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Hillary Clinton Fast Facts

(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic nominee for president. The first woman in American history to be nominated by a major party, Clinton is also a former secretary of state.

Personal

Birth date: October 26, 1947

Birth place: Chicago, Illinois

Birth name: Hillary Diane Rodham

Father: Hugh Rodham, a businessman

Mother: Dorothy (Howell) Rodham

Marriage: Bill Clinton (October 11, 1975-present)

Children: Chelsea

Education: Wellesley College, B.A., 1969; Yale University Law School, J.D., 1973

Religion: Methodist

Other Facts

Hillary and Bill Clinton met in the Yale Law Library in the early 1970s.

The first former First Lady to be elected to the US Senate and to hold a federal cabinet-level position.

Timeline

1964 – Works on the presidential campaign of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater.

1968 Switches to the Democratic Party and campaigns for Eugene McCarthy.

1970Works as a summer intern for civil rights lawyer Marian Wright Edelman.

1973-1974 Works as an attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund.

January 1974 – Begins working for John Doar, the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, who oversees the inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

August 1974 Moves to Arkansas to teach at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

1974-1977 – Director of Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

1974-1977 and 1979-1980 Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

1976-1992 – Attorney at Rose Law Firm, Little Rock, Arkansas. Is named partner in 1979.

1978 President Jimmy Carter appoints Clinton to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corp., an organization that provides federal funds to legal-aid bureaus throughout the United States.

1978 Bill Clinton is elected governor of Arkansas. Hillary Clinton continues to work at Rose Law Firm, making her the first First Lady of Arkansas to continue working while her husband is governor.

1979Governor Clinton appoints her chairperson of the Rural Health Advisory Committee, whose members deal with the issue of providing health care in isolated areas.

1979 – The Whitewater Development Corp. is formed by the Clintons and James and Susan McDougal.

1980 – Governor Clinton loses the 1980 gubernatorial election. He returns to office in 1982, and is reelected in 1984, 1986 and 1990.

1983Governor Clinton appoints his wife to head the Arkansas Education Standards Committee.

1988 and 1991 – Hillary Clinton is named one of the 100 most influential US lawyers by the National Law Journal.

1992 – Bill Clinton is elected president.

January 1993 – The president names Clinton to lead the Task Force on National Health Care Reform.

September 28, 1993 – Testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee in support of President Clinton’s health care package. The health care reform bill is later defeated by Congress.

February 6, 2000 – Announces her candidacy for the US Senate.

May 16, 2000 – Accepts the nomination of the New York State Democratic Party for the US Senate.

September 20, 2000 – Independent counsel Robert Ray announces that the evidence found in the Whitewater case is insufficient to prove that the Clintons knowingly participated in any criminal conduct.

November 7, 2000 – Is elected to the US Senate with 56% of the vote.

February 13, 2001 – Makes her first address on the floor of the Senate.

June 9, 2003 – Her memoir, “Living History,” is published. The book sells over 200,000 copies on its first day of release.

November 7, 2006 – Clinton is reelected for a second term.

January 20, 2007 – Announces she is creating an exploratory committee for the 2008 presidential race.

January 8, 2008Wins the New Hampshire Democratic primary with 39% of the vote.

June 7, 2008Suspends her presidential campaign and endorses Barack Obama.

August 27, 2008 – Clinton is formally nominated as a candidate for president at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver. She receives 341 votes before interrupting the roll call to ask that Obama be nominated by acclamation.

January 21, 2009 – Is confirmed as secretary of state.

October 15, 2012 – During an interview with CNN, Clinton takes responsibility for the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. She claims as head of the State Department the security of more than 60,000 people in 275 posts is her responsibility.

December 15, 2012 Sustains a concussion after becoming dehydrated and fainting.

December 30, 2012 – Is hospitalized after doctors discover a blood clot during a follow-up exam related to the concussion. Doctors announce on December 31 that the clot is located in between Clinton’s brain and skull, but they are confident she will make a full recovery.

January 2, 2013 – Is released from the hospital.

January 23, 2013 – Secretary Clinton testifies for more than five hours before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

February 1, 2013 Resigns as secretary of state.

March 18, 2013 – Clinton announces that she supports marriage rights for same-sex couples. In the 2008 presidential primaries she supported civil unions and partner benefits, but not same-sex marriage.

March 2, 2015 – The New York Times reports that Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. The account, fed through its own server, raises security and preservation concerns. The House committee investigating the attack on the US consulate in Libya discovered the personal account when the Department of State – through Clinton – provided those emails to the committee.

March 10, 2015 – During a press conference, Clinton says she used a private domain for her official work during her time at the State Department out of “convenience,” but admits in retrospect “it would have been better” to use multiple emails.

April 12, 2015 – Clinton officially announces a second bid for the White House. The initial word comes in an email to supporters from John Podesta, a longtime Clinton ally, then a video launched on YouTube and a newly minted Facebook page. Shortly after declaring her candidacy for president, she resigns from the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation’s board of directors, according to foundation officials.

August 11, 2015 – Clinton’s spokesman announces that she will turn over her private email server and a flash drive to Justice Department officials, as an ongoing probe into the handling of classified information continues. Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III notifies Congress that two of Clinton’s emails contained top secret materials.

October 22, 2015 – Clinton testifies for 11 hours before the congressional panel investigating the attacks on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the deaths of four Americans.

May 25, 2016 – A State Department Inspector General report states that Clinton failed to follow the rules or inform key department staff regarding her use of a private email server, according to a copy of the report obtained by CNN.

June 6, 2016 – According to CNN’s delegate and superdelegate count, Clinton has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination and will become the first woman in the history of the United States to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.

July 5, 2016 – FBI Director James Comey states that he would not recommend charges against Clinton for her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. However, Comey does note that Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” handling classified information.

July 6, 2016 – US Attorney General Loretta Lynch makes it official that Clinton will not be charged for her use of a personal email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

July 22, 2016 – Names US Senator Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate.

July 26, 2016 – Officially becomes the Democratic Party nominee for president.

October 28, 2016 – In a letter to Congress, Comey says the FBI is reviewing new emails related to Clinton’s time as secretary of state, according to a letter sent to eight congressional committee chairmen. The emails are discovered as part of an investigation into Anthony Weiner and were sent or received by Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

November 6, 2016 – Based on a review of the newly discovered emails, Comey tells lawmakers that the agency has not changed its opinion that Clinton should not face criminal charges.

November 8, 2016 – Loses her bid to become the first woman president of the United States.

September 12, 2017 – Her third memoir, “What Happened,” is published, which explores the events of the 2016 presidential election. She reflects on the FBI investigation into her private email server, Russian meddling, and fellow candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, as well as her marriage to Bill Clinton.

March 27, 2018 – The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismisses a wrongful death lawsuit against Clinton brought by the parents of two of the Americans killed in the Benghazi terror attack. The parents claimed that Islamic terrorists intercepted information from messages Clinton had sent using a private email server, which they then used to orchestrate and execute the attack, resulting in the death of their sons.

October 1, 2019 – “The Book of Gutsy Women,” co-written with her daughter, Chelsea, is published.

October 17, 2019 – In a podcast interview, Clinton suggests that the Russians are “grooming” a current Democratic presidential candidate to run as a third-party and champion their interests. The comment appears to be directed at Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has previously been accused of being boosted by Russia. In her response, Gabbard calls Clinton “the queen of warmongers,” and concluded, “It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.”

October 18, 2019 – The State Department releases details of an investigation saying that there was no “persuasive evidence” of widespread mishandling of classified information in the controversy surrounding Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

January 22, 2020 – Gabbard files a defamation lawsuit against Clinton, alleging that she “lied” about Gabbard’s ties to Russia. The lawsuit is dropped on May 27.

September 29, 2020 – Clinton’s podcast, “You and Me Both with Hillary Clinton,” launches via iHeartMedia, the company producing the series.

October 12, 2021 – “State of Terror,” co-written with novelist Louise Penny, is published.

March 22, 2022 – Announces that she has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms.

September 9, 2022 – Apple TV premieres Clinton and her daughter Chelsea’s eight-episode documentary series, “Gutsy.”

February 2023 – Clinton joins Columbia University as a professor and presidential fellow.

May 15, 2023 – In a report released by Special Counsel John Durham, detailing his investigation of a purported effort by Clinton’s 2016 campaign to tie Trump to Russia, Durham concluded that it “did not, all things considered, amount to a provable criminal offense.” Durham reveals in a footnote that he interviewed Clinton in May 2022 as part of his investigation.

September 7, 2023 – Columbia University announces the launch of the Institute of Global Politics (IGP). Clinton and Columbia’s Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo will head the Institute.

August 19, 2024 – During a speech at the DNC in Chicago, highlights the history that Kamala Harris could make if she becomes the first woman elected president, referencing the proverbial glass ceiling Clinton tried to but failed to break during her 2016 campaign for the White House.

September 17, 2024 – Clinton’s memoir “Something Lost, Something Gained” is published.

January 4, 2025 – Is awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.

February 26, 2026 – Clinton testifies behind closed doors with the House Oversight Committee in a congressional investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Clinton insists she had no information about Epstein’s criminal activities. On March 2, the House Oversight Committee releases video if the closed-door deposition.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Republicans may finally snare Dr. Fauci in Covid’s last culture war

(CNN) — The Covid-19 pandemic was a historic stress test that revealed American politics as too broken to deal with a national crisis.Six years later, a new political storm over Dr. Anthony Fauci, once the nation’s most prominent health official, suggests those fractures are now even more toxic. And a long-delayed reckoning over the worst public health emergency in 100 years is more distant than ever.A Republican-led Senate committee is expected to vote to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress on Thursday after he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times during an acrimonious hearing last week.Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul accuses Fauci of obstructing his probe into pandemic policies. The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases declined to answer questions, accusing his longtime antagonist from Kentucky of laying a trap to get around a pardon he was granted by then-President Joe Biden.Last week’s hearing was a classic Washington melodrama in which each party zeroes in on a larger-than-life personality to grind ideological axes. And a contempt referral by the committee to the Justice Department would raise pressing legal and constitutional questions over the president’s pardon power.But more importantly, the new Fauci saga is a clarifying moment regarding Covid-19’s still-potent political legacy heading into the 2026 and 2028 elections. The showdown underscores the shattered consensus on public health between MAGA Republicans and Democrats who accuse their foes of flouting science. And it raises the vital question of whether any lessons have been taken from the vicious political disputes that erupted over Covid-19 mitigation methods between career health officials and the first Trump White House, and between Washington and state and local health and political leaders.Republicans finally see a way to punish FauciRepublican leaders accuse Fauci of presiding over lockdown policies that harmed the economy, public health and children’s education, and of misleading Congress about federally funded research in Wuhan, China, where they contend that a lab leak started the pandemic.More broadly, they are seeking to whitewash the erratic and sometimes politically self-serving first-term crisis leadership by Trump that contributed to his loss to Biden in 2020. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for instance, accused Fauci of “mismanaging the Covid pandemic” and said “President Trump wanted to end the lockdowns” in a falsehood-filled appearance with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” Sunday. While the federal government offered guidelines, it didn’t mandate lockdowns. Such decisions were left to states.Populist Republicans see Fauci as an exemplar of an elite Washington deep state out to suppress personal freedoms. Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno last week demanded Fauci “apologize to the people you harmed through your actions,” while Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called him “the biggest scammer in American history.”Democrats are welcoming a chance to remind the public of Trump’s Covid-19 failures and — notwithstanding his first administration’s swift efforts to deploy a vaccine — to link them to the president’s second-term assault on public health guidelines, vaccine schedules and academic research.A shattered legacyFauci’s plight is also something of a Washington tragedy. In nearly four decades at the NIAID, he was the rare official feted by Republicans and Democrats alike. Foreign governments regarded him as the gold standard of global health, and his involvement in President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR global anti-HIV/AIDS programs helped save millions of lives.Fauci was an archetypal Washington power player. But at 85, he’s become a symbol of those who cling to power too long and whose reputations end up tarnished. Excerpts of Fauci’s diaries released by the committee showed a vain and hubristic side as he seemed to gloat over his media coverage, fame and interactions with celebrities.No one argues that Fauci did everything right. Some of his advice has looked, in retrospect, to be contradictory or not supported by science.But the political heat around the famous doctor may also be an obstacle to something more important: full accountability across the public square over the pandemic, which might improve the federal response to the next emergency.In the frightening early days of the Covid-19 panic, officials were making quick decisions without the full knowledge of the properties of the virus as hospitals filled with seriously ill victims. Missteps were inevitable. But sometimes officials gave inconsistent advice or reversed themselves on issues such as masking, resulting in a loss of public confidence.Princeton professor Frances Lee, co-author of the book “In Covid’s Wake” with her colleague Stephen Macedo, points out that Fauci told CNN in January 2020 that while China had shut down travel to try to contain the outbreak, he couldn’t “imagine shutting down New York or Los Angeles.” He added, “Historically when you shut things down it doesn’t have a major effect.”Yet weeks later, top health bureaucrats were advising governors to close schools and businesses. “How did this happen? And not just that we’re shutting down, but the man who had pronounced the Wuhan approach as unlikely to succeed is recommending it,” Lee said in an interview.The pandemic was such a horrific experience that most people just wanted to move on. But that desire has tempered a reckoning among public and medical officials for in-depth examinations of the period, Lee argued. “Looking back, what did we get right? What did we get wrong? I don’t see that kind of internal reckoning.”More controversy surrounds pandemic restrictions. Such measures are complex to evaluate, since they depended on the length of lockdowns, the density of spread of the virus, the variants circulating at any one time, and the quality of local health systems. But a full, depoliticized congressional examination of the pandemic would probe the relative success of red states that opened sooner vs. blue ones that stayed shut down longer. Such a study might address questions about the human toll of decisions such shuttering schools, which left lingering educational, mental and emotional damage.Some critics also believe that senior public health officials were so fixated on their mission of battling the virus that they ignored the full spectrum of consequences. They — and media outlets carrying their messages — might also have focused more on the pain borne by blue-collar employees, who, unlike office workers, could not log on from home.But Dr. Ashish Jha, who was White House Covid-19 response coordinator under Biden, told CNN’s Bash on Sunday that Fauci “gave advice.”“Some people listened. Some people didn’t,” Jha said, adding that “accountability has to be with our political leaders, not with scientists who are giving advice.”The Fauci hearing has also revived the debate about the origins of the virus. At the time, Trump seized on the idea it came from a Chinese laboratory — apparently to distract from his leadership failures. But the preponderance of academic studies and epidemiological data since then suggests that a zoonotic origin — meaning a disease occurs naturally in animals and spreads to humans — is the most likely derivation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, and that initial transmissions were linked to a wet market in Wuhan.Trump’s former director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, accused Fauci in June of funding lab research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that caused the virus. But documents she released failed to substantiate the claims, and Fauci denies them. Still, Jha told CNN on Sunday that he had changed his own mind on how the virus started. “Based on information I learned and based on information I have seen, I have come to conclude that it is more likely to have been a lab leak,” Jha said.Since the issue concerns China, an authoritarian state that has refused international demands for more transparency about Covid-19, definitive answers may never emerge. But a congressional process that spent more time in the dispassionate pursuit of answers might offer some clarity.Will the Fauci storm scare away the leaders of the next national crisis response?No public official should be above answering for decisions made in positions of public trust. Fauci’s critics see him as imperious and resistant to scrutiny — even while excusing the failings of Trump, who was often a torrent of misinformation and crank cures during the emergency.But if an official as respected as Fauci is not immune from vicious, personal vilification by national leaders, other, less high-profile public servants might chose another profession and leave America ill-served in the next crisis.“These attacks upon Dr. Fauci — it’s not just about him,” Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said at the hearing last week. “It’s sending signals to others … our scientists, our doctors, our healthcare professionals, our researchers. (It’s) trying to show to them that if you don’t get in line with the politics, that you will also potentially be subject to attacks.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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