--- title: Hillary Clinton Calls Mitt Romney 'Mittens' in Email description: Newt Gingrich was called "Grinch" canonical: https://time.com/4130143/hillary-clinton-mittens-mitt-romney/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-30T23:14:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:58:50.715Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Called Mitt Romney 'Mittens' in 2012 Email og:description: Newt Gingrich was called "Grinch" og:url: https://time.com/4130143/hillary-clinton-mittens-mitt-romney/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfacbc22f26d7c6a0/6988732f428a9e22b2cd056c/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5702 og:image:height: 3207 og:image:alt: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Called Mitt Romney 'Mittens' in 2012 Email twitter:description: Newt Gingrich was called "Grinch" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfacbc22f26d7c6a0/6988732f428a9e22b2cd056c/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Called Mitt Romney 'Mittens' During the 2012 Election > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 30, 2015 11:14 PM UTC  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to and meets voters at Henderson A. Johnson Gymnasium during a rally in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday November 20, 2015. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to and meets voters at Henderson A. Johnson Gymnasium during a rally in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday November 20, 2015. Melina Mara—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 30, 2015 11:14 PM UTC An email released Monday from Hillary Clinton’s private server shows the former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate [referring](https://twitter.com/mviser/status/671453577467076608) to Mitt Romney as “Mittens” ahead of a Republican debate in Florida in 2012. In response to an email about deadlines for Republican candidates to file in various states, Clinton wrote, “If Mittens can’t beat Grinch in Florida, there will be pressure on state Republican parties to reopen or liberalize ballot access especially in the caucuses, which as we know are creatures of the parties’ extremes.” “Grinch” presumably refers to Romney’s then-rival and Bill Clinton’s former antagonist, Newt Gingrich. Nine days after the email was sent, Romney [won](http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/states/florida) the Florida Republican primary with 46% of the vote. > [](https://twitter.com/mviser/status/671453577467076608) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4130143/hillary-clinton-mittens-mitt-romney/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4130143/hillary-clinton-mittens-mitt-romney/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Called Mitt Romney 'Mittens' During the 2012 Election","datePublished":"2015-11-30T23:14:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:58:50.715Z","description":"Newt Gingrich was called \"Grinch\"","url":"https://time.com/4130143/hillary-clinton-mittens-mitt-romney/","keywords":["Email","Hillary Clinton","White House","mitt romney","election 2012"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfacbc22f26d7c6a0/6988732f428a9e22b2cd056c/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfacbc22f26d7c6a0/6988732f428a9e22b2cd056c/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton","caption":"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton","creditText":"Melina Mara—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/email/","name":"Email"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4130143/hillary-clinton-mittens-mitt-romney/","name":"Hillary Clinton Called Mitt Romney 'Mittens' During the 2012 Election"}}]}] ```