Tony Rodham, the youngest brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, died Friday at the age of 65.
“We lost my brother Tony last night. It’s hard to find words, my mind is flooded with memories of him today. When he walked into a room he’d light it up with laughter. He was kind, generous, & a wonderful husband to Megan & father to Zach, Simon, & Fiona. We’ll miss him very much,” Hillary Clinton tweeted Saturday.
We lost my brother Tony last night. It’s hard to find words, my mind is flooded with memories of him today. When he walked into a room he’d light it up with laughter. He was kind, generous, & a wonderful husband to Megan & father to Zach, Simon, & Fiona. We’ll miss him very much.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2019
The cause of death was not immediately known.
Rodham was born in 1954, the youngest of three — Hillary Clinton and his older brother Hugh. Tony was a Democratic operative and consultant, working for the Democratic National Committee in 1992 during Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign and again during Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign in 2008.
A self-described “facilitator,” Tony leveraged his affiliation with the Clintons to strike deals with the rich and powerful.
But those deals would often land him in controversy. For example, Chinese investors sued Rodham and then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2017 for fraud, accusing the Americans of misrepresenting the gains to be made from investing in a struggling electric car company. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2018.
Rodham and his older brother earned reputations as political embarrassments and liabilities for their sister and brother-in-law Bill Clinton. While Hillary served as secretary of state in the Obama administration, Tony was caught attempting to lobby the department for visa approvals.
In 1999, the Rodham brothers were publicly rebuked by then-President Clinton’s national security adviser for endangering U.S. relations with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze after they set up a company to sell hazelnuts from Georgia and appeared to get close to Shevardnadze’s political rival.
Rodham leaves behind a wife, Megan Madden, and his three children Zachary, Simon, and Fiona. He was previously married to Nicole Boxer, the daughter of former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Rodham and Boxer divorced in 2001.
