The Quote:
“What? Like with a cloth or something?”
-- Hillary Clinton
Context:
So here’s the setup: Hillary Clinton gets caught running her own private email server out of her house in Chappaqua, New York — you know, instead of using a government account like every other Secretary of State with a passing familiarity with record-keeping laws.
Cue the FBI, a million FOIA requests, and a giant question: Did Clinton's emails contain classified information?
She turned over 30,000 emails to the FBI, but withheld almost 32,000, which were subsequently deleted because Clinton said they were personal. The FBI was unable to recover everything that was deleted, which led many to question if the server had been wiped.
The Soundbite Heard 'Round the Internet
Flash forward to a 2015 press scrum. A reporter dares to ask the obvious: “Did you wipe the server?”
Hillary’s response? Not a careful legal explanation. Not a sober acknowledgment of national security concerns. Nope. She smirks and tosses out:
“What? Like with a cloth or something?”
That one line instantly became the soundbite heard ’round the internet. It was a sarcastic quip, sure, but it landed with a thud. Critics howled that she was mocking the public’s intelligence. Fans cringed because, well…you can’t exactly spin sarcasm into a stateswomanlike defense.
Results of the FBI Investigation:
The FBI found 110 emails containing classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight contained "Top Secret" information. Despite this, the FBI said they found no clear evidence that Clinton or her staff intended to violate the law and no criminal charges were filed.
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Who Said It:
A native of Illinois, Hillary Clinton is an American politician and diplomat. She served as the 67th US Secretary of State under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2018. She represented New York in the US Senate from 2001 to 2009 and was First Lady of the United States as the wife of Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, as well as the First Lady of Arkansas where Bill Clinton was Governor from 1979 to 1992. Clinton has the distinction of being the first female Senator from New York, the only First Lady to have run for elected office and the first First Lady to simultaneously hold elected office. In 2016 she won the Democratic Party's nomination for President, becoming the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major US political party and the only woman to win the popular vote for US president. (source)
