--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Called Mitt Romney 'Mittens' During the 2012 Election 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"}}]}] ```