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Here's a look at the most interesting nuggets from the latest batch of Hillary Clinton's emails
The State Department on Friday released the latest batch of emails Hillary Clinton sent and received during her time as Secretary of State.
Here are the most interesting nuggets:
Clinton read up on how to email
Years before Clinton’s emails became public record, Clinton decided to brush up on her email-writing skills and asked her chief of staff Cheryl Mills in December 2009 to lend her the book “SEND” by David Shipley.
Hillary Clinton’s emails: What you need to know
The book, whose full title is “SEND: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do it Better,” is billed as “the classic guide to email for office and home” and offers tips on email etiquette and efficiency.
Political polls
Just over one year after she lost the presidency, it looks like Clinton’s aides were already looking toward the next opportunity for Clinton to run for president.
Hillary Clinton on emails: ‘The facts are pretty clear’
Top Clinton aide Philippe Reines emailed Clinton a CNN article about the latest poll at the time, noting that two-thirds of Americans believed Clinton was qualified to become President, better numbers than Vice President Joe Biden faced in the same poll.
Love the Coat
That’s the subject line of an email Clinton’s then-spokesman P.J. Crowley sent to Clinton to let her know that a photo of her arrival in Kabul, Afghanistan landed on the front page of the New York Times and also sparked an online poll in the Huffington Post.
The poll asked whether Clinton’s coat – embroidered with flowers – was “Too hippie…” or “Hip!”
After Crowley noted that respondents were 77% in favor of the coat, top Clinton aide Philippe Reines chimed in, “Now I now [sic] why Huma has been at a computer desk all day clicking the mouse incessantly.”
Reines is of course referring to Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
“Shake your tail feathers girl!”
Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills emailed Clinton a video of the secretary of state “boogieing (quite well by the way)” during a reception in Kenya.
The email’s subject line? Secretary of Awesome.
More on Sidney Blumenthal’s role
The emails also gave more insight into the role played by Sidney Blumenthal, the former Clinton White House aide who’s drawn scrutiny for his memos to Clinton on Libya while also advising businesses looking to break into post-Gaddafi Libya.
It’s clear from the latest batch that Blumenthal served as an unofficial adviser, providing memos to Clinton on everything from an upcoming trip to Europe to providing advice for an interview with Charlie Rose.
And Clinton’s staff was clearly taking note of Blumenthal’s advice.
Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan at one point wrote to Clinton that the “speechwriting crew is taking Sid’s points below and massaging them into a set of remarks,” for example.
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, also appeared to play an unofficial role in Clinton’s State Department.
Blumenthal, who pushed strongly in several emails for Tony Blair to become European Union president, suggested at one point that the former president pen an opinion piece supporting Blair.
But after an aide emailed that Bill Clinton and Blair were set to meet that evening, Hillary Clinton chimes in that “Bill and Tony will figure it out. Thx.”