Hillary Clinton's presumptive plan to leave the State Department and be coronated at the White House in 2016 has not gone according to plan.
Clinton has tried her hardest to stay out of the news. Her voice is rarely heard unless somebody is willing to foot the bill, and her policy positions on nearly all controversial issues are kept under lock and key. Despite her efforts, the bad news stories for Clinton have flooded in.
The Washington Free Beacon has put together a timeline of major Clinton news in the past two years, beginning with when she fell down in her own home.
December 2012: Hillary falls down
It was reported in mid-December of 2012 that Clinton fainted and hit her head, leaving her with a concussion that forced her to delay testifying to congressional committees investigating the Benghazi terrorist attack.
The concussion took Clinton six months to recover from, according to Bill Clinton.
January 23, 2013: Benghazi hearing: 'What difference, at this point, does it make?'
In her final days as secretary of state, and in the midst of her concussion recovery, Clinton sat before Congress to testify about Benghazi. She famously lashed out during a line of questioning from Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), yelling "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
July 11, 2013: Hillary begins taking heat for frequent paid speeches
Shortly after Clinton left office, she jumped on the paid speaking circuit and began taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech. In many ways, giving paid speeches has become the Clinton family business—Bill Clinton has made more than $100 million from delivering speeches since leaving the White House.
Clinton's exorbitant speaking fees continue to come in. In 2014, University of Nevada-Las Vegas students asked her to return the $225,000 she was paid by the school. Last week, Clinton was paid $300,000 to speak to a Silicon Valley business group.
Clinton also demands a "platter of crudité and hummus," "room temperature water," "diet ginger ale," and a "custom podium."
February 2014: Russia invades Crimea, Hillary ‘reset’ fails
An armed invasion of the Ukrainian province of Crimea began in February 2014, and the land was formally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin a month later.
The invasion by Russia of a sovereign nation was likely not what Clinton had in mind when she symbolically presented a "reset" button to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in 2009. Fittingly, the button presented by Clinton to Russia was branded with a mis-translation that sent the message that she was looking to "overcharge" relations rather than "reset" them.
June 9, 2014: ‘Dead broke’
In a June 9, 2014 interview with Diane Sawyer, Clinton attempted to excuse her obsession with giving paid speeches by explaining that when they left the White House they were "not only dead broke, but in debt."
The comment was met with criticism, as the Clintons clearly were not broke at all. Shortly after leaving the White House, they purchased a $1.7 million home in the affluent Chappaqua, N.Y., suburb.
June 10, 2014: Hard Choices bombs
The hugely anticipated release of Clinton's book Hard Choices was a complete failure. The book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, said that it was not likely to sell enough copies of the books to make back the millions given to Clinton as an advance.
June 15, 2014: Details of Hillary’s defense of a child rapist emerge
A recording of Clinton discussing a legal case in which she successfully defended a child rapist was revealed by the Free Beacon; it suggests that Clinton was aware that her client was guilty and was able to laugh about it.
September 27, 2014: Hillary becomes a grandmother
A rare bit of good news for Clinton came when daughter Chelsea Clinton gave birth and made her a grandmother.
Though the news worked in Clinton's political favor, the grandmother label also added credibility to questions that are sure to arise about her age. Born out of the event, also, was the unfortunate #GrandmothersKnowBest hashtag. The validity of this statement has been called into question by the Free Beacon.
November 4, 2014: Hillary tries to help Dems in 2014 election, fails
Clinton took a short break from the paid speaking circuit to lend a helping hand to Democratic candidates in the 2014 midterm elections, but candidates who received her support did not fare well in the polls.
The two most stinging defeats came in Kentucky and Arkansas, where Alison Lundergan Grimes and Mark Pryor lost big despite support from both Hillary and Bill Clinton. In the fallout from the election, Clinton was considered by some as the "biggest loser" of all.
January 9, 2015: Hillary furious over Bill’s ties to Epstein sex scandal
Clinton was reportedly furious at her husband after his name resurfaced in a sex scandal, this time regarding his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of making a girl his sex slave and forcing her to perform sexual acts on his associates. Former President Bill Clinton's name appeared in court documents as he was a frequent guest on Epstein's private plane.
Hillary Clinton was seen storming past Bill Clinton without saying a word at Mario Cuomo's Jan. 9 funeral, and talk at the funeral was that "Hillary is furious with Bill about all this new information on Jeffrey Epstein."
February 9, 2015: Team Hillary infighting resurfaces
David Brock announced that he was stepping down from pro-Clinton Super PAC Priorities USA due to its "orchestrated political hit job" against other pro-Clinton groups.
Rumors had already surfaced that Clinton's supporters had split into three separate factions, which was called the "cost of doing business" with Clinton.
February 17, 2015: Hillary’s foreign donor scandal
A Wall Street Journal report that the Clinton Foundation had dropped its ban on collecting funds from foreign governments led to calls from even the New York Times to reinstate the ban to avoid obvious conflict of interest issues.
It was further reported that the ban did not remain intact for the entirety of Clinton’s stint as secretary of state, and that millions were received by the foundation from foreign governments such as Qatar while she still held the post.
February 23, 2015: Hillary’s war on women revealed
Ahead of a long series of speaking engagements with women's groups, it was revealed by a Free Beacon analysis that women working in Clinton's senate office were paid far less than men.
The ladies of The View called the report "very damaging" and said that it was "like a bad fart" for Clinton.
March 2, 2015: Hillary's State Dept. email scandal begins
The New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email account while she was secretary of state. It was further revealed the Clinton actually set up private email servers at her home, and that the email addresses on the private server were used by her top aides.
It is becoming clear now that this practice was in blatant violation of state department policy.
The Free Beacon looks forward to the next two years of covering Hillary Clinton.