--- title: Hillary Clinton Emails: Seven Fun Things We Learned description: A handful of the 7,000 emails released Monday showed the weirder parts of Hillary Clinton's job or inadvertently revealed her personality. canonical: https://time.com/4018170/hillary-clinton-email-fun/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-01T03:35:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T02:00:38.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Seven Fun Things We Learned From Hillary Clinton's Emails og:description: She's curious about gefilte fish. og:url: https://time.com/4018170/hillary-clinton-email-fun/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72948ec5e6b538ce/698861cee20a878f73a8d05e/hillary-clinton-emails2.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting on August 28, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Seven Fun Things We Learned From Hillary Clinton's Emails twitter:description: She's curious about gefilte fish. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72948ec5e6b538ce/698861cee20a878f73a8d05e/hillary-clinton-emails2.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 7 Fun Things We Learned From Hillary Clinton's Latest Emails > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2b1f286f-5c71-4970-bede-1c8c987e2bf9&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/L3I0gpwt.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2015-04-09. Watch the top 10 moments from Hillary Clinton's career in politics._ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Updated: Dec 14, 2023 2:00 AM UTCPublished: Sep 1, 2015 3:35 AM UTC by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Updated: Dec 14, 2023 2:00 AM UTCPublished: Sep 1, 2015 3:35 AM UTC Not all of the 7,000 emails in Hillary Clinton’s inbox released Monday were serious. A handful of them showed some of the weirder parts of her job or inadvertently revealed her personality. Here are seven fun things we learned from the latest batch of Clinton emails. **The State Department help desk was confused by her email.** In [a Feb. 27, 2010, email](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0067/DOC%5F0C05767695/C05767695.pdf), a State Department help desk analyst asked if she could receive email. Clinton’s assistant, Huma Abedin, clarified in a follow-up that the help desk hadn’t recognized Clinton’s private address while troubleshooting. “They had no idea it was YOU, just some random email address so they emailed,” Abedin wrote. **She was serious about two TV shows.** In [a Jan. 3, 2010,](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0051-0056/DOC%5F0C05767224/C05767224.pdf) email to State Department staffer Monica Hanley, Clinton asked when two shows aired, apparently because she was making them appointment TV: “Parks and Recreation” and “The Good Wife.” “Can you give me times for two TV shows?” she asked. **She had to ask about her own voting record.** In [a Dec. 30, 2010, email](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0115/DOC%5F0C05774123/C05774123.pdf) to State Department staffer Miguel Rodriguez, Clinton asked about her own voting record as New York Senator and how it might relate to the looming standoff over the debt ceiling. “Can you pls tell me how many times I voted against raising the debt limit?” she asked. (The answer was three times, plus two times she didn’t vote and one vote for a failed amendment.) **She asked staffers about gefilte fish.** In [a March 5, 2010, email](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0121/DOC%5F0C05774358/C05774358.pdf) to State Department staffers Richard Verma and Jacob Sullivan, Clinton for some reason asked about gefilte fish, the famously controversial Jewish delicacy. (According to [_Tablet_ magazine writer Yair Rosenberg](https://twitter.com/Yair%5FRosenberg/status/638531234587656192), Clinton was asking about a blocked U.S. shipment of carp to Israel.) “Where are we on this?” she asked. **She joked about a bank robber who wore a Hillary Clinton mask.** In [a December 2010 email thread](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0115/DOC%5F0C05774155/C05774155.pdf), Clinton, staffer Cheryl Mills and lawyer David Kendall joked about [a news story](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/bylines/elizabeth-flock/hillary-clinton-robs-va-bank.html) about a man who robbed a bank wearing a Hillary mask. “Should I be flattered? Even a little bit?” Clinton asked. Mills dug into it and found 11 times bank robbers wore Richard Nixon masks “perhaps not surprisingly.” **She had high praise for one of her Democratic opponents.** In [an April 25, 2010, email](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0076/DOC%5F0C05768730/C05768730.pdf) to Maryland Sen. Barb Mikulski, Clinton asked about then-Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is now running against her for the presidential nomination. “How’s our friend, Martin, doing?” she wrote. “I know he has a rematch when he should be reelected by acclamation for steering the ship of state so well. Pls give him my best wishes.” **Harvey Weinstein lobbied her to watch “The King’s Speech.”** In [an Aug. 20, 2010, email](https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail%5FAugust%5FWeb/IPS-0092/DOC%5F0C05771759/C05771759.pdf) to a State Department staffer, movie producer Harvey Weinstein pushed for Clinton to watch “The King’s Speech,” his Oscar-bait film about how King George overcame his stuttering problem. “It’s a fun movie that is much in the tradition of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, again I think you would both like it (and Hillary would approve because it’s PG-13 with not too many swear words,” he wrote. ### See Hillary Clinton's Evolution in 20 Photos  Teenager: Hillary Rodham poses in her 1965 senior class portrait from Park Ridge East High School in Illinois. AP  Law School Student: Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham pose for a snapshot at Yale Law School in 1972\. They married in 1975. Clinton Presidential Library  Mother: Clinton poses with her husband, Bill, then in his first term as governor, with their week-old daughter, Chelsea, on March 5, 1980. Donald R. Broyles—AP  Campaign Companion: Clinton celebrates her husband's victory in a Democratic runoff in Little Rock, Ark. on June 8, 1982. AP  Arkansas First Lady: Clinton is seen in her inaugural ball gown in 1985. A. Lynn—AP  Political Wife: Clinton celebrates her husband's inauguration in Little Rock on Sept. 20, 1991. Danny Johnston—AP  Dignitary: Clinton receives an honorary law degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., on May 30, 1992. Chris Ocken—AP  Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a meeting during the presidential campaign for her husband in Buffalo, N.Y., on April 4, 1992. Bill Sikes—AP  First Lady: Clinton appears at the MTV Inauguration Ball at the Washington Convention Center on Jan. 20, 1993. Shayna Brennan—AP  Second-Term First Lady: Clinton attends the Inaugural Ball after her husband was sworn in to a second term on Jan. 20, 1997. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  New York Senator: Clinton speaks at a press conference with female Democratic senators in Washington on June 21, 2006. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Committee Member: Clinton listens to the testimony of Lt. General David Petraeus to the Senate Armed Forces Committee at a hearing on Capital Hill in Washington on Jan. 23, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Candidate: Clinton holds a a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., while running for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sept. 2, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Jan. 2, 2008. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secretary of State: Clinton kisses President Obama at a joint session of Congress in Washington on Feb. 24, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Witness: Clinton joins Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 3, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Witness: Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Jan. 23, 2013. J. Scott Applewhite—AP  Author: Clinton attends a signing memoir, "Hard Choices," at a Costco in Arlington, Va., on June 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Grandmother: Clinton holds her granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City on Sept. 27, 2014. Office of President Clinton/AP  Once and Future Candidate: Clinton speaks at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa, on Sept. 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis _Read next:_ [_Hillary Clinton Sides With Liberals on Anti-Lobbying Bill_](http://time.com/4017863/hillary-clinton-lobbying-bill/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Download TIME’s mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-mobile/id328218429) ## Transcript You know, I'm not sittin' here some little woman standing here by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sittin' here because I love him, and I respect him. Now is our chance to beat the historical odds, and give the American people the health security they need. If there is one message that echoes forth from this. Let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all. The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right- wing conspiracy that has been conspiring. Against my husband since the day he announced for president. I would be happy to, when you give me the signed letters. Well, right here. Right here. When you give me. Right here. Sign it right now. We'll shake. We'll shake on this, Ray. No, no, I want your signature, cause I think that everybody wants to see you signing something that you said you were for. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't wanna see us fall backwards. Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. The battle to stop Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Does not end with one death. What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. I took the unprecedented step of asking that the state department make all my work- related emails, [ MUSIC ] Public for everyone to see. 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