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Redactions, Pirates And Streisand: Inside New Hillary Clinton Emails

It's the end of the month, and that means another email dump from Hillary Clinton's time at the State Department. On Friday evening, more than 1,300 messages from Clinton's controversial private server were released to the public.

However, many of the emails were heavily redacted, and some contained little usable or discernible information at all. The release came the same week McClatchy reported that data on that private email server came from five U.S. intelligence agencies — and Clinton's private lawyer also has emails containing classified information from those agencies on a thumb drive.

It wasn't the only release from the Clinton camp of the day, either. She also released her medical clearance and eight years of tax returns.

Here are some interesting — both relevant and funny — tidbits we found in the vast email archive so far.

[Redacted] rules

Many of the emails might have been interesting — if we knew what they were saying, what they were referring to, or who they were being sent to. Some of the new releases contained barely any information at all. Take a look at some of these snippets for yourself and see if you can fill in the blanks.

What change?
/ State Department
/
State Department
What change?
Reconnecting.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Reconnecting.

Help! But why???

Help!
/ State Department
/
State Department
Help!

Then-Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, called twice — but what did he want? Inquiring minds want to know!

Harkin calling.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Harkin calling.

Did she get to the concert or not? And what young musician was playing?

Concert plans interfered with.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Concert plans interfered with.

Missed connections

Sometimes, the unsexy — but realistic — side of politics and policy is all about logistics.

What time is it?
/ State Department
/
State Department
What time is it?
Coming!
/ State Department
/
State Department
Coming!

Field of analogies

In one email from her spokesman Philippe Reines, he seems to suggest Clinton should use her speech at the 2010 Shanghai China Expo to compare the worldwide fair to the 1989 Kevin Costner movie, "Field of Dreams." Reins even acknowledges it's "corny" as he explains the movie to Clinton.

If you build it, they will come....
/ State Department
/
State Department
If you build it, they will come....

The coat contest

We have some more insight into the much-talked-about Clinton coat she wore on a 2009 trip to Afghanistan that became the subject of a Huffington Post online poll. While Reines praised it in the last batch of emails, it raises the question of whether the coat's approval rating may have been inflated. Selina Meyer may use this tactic on next season of "Veep."

What Huma's been up to.
/ State Department
/
State Department
What Huma's been up to.

Chiefs of staff sometimes forget

It's ok Cheryl Mills — happens to the best of us.

We all forget.
/ State Department
/
State Department
We all forget.

SEND better email

Clinton asked Mills, her chief of staff, to borrow a copy of the book "SEND: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better."

"Can I borrow SEND?"
/ State Department
/
State Department
"Can I borrow SEND?"

Maybe this next email is why she needed it.

You can't email Huma when she's in the same room!
/ State Department
/
State Department
You can't email Huma when she's in the same room!

"Collective pain in the neck"

That's how then-U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill described the people he was supposed to be the liaison for.

"They are truly a collective pain in the neck."
/ State Department
/
State Department
"They are truly a collective pain in the neck."

Not your typical spousal emails

Power couple, indeed.

Will call back when he's done.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Will call back when he's done.

Dancing Queen

This is how close friends and aides reacted to Clinton's fun-filled trip to Africa, where she found time to boogie down.

Secretary of Awesome.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Secretary of Awesome.

When Babs emails, you answer

Dinner with Streisand.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Dinner with Streisand.

Arrrrgh, matey

But there could have been pirates!
/ State Department
/
State Department
But there could have been pirates!

Appearance in the spotlight

For a candidate whose staff has criticized the media when they focus on Clinton's appearance, her staff sure does it a lot. Here, they fawn over her "gorgeous" photo shoot for Parade magazine.

Parade-ing.
/ State Department
/
State Department
Parade-ing.

Later, Mills's partner, David Domenici, told her that Clinton "looked great in that blue outfit" when speaking about Pakistan.

"And btw, she looked great in that blue outfit."
/ State Department
/
State Department
"And btw, she looked great in that blue outfit."

Blumenthal's eye toward the political future

In several emails, Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime aide to the Clintons, seemed to always be looking out for Hillary Clinton's political future, especially after President Obama's approval ratings began to plunge ahead of the 2010 GOP bloodbath.

And after Democrats lost both the Virginia and New Jersey governor races in 2009, he emailed her an article exploring whether the moderate, blue collar Democratic coalition her husband her built could survive the Obama era.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jessica Taylor is a political reporter with NPR based in Washington, DC, covering elections and breaking news out of the White House and Congress. Her reporting can be heard and seen on a variety of NPR platforms, from on air to online. For more than a decade, she has reported on and analyzed House and Senate elections and is a contributing author to the 2020 edition of The Almanac of American Politics and is a senior contributor to The Cook Political Report.
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