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Hillary Clinton Emails: 'I Only Know What I Hear On NPR' And Car Ride Flowcharts

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a town hall style campaign event Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H.
Steven Senne
/
AP
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a town hall style campaign event Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H.

The latest batch of emails from Hillary Clinton's private server has arrived, just in time to usher in 2016.

The year-end release from the State Department totaled 5,500 pages but fell short of the court-appointed requirement to release 82 percent of the Democratic presidential candidate's correspondence from her tenure as secretary of state by Dec. 31. Many of the new emails, which can be read here, don't have fully completed data fields either, making them harder to search.

"We have worked diligently to come as close to the goal as possible, but with the large number of documents involved and the holiday schedule we have not met the goal this month. To narrow that gap, the State Department will make another production of former Secretary Clinton's email sometime next week," the State Department said in a statement.

According to a State Department official, portions of 275 emails in the latest document dump have been upgraded to "Confidential" classified status since the emails were sent. That brings the total number of emails which have been retroactively classified to 1,274 since the monthly releases began in June. Two emails in Thursday's batch were upgraded to "Secret" classification.

Republicans have criticized the Democratic presidential front-runner for the use of a private email server instead of a government-issued one during her time at State. She maintains that no classified material was sent at the time, but the retroactive classification has been a talking point for the GOP.

"With more than 1,250 emails containing classified information now uncovered, Hillary Clinton's decision to put secrecy over national security by exclusively operating off of a secret email server looks even more reckless," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

The emails so far have contained mainly regular, day-to-day correspondence along with some funny anecdotes. That's to be expected given what's being made public is what Clinton turned over to State. Here are some that stood out.

"I only know what I hear on NPR"

In response to what looks like a discussion of whether to issue a travel warning, Clinton says she gets her news from a reliable news source.

We like her news choices.
/ State Department
/
State Department
We like her news choices.

Only "tolerable" ambassadors allowed

Clinton aide Philippe Reines writes that it took him "literally hours" to work on this massive flowchart — of whether an aide should be riding with Clinton in her Secret Service SUV or limo. But only "tolerable" ambassadors were apparently allowed to ride with Clinton.

Hours you guys. HOURS.
/ State Department
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State Department
Hours you guys. HOURS.
Define "tolerable ambassador."
/ State Department
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State Department
Define "tolerable ambassador."

"Texts from Hillary" revealed!

See how the viral moment happened in real time. According to top aide Cheryl Mills, Clinton looked "cute" in it.

It's cute.
/ State Department.
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State Department.
It's cute.

Birthdays must be scheduled

You cannot truly celebrate your birthday until 11:30 a.m. sharp.

Fun will be scheduled for the afternoon.
/ State Department
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State Department
Fun will be scheduled for the afternoon.

And there's no time to respond to birthday emails yourself

Here Clinton uses her favorite "pls respond" delegation.

Pls respond. Too busy.
/ State Department
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State Department
Pls respond. Too busy.

Quit trying to make "APECtastic" happen

That's one way to try to make the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference more fun.

The Mai Tais may help.
/ State Department
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State Department
The Mai Tais may help.

Squad goals

She's just trying to "balance the gender scales."

Gender equity goals.
/ State Department
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State Department
Gender equity goals.

Correct the record

Clinton was eager to get a Washington Post column from former "In The Loop" columnist Al Kamen corrected. Adviser Reines, who has had a very testy relationship with the media, promises he'll fix it and it's now "my mission today to ram this down his throat."

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

Correcting the record indeed.
/ State Department
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State Department
Correcting the record indeed.

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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