It’s not easy being green when every other foreign leader wears white – as former Secretary of state Hillary Clinton let Huma Abedin know in an angry email.
Clinton unloaded on longtime aide Abedin after a 2012 summit where every leader besides Clinton wore a white shirt provided by the Mexican government and posed for an awkward photo.
A humiliated Clinton demanded that she be kept in the loop for similar decisions in the future, prompting an immediate apology from Abedin – in an early indicator of top-heavy communications and poor planning that bedeviled her second presidential campaign.
‘I’m venting,’ reads the subject line for the February 20, 2012 email, the day of a Mexico summit of G-20 diplomats where the fashion faux-pas that humiliated the former secretary of state.
GOT ANY BLEACH? Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton(C), Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy(L), Mexico’s Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa (2ndR), and South Africia’s Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and others are seated for the G20 foreign ministers family photo in Los Cabos, Mexico, on February 20, 2012. Clinton vented about her wardrobe that day in an email released by the State Department
‘So, here I sit in the meeting surrounded by ever other person dressed in a white shirt provided by the Mexicans. Patricia is not wearing the exact style that all others are but her own white shirt,’ she said, in reference to Mexico’s Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.
‘But, since no one ever told me about this, and instead assumed I didn’t need to know, I had no idea about any of this until I just walked into the large meeting in front of the entire press corps and I’m wearing a green top,’ Clinton continued.
‘So, what’s my answer when asked why I think I’m different than all my colleagues and why I’m dissing our hosts?’ Clinton wanted to know, viewing the issue as having potential diplomatic repercussions that could harm the superpower nation she was representing.
BACK OF THE HAND: ”I am sick of people deciding what I should know,’ fumed Clinton
‘I’m venting,’ reads the subject line for the February 20, 2012 email from Clinton
Then she added: ‘I am sick of people deciding what I should know rather than giving me the info so I can make a decision. This really annoys me and I told [aide] Monica [Hanley] I just didn’t understand what she/they were doing.’
Then she correctly predicted how the error would be memorialized. ‘But, when we do the family photo, I will be the only person not in white,’ she said.
The email was obtained from the State Department by conservative group Judicial Watch in a freedom of information lawsuit.
Abedin was apologetic and took ‘responsibility’ for the action.
‘This is awful. I’m so sorry,’ she wrote back to Clinton.
‘They should have showed it to you. We didn’t find out about the need to wear shirt til you got to mexico,’ she added. ‘The sent me a picture and I said I hoped you didn’t wear it cause it looked quite unattractive!’
Clinton’s complaints to Abedin were revealed in State Department emails
Clinton’s complaints to Abedin were revealed in State Department emails
THIS JUST ISN’T GOING TO END, IS IT? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton(C front), Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (L front), Mexico’s Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa (2ndR), and South Africia’s Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane pose with other representatives during the G20 foreign ministers family photo in Los Cabos, Mexico, on February 20, 2012
RESEVOIR OF HUMILIATION: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar , US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and Mexico’s Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa (R), pose after signing the United States-Mexico Agreement Concerning Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico, on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on February 20, 2012
She continued: ‘but assumed they would discuss it with you. I should have confirmed they did. I will take responsibility and I am so so sorry. We will move forward with people knowing to tell you everything!’
Then Clinton trained her fire on aide Monica Hanley. ‘Also, remember that Monica takes everything you say literally (and as divinely inspired) and rarely exercises independent judgement.’
Abedin responded: ‘Not sure about divinely inspired … but you are right.’
‘I am so so sorry,’ wrote Huma Abedin in response to her boss’s complaints
A FLORAL PATTERN MIGHT BE OKAY: Abedin admits that she told Mexican officials she hoped Clinton would not wear the white shirt because it was ‘quite unattractive!’
TAKE A DEEP BREATH: Clinton unloaded on longtime aide Huma Abedin in an email after a 2012 summit where every leader besides Clinton wore a white shirt provided by the Mexican government
‘Plus since there were half a dozen people on the email, how could ANYONE think you weren’t going to find out about the shirt when everyone else was showing up in it today?’ She called it ‘baffling.’
Clinton didn’t let the matter go. ‘But not surprising,’ she wrote, now going off on her staff generally. ‘They spend hours talking about every issue to each other and you rather than asking me anything. There’s a lot of wasted time and resulting frustration for me and them.’
The she raised another example: “I did not know they talked to the Mexicans about not having a step in front of the podium,’ she writes.
‘When I spoke this morning after Espinosa but before Calderone, the step was there and because no one gave me a headsup, I assumed it was there or them and used it even to it felt awkward,’ she writes.
‘I saw our team staring at me thruout the entire speech and when I asked Caroline why, she told me about the podium step and how upset they were I was standing on it. If I had known any of this, I would have pushed it away, but since I didn’t, I assumed it was there for a reason.’