Hillary Clinton greeted supporters and at least one journalist in the bathroom of a middle school locker room during a campaign event in New Hampshire last month, according to a report.
Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who is the vice chair of Clinton’s presidential campaign, disclosed that the campaign holds meetings in the bathroom "a lot." The development recalls a 2008 report about Clinton’s last presidential campaign putting the traveling press corps in the bathroom during appearances in Austin, Texas.
Jonathan Van Meter wrote in Vogue:
Afterward she said hello to--and took a selfie with--every person who stayed behind to meet her. When she finally headed backstage, she passed me in a hallway and said in a cartoon-happy voice, "Well, hello, JONATHAN. Isn’t this FUN?" I think she was being sarcastic about the drudgery of the modern American presidential season ... but maybe not! Maybe she was actually having fun. Moments later, I was ushered along with a few Clinton staffers into a room where Clinton was shaking hands and taking photos with local muckety-mucks. Once I got my bearings, I realized we were standing in the boys’ locker room, with open showers. Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest adviser, was next to me. "The bathroom," she deadpanned. "We do this a lot. Glamorous, huh? People have no idea."
Abedin went on to tell Vogue that Clinton "is, in fact, a real person" despite some conceptions of the former secretary of state.
"Well, you know, people see her as this figurehead, but she is, in fact, a real person," Abedin said. "It’s hard to break through sometimes. But I feel like she’s gotten into a really good rhythm. She’s not speechifying. She’s just being herself."
Clinton went on to lose New Hampshire to her competitor for the nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, Vt.), by 22 percentage points. The former secretary of state now faces a tough battle in the Nevada Democratic caucus.
Clinton’s history has been studded with several reports involving bathrooms. In October, several Clinton campaign staffers were trapped in a bathroom at the Brooklyn, New York, headquarters for nearly 30 minutes. Clinton representatives also followed reporters to the bathroom at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in September 2014.
And, Clinton’s private email server--which is currently under scrutiny from the FBI--was run out of a bathroom.