As reporters this week combed through Hillary Clinton’s recently released State Department emails, the Huffington Post chimed in with perhaps the least interesting take on the news.
“Hillary Clinton’s Emails Illustrate The Difficulties Of Achieving Work-Life Balance,” read a headline from the online news group.
Absent from the Huffington Post article are details on how Sidney Blumenthal and his son served as unofficial advisers to Clinton, or how Clinton distributed “highly classified information” over her private server, or how Clinton’s server may have compromised spy satellite data on North Korea’s nuclear warheads.
There is also nothing on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating whether Clinton committed any crime by conducting all State Department business over her private email server.
There are mentions, however, of how Clinton aides discussed taking vacations early, details on how Clinton was wary of “hectic” work schedules, and that nearly everyone on her staff was constantly tired.
The story said State’s director for policy planning, Anne-Marie Slaughter, often encouraged Clinton to take time off, and said if she did, others would “feel much freer to do so.”
“Other emails reveal that Clinton was very interested in work-life balance and the detrimental health effects of hectic work schedules,” the story said. “At one point, she instructed a staffer to print out articles about the effects that a lack of sleep has on women’s health.”
At the same time, the story said that members of Clinton’s staff “reported feeling stressed and found it difficult to take time off.”
“Part of the trove of State Department emails released late Monday show staffers discussing the breakneck pace of their work and imploring each other to take days off,” the article added.
When Slaughter eventually left the agency in 2011, she wrote an article for the Atlantic exposing the stress of working under Clinton. Later, in 2012, Clinton reported responded to Slaughter’s article in Marie Claire.
“I can’t stand whining,” Clinton allegedly said. “I can’t stand the kind of paralysis that some people fall into because they’re not happy with the choices they’ve made. You live in a time when there are endless choices. … Money certainly helps, and having that kind of financial privilege goes a long way, but you don’t even have to have money for it. But you have to work on yourself. … Do something!”
“Some women are not comfortable working at the pace and intensity you have to work at in these jobs. … Other women don’t break a sweat,” she added. “They have four or five, six kids. They’re highly organized, they have very supportive networks.”
State Department officials maintain that Clinton did not say these things in reference to Slaughter’s Atlantic article.
