July 2015[update], the book had sold about 280,000 copies.[397]Clinton also led the No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, a partnership with theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation to gather and study data on the progress of women and girls around the world since the Beijing conference in 1995.[398] The foundation began accepting new donations from foreign governments, which it had stopped doing while she was secretary of state.[n] However, even though the Clinton Foundation had stopped taking donations from foreign governments, they continued to take large donations from foreign citizens who were sometimes linked to their governments.[401]
She began work on another volume of memoirs and made appearances on the paid speaking circuit.[402] There she received $200,000–225,000 per engagement, often appearing beforeWall Street firms or atbusiness conventions.[402][403] She also made some unpaid speeches on behalf of the foundation.[402] For the fifteen months ending in March 2015, Clinton earned over $11 million from her speeches.[404] For the overall period 2007–14, the Clintons earned almost $141 million, paid some $56 million in federal and state taxes and donated about $15 million to charity.[405] As of 2015[update], she was estimated to be worth over $30 million on her own, or $45–53 million with her husband.[406]
Clinton resigned from the board of the Clinton Foundation in April 2015, when she began her presidential campaign. The foundation said it would accept new foreign governmental donations from six Western nations only.[n]
On April 12, 2015, Clinton formally announced her candidacy for the presidency in the 2016 election.[407] She had a campaign-in-waiting already in place, including a large donor network, experienced operatives and theReady for Hillary andPriorities USA Action political action committees and other infrastructure.[408] Prior to her campaign, Clinton had claimed in an interview onNDTV in May 2012 that she would not seek the presidency again, but later wrote in her 2014 autobiographyHard Choices that she had not decided.[409][410] The campaign's headquarters were established in the New York Cityborough ofBrooklyn.[411] Her campaign focused on: raising middle class incomes, establishinguniversal preschool, making college more affordable and improving theAffordable Care Act.[412][413] Initially considered a prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination,[407] Clinton faced an unexpectedly strong challenge fromdemocratic socialist SenatorBernie Sanders of Vermont. His longtime stance against the influence of corporations and the wealthy in American politics resonated with a dissatisfied citizenry troubled by the effects ofincome inequality in the U.S. and contrasted with Clinton's Wall Street ties.[403][413]
In the initial contest of the primaries season, Clinton only very narrowly won theIowa Democratic caucuses, held February 1, over an increasingly popular Sanders[414][415] — the first woman to win them.[414] In the first primary,held in New Hampshire on February 9, she lost to Sanders by a wide margin.[416] Sanders was an increasing threat in the next contest, theNevada caucuses on February 20,[417] but Clinton managed a five-percentage-point win, aided by final-days campaigning among casino workers.[418] Clinton followed that with a lopsided victory in theSouth Carolina primary on February 27.[417] These two victories stabilized her campaign and showed an avoidance of the management turmoil that harmed her 2008 effort.[417]
On March 1Super Tuesday, Clinton won 7 of 11 contests, including a string of dominating victories across the South buoyed, as in South Carolina, by African-American voters. She opened up a significant lead in pledged delegates over Sanders.[419] She maintained this delegate lead across subsequent contests during the primary season, with a consistent pattern throughout. Sanders did better among younger, whiter, more rural and more liberal voters and states that held caucuses or whereeligibility was open to independents. Clinton did better among older, black and Hispanic voter populations, and in states that held primaries or where eligibility was restricted to registered Democrats.[420][421][422]
By June 5, 2016, she had earned enough pledged delegates and supportive superdelegates for the media to consider her the presumptive nominee.[423] On June 7, after winning most of the states in the final major round of primaries, Clinton held a victory rally in Brooklyn becoming the first woman to claim the status of presumptive nominee for a major American political party.[424] By campaign's end, Clinton had won 2,219 pledged delegates to Sanders' 1,832; with an estimated 594 superdelegates compared to Sanders' 47.[425] She received almost 17 million votes during the nominating process, as opposed to Sanders' 13 million.[426]
Clinton was formally nominated at the2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 26, 2016, becoming the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.[427] Her choice of vice presidentialrunning mate, SenatorTim Kaine, was nominated by the convention the following day.[428] Her opponents in the general election included Republican Donald Trump,LibertarianGary Johnson andJill Stein of theGreen Party. Around the time of the convention,WikiLeaks releasedemails that suggested the DNC and the Clinton campaign tilted the primary in Clinton's favor.[429]
Clinton held a significant lead innational polls over Trump throughout most of 2016. In early July, Trump and Clinton were tied in major polls following the FBI's conclusion of its investigation into her emails.[430][431]FBI Director James Comey concluded Clinton had been "extremely careless" in her handling of classified government material.[432] In late July, Trump gained his first lead over Clinton in major polls following a three to four percentage pointconvention bounce at theRepublican National Convention. This was in line with the average bounce in conventions since2004, although it was toward the low side by historical standards.[433][434][435] Following Clinton's seven percentage point convention bounce at the Democratic National Convention, she regained a significant lead in national polls at the start of August.[436][437] In fall 2016, Clinton and Tim Kaine publishedStronger Together, which outlined their vision for the United States.[438]
Clinton delivering her concession speech
Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in the November 8, 2016, presidential election.[439] By the early morning hours of November 9, Trump had received 279 projected electoral college votes, with 270 needed to win; media sources proclaimed him the winner.[440] Clinton then phoned Trump to concede and to congratulate him on his victory, whereupon Trump gave his victory speech.[441] The next morning Clinton made a public concession speech in which she acknowledged the pain of her loss, but called on her supporters to accept Trump as their next president, saying: "We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead."[442] Though Clinton lost the election by capturing only 232 electoral votes to Trump's 306, she won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes, or 2.1% of the voter base.[443][444] She is the fifth presidential candidate in U.S. history to win the popular vote but lose the election.[o][445][446] She won the most votes of any candidate who did not take office and the third-most votes of any candidate in history,[447][448] though she did not have the greatest percentage win of a losing candidate. (Andrew Jackson won the popular vote by 10.4% but lost toJohn Quincy Adams.)[449]
On December 19, 2016, when electors formally voted, Clinton lost five of her initial 232 votes due tofaithless electors, with three of herWashington votes being cast instead forColin Powell, one being cast forFaith Spotted Eagle, and one inHawaii being cast for Bernie Sanders.[450]
Clinton maintained a low profile in the months following her defeat in the 2016 presidential election.[451] She frequently engaged in nature walks in Chappaqua, with various sightings of Clinton circulating on social media.[452] On January 20, 2017, she attended theinauguration of Donald Trump.[453] On her decision to attend, Clinton stated: "I'm here today to honor our democracy & its enduring values, I will never stop believing in our country &[sic] its future."[454] Clinton also began work on a book of personal essays, in which she would reflect on her defeat in the election.[455] The book,What Happened, was released on September 12, 2017, alongside apicture book adaption ofIt Takes a Village.[456][457]
Clinton delivered aSt. Patrick's Day speech inScranton, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 2017. In it, alluding to reports that she had been seen taking walks in the woods around Chappaqua following her loss in the presidential election,[458][459] Clinton indicated her readiness to emerge from "the woods" and become politically active again.[458] However, the following month she confirmed she would not seek public office again.[460] She reiterated her comments in March 2019 and stated she would not run for presidentin 2020.[461]
In May 2017, Clinton announced the formation ofOnward Together, a new political action committee that she wrote is "dedicated to advancing the progressive vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election".[462] Clinton has also made occasional comments on political issues in the time since losing her presidential campaign,[463] and authored severalop-eds.[464][465][466]
On April 28, 2020, Clinton endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice PresidentJoe Biden, for president in the2020 election[467] and she addressed the2020 Democratic National Convention in August.[468] On July 21, 2024, Clinton endorsedKamala Harris for president in the2024 election.[469] On August 19, 2024, Clinton spoke at the2024 Democratic National Convention. In her speech, she referenced the34 felony convictions of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, prompting chants of "Lock him up!" from the crowd in an ironic reference to Trump's own chants of "Lock her up!" in reference to Clinton's email scandal during his 2016 campaign.[470]
Since the election, Clinton has released several books. Clinton and her daughter Chelsea co-authored 2019'sThe Book of Gutsy Women and 2020'sGrandma's Gardens.[471] On October 12, 2021, Clinton co-authored the fiction novelState of Terror withLouise Penny.[472] Clinton is set to release another memoir,Something Lost, Something Gained, on September 17, 2024.[473]
Clinton has also been involved in a number of media ventures. Clinton collaborated with directorNanette Burstein on thedocumentary filmHillary, which was released onHulu in March 2020.[474] On September 29, 2020, Clinton launched an interviewpodcast in collaboration withiHeartRadio titledYou and Me Both.[475] She has also produced television series, so far being a producer on theApple TV+ seriesGutsy[476] and the upcomingThe CW adaption ofThe Woman's Hour.[477]
On January 2, 2020, it was announced that Clinton would take up the position ofChancellor atQueen's University Belfast. Clinton became the 11th and first female chancellor of the university, filling the position that had been vacant since 2018 after the death of her predecessor,Thomas J. Moran.[478][479] In January 2023,Columbia University announced that Clinton would join the university as professor of practice at theSchool of International and Public Affairs and as a presidential fellow at Columbia World Projects.[480]
Using her Senate votes, several organizations have attempted to measure Clinton's place on thepolitical spectrum scientifically.National Journal's 2004 study of roll-call votes assigned Clinton a rating of 30 on the political spectrum, relative to the Senate at the time, with a rating of1 being most liberal and 100 being most conservative.[481]National Journal's subsequent rankings placed her as the 32nd-most liberal senator in 2006 and 16th-most liberal senator in 2007.[482] A 2004 analysis by political scientists Joshua D. Clinton ofPrinceton University and Simon Jackman and Doug Rivers ofStanford University found her likely to be the sixth-to-eighth-most liberal senator.[483]The Almanac of American Politics, edited byMichael Barone andRichard E. Cohen, rated her votes from 2003 through 2006 as liberal on economics, social issues, and foreign policy.[p] According toFiveThirtyEight's measure of political ideology, "Clinton was one of the most liberal members during her time in the Senate."[484] Clinton herself has identified as aNew Democrat like her husband; at a campaign event during her 2016 presidential campaign, she confirmed accusations of being "moderate and center", stating "I plead guilty".[485] Jeffrey Isaac, writing inPublic Seminar, identified Clinton as a "Centrist Liberal".[486]
Organizations have also attempted to provide more recent assessments of Clinton after she reentered elective politics in 2015. Based on her stated positions from the 1990s to the present,On the Issues places her in the "Left Liberal" region on their two-dimensional grid of social and economic ideologies, with a social score of 80 on a scale of zero more-restrictive to 100 less-government stances, with an economic score of ten on a scale of zero more-restrictive to 100 less-government stances.[487]Crowdpac, which does a data aggregation of campaign contributions, votes and speeches, gives her a 6.5L rating on a one-dimensional left-right scale from 10L (most liberal) to 10C (most conservative).[488]
Economics
In March 2016, Clinton laid out a detailed economic plan, whichThe New York Times called "optimistic" and "wide-ranging". Basing her economic philosophy oninclusive capitalism, Clinton proposed a "clawback" that would rescind tax relief and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas; providing incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment, rather than focusing on short-term profits to increase stock value and rewarding shareholders; increasing collective bargaining rights; and placing an "exit tax" on companies that move their headquarters out of America to pay a lower tax rate overseas.[489]
Domestic policy
Clinton accepts thescientific consensus on climate change and supportscap-and-trade,[490] and opposed theKeystone XL pipeline.[491] She supported "equal pay for equal work", to address current shortfalls in how much women are paid to do the same jobs men do.[492] Clinton has explicitly focused on family issues and supports universal preschool.[493] These programs would be funded by proposing tax increases on the wealthy, including a "fair share surcharge".[494] Clinton supported the Affordable Care Act[495] and would have added a "public option" that competed with private insurers and enabled people "50 or 55 and up" to buy into Medicare.[496][497]
LGBT rights
Clinton supports the right tosame-sex marriage, a position that has developed throughout her political career.[493] In 2000, she was against such marriages altogether. In 2006, she said only that she would support a state's decision to permit same-sex marriages, but opposed federally amending the Constitution to permit same-sex marriage. While running for president in 2007, she again reiterated her opposition to same-sex marriage, although she expressed her support of civil unions.[498][499] 2013 marked the first time that Clinton expressed support for a national right to same-sex marriage.[499] In 2016, she was the first major-party presidential candidate ever to write an op-ed for an LGBT newspaper, thePhiladelphia Gay News.[500]
Immigration
Clinton held that allowingundocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship "[i]s at its heart a family issue",[501] and expressed support for Obama'sDeferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program, which would allow up to five million undocumented immigrants to gain deferral of deportation and authorization to legally work in the United States.[502][503] However, in 2014, Clinton stated thatunaccompanied children crossing the border "should be sent back".[504] She opposed and criticized Trump's call to temporarily banMuslims from entering the United States.[505]
Clinton has been a lifelongMethodist, and has been part ofUnited Methodist Church congregations throughout her life. She has publicly discussed her Christian faith on several occasions, although seldom while campaigning.[519][520] ProfessorPaul Kengor, author ofGod and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life, has suggested that Clinton's political positions are rooted in her faith. She often expresses amaxim often attributed toJohn Wesley: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can."[519]
Clinton worked atRose Law Firm for fifteen years. Her professional career and political involvement set the stage for public reaction to her as the first lady.
Over one hundred books and scholarly works have been written about Clinton. A 2006 survey by theNew York Observer found "a virtual cottage industry" of "anti-Clinton literature" put out byRegnery Publishing and other conservative imprints. Some titles includeMadame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House,Hillary's Scheme: Inside the Next Clinton's Ruthless Agenda to Take the White House andCan She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless ... Books praising Clinton did not sell nearly as well[521] (other than her memoirs and those of her husband). When she ran for Senate in 2000, several fundraising groups such as Save Our Senate and the Emergency Committee to Stop Hillary Rodham Clinton sprang up to oppose her.[522] Don Van Natta found that Republican and conservative groups viewed her as a reliable "bogeyman" to mention in fundraising letters, on a par with Ted Kennedy, and the equivalent of Democratic and liberal appeals mentioningNewt Gingrich.[523]
Clinton has also been featured in the media and popular culture in a wide spectrum of perspectives. In 1995, writerTodd S. Purdum ofThe New York Times characterized Clinton as aRorschach test,[524] an assessment echoed at the time by feminist writer and activistBetty Friedan, who said, "Coverage of Hillary Clinton is a massive Rorschach test of the evolution of women in our society."[525] She has been the subject of manysatirical impressions onSaturday Night Live, beginning with her time as the first lady. She has made guest appearances on the show herself, in 2008 and in 2015, to face-off with herdoppelgängers.[526][527]
Clinton in 2015
She has often been described in the popular media as apolarizing figure, though some argue otherwise.[528] In the early stages of her 2008 presidential campaign, aTime magazine cover showed a large picture of her with twocheckboxes labeled "Love Her", "Hate Her".[529]Mother Jones titled its profile of her "Harpy, Hero, Heretic: Hillary".[530] Following Clinton's "choked up moment" and related incidents in the run-up to the January 2008 New Hampshire primary, bothThe New York Times andNewsweek found that discussion of gender's role in the campaign had moved into the national political discourse.[531][532]Newsweek editorJon Meacham summed up the relationship between Clinton and the American public by saying the New Hampshire events, "brought an odd truth to light: though Hillary Rodham Clinton has been on the periphery or in the middle of national life for decades ... she is one of the most recognizable but least understood figures in American politics".[532]
Once she became secretary of state, Clinton's image seemed to improve dramatically among the American public and became one of a respected world figure.[296][533] Her favorability ratings dropped, however, after she left office and began to be viewed in the context of partisan politics once more.[534] By September 2015, with her 2016 presidential campaign underway and beset by continued reports regarding her private email usage at the State Department, her ratings had slumped to some of her lowest levels ever.[535] In March 2016, she acknowledged that: "I'm not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed."[536]
^Several dates have been published for the King speech she witnessed, but April 15, 1962, is the most likely.[21]
^Research byThe New York Sun in 2007 found it unclear exactly which cases beyond child custody ones Rodham worked on at the Treuhaft firm.[53] Anti-Clinton writers such asBarbara Olson would later charge Hillary Clinton with never repudiating Treuhaft's ideology, and for retaining social and political ties with his wife and fellow communistJessica Mitford.[54] FurtherSun research revealed that Mitford and Hillary Clinton were not close, and had a falling-out over a 1980 Arkansas prisoner case.[55]
^abAs of 1993, she had not legally changed her name from Hillary Rodham.[100] Bill Clinton's advisers thought her use of her maiden name to be one of the reasons for his 1980 gubernatorial re-election loss. During the following winter,Vernon Jordan suggested to Hillary Rodham that she start using the name Clinton, and she began to do so publicly with her husband's February 1982 campaign announcement to regain that office. She later wrote, "I learned the hard way that some voters in Arkansas were seriously offended by the fact that I kept my maiden name."[101] Once he was elected again, she made a point of using "Hillary Rodham Clinton" in work she did as First Lady of the state.[79] Once she became first lady of the United States in 1993, she publicly stated that she wanted to be known as "Hillary Rodham Clinton".[100] She has authored all her books under that name and she has continued to use that name on her website and elsewhere when becoming a U.S. senator.[102] When running for president during 2007–2008, she used the name "Hillary Clinton" or just "Hillary" in campaign materials.[102] She used "Hillary Rodham Clinton" again in official materials as secretary of state.[103] As of the 2015 launch of her second presidential campaign, she again switched to using "Hillary Clinton" in campaign materials;[103] in November 2015 both theAssociated Press andThe New York Times noted that they would no longer use "Rodham" in referring to Clinton, with theTimes stating that "the Clinton campaign confirmed ... that Mrs. Clinton prefers to be simply, 'Hillary Clinton'".[104]
^Clinton said in the joint60 Minutes interview, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman 'standing by my man' like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together." The seemingly sneering reference tocountry music provoked immediate criticism that Clinton was culturally tone-deaf, and Wynette herself did not like the remark because "Stand by Your Man" is not written in the first person.[127] Wynette added that Clinton had "offended every true country music fan and every person who has "made it on their own" with no one to take them to a White House".[128] A few days later, onPrimetime Live, Clinton apologized to Wynette. Clinton would later write that she had been careless in her choice of words and that "the fallout from my reference to Tammy Wynette was instant—as it deserved to be—and brutal".[129] The two women later resolved their differences, with Wynette appearing at a Clinton fundraiser.
^Less than two months after the Wynette remarks, Clinton was facing questions about whether she could have avoided possible conflicts of interest between her governor husband and work given to the Rose Law Firm when she remarked, "I've done the best I can to lead my life ... You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life."[130] The "cookies and teas" part of this statement prompted even more culture-based criticism of Clinton's apparent distaste for women who had chosen to be homemakers; the remark became a recurring campaign liability.[131] Clinton subsequently offered up some cookie recipes as a way of making amends and would later write of her chagrin: "Besides, I've done quite a lot of cookie baking in my life, and tea-pouring too!"[130]
^GeneralJack Keane, one of the architects of the surge, later related that he tried to convince Clinton of its merits at the time, but that she felt it would not succeed and that U.S. casualties would be too high. Keane said that sometime during 2008 she told him, "You were right, this really did work".[222] In 2014, Secretary of Defense Gates related that after Clinton had left the Senate and become Secretary of State, she told President Obama that her opposition to the 2007 Iraq surge had been political, due to her facing a strong challenge from the anti-Iraq War Obama in the upcoming Democratic presidential primary. Gates also quotes Clinton as saying, "The Iraq surge worked."[244] Clinton responded that Gates had misinterpreted her remark regarding the reason for her opposition.[222]
^When asked for her reaction to an Obama remark about the possibility that his campaign represented false hope, Clinton responded: "I would point to the fact that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in people's lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished."[266]
^"2008 Democratic Popular Vote".RealClearPolitics. RetrievedJuly 8, 2008. The popular vote count for a nomination process is unofficial, and meaningless in determining the nominee. It is difficult to come up with precise totals due to some caucus states not reporting popular vote totals and thus having to be estimated. It is also difficult to compare Clinton and Obama's totals, due to only her name having been on the ballot in the Michigan primary.[277]
^While generally experiencing good health in her life, Clinton had previously had a potentially serious blood clot behind her knee (adeep vein thrombosis) while first lady in 1998, for which she had required anticoagulant treatment.[342] An elbow fracture and subsequent painful recuperation had caused Clinton to miss two foreign trips as Secretary of State in 2009.[343] It was also disclosed in 2015 that she had a second deep vein thrombosis in 2009.[344] The 2012 concussion and clot episode caused Clinton to postpone her congressional testimony on theBenghazi attack and to miss any foreign trips planned for the rest of her tenure.[340] After returning to public activity, she wore special glasses for two months, with aFresnel lens for the left eye to compensate fordouble vision, a lingering effect of the concussion.[341][345] She remained on anticoagulant medication as a precaution.[341]
^Clinton's 112 countries visited brokeMadeleine Albright's previous mark of 96.[352] Clinton's sum of 956,733 air miles traveled, however, fell short ofCondoleezza Rice's record for mileage.[351] That total, 1,059,207, was bolstered late in her tenure by repeated trips to the Middle East.[353]
^abDuring Clinton's tenure there were several cases where foreign governments continued making donations to the Clinton Foundation at the same level they had before Clinton became secretary of state, which was permissible under the agreement forged before she took office. There was one instance of a new donation, $500,000 from Algeria for earthquake relief in Haiti, that was outside the bounds of the continuation provision and should have received a special State Department ethics review but did not.[399] The foundation's new stance as of April 2015[update] and Clinton's presidential candidacy was to accept foreign governmental donations only from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.[400]
^SeeBarone, Michael;Cohen, Richard E. (2008).The Almanac of American Politics.National Journal. p. 1126. And 2006 edition of same, 1152. The scores for individual years are [highest rating 100, format: liberal, (conservative)]: 2003: Economic = 90 (7), Social = 85 (0), Foreign = 79 (14). Average = 85 (7). 2004: Economic = 63 (36), Social = 82 (0), Foreign = 58 (41). Average = 68 (26). 2005: Economic = 84 (15), Social = 83 (10), Foreign = 66 (29). Average = 78 (18). 2006: Economic = 63 (35), Social = 80 (14), Foreign = 62 (35). Average = 68 (28).
References
Citations
^"Hillary Clinton Bio". CNN.Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. RetrievedJuly 19, 2019.Name: Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton Secter, Bob; Trice, Dawn Turner (November 27, 2017)."Clinton: Most famous. Least known?".Chicago Tribune.Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. RetrievedJuly 19, 2019.What You May Not Know About ... Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
^O'Laughlin, Dania (Summer 2003)."Edgewater Hospital 1929–2001". Edgewater Historical Society.Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. RetrievedAugust 22, 2019.
^abcBrock 1996, p. 4. Her father was an outspoken Republican, while her mother kept quiet but was "basically a Democrat." See also Bernstein 2007, p. 16.
^"The Class of '69".Life. June 20, 1969. pp. 28–33. Archived fromthe original on December 25, 2014. The article features Rodham and two student commencement speakers from other schools, with photos and excerpts from their speeches.
^Morris 1996, p. 139; Bernstein 2007, p. 105. Clinton would later write, and repeat on theLate Show with David Letterman, that sliming fish was the best preparation she would ever have for living in Washington. Clinton 2003, pp. 42–43.
^Bernstein 2007, p. 92; Allen and Parnes 2014, p. 149. Taking an out-of-date bar study class may have been a factor. Two-thirds (551 of 817) of the candidates passed. Rodham did not tell even close friends of the failure until revealing it thirty years later in her autobiography.
^Bernstein 2007, pp. 128, 103. The firm was called Rose, Nash, Williamson, Carroll, Clay & Giroir, but it simplified its name to Rose Law Firm in 1980.
^abBernstein 2007, pp. 170–75. Bernstein states that "the political battle for education reform ... would be her greatest accomplishment in public life until she was elected to the U.S. Senate."
^"Hillary Rodham Clinton".PBS. Archived fromthe original on December 28, 2014. RetrievedDecember 2, 2014. Clinton had the first postgraduate degree through regular study and scholarly work.Eleanor Roosevelt had previously been awarded a postgraduate honorary degree. Clinton's successorLaura Bush became the second first lady with a postgraduate degree.
^Brozan, Nadine (January 17, 1996)."Chronicle".The New York Times.Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. RetrievedJuly 28, 2007.It takes a village to raise a child
^Kuperman, Alan J. (March–April 2015). "Obama's Libya Debacle".Foreign Affairs.
^Chollet, Derek; Fishman, Ben (May–June 2015)."Who Lost Libya?".Foreign Affairs.94 (May/June 2015).Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. RetrievedJuly 12, 2024.
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