AP: Hillary used more than one device for e-mail while SecState

Under any other circumstances, this headline would be the equivalent to Breaking: Water Is Wet. For a decade or more, anyone who used e-mail for work usually had more than one mobile device with which to retrieve it, especially for those whose jobs required them to have constant access to their communications. Three weeks ago, though, Hillary Clinton claimed not to have done so, preferring “convenience” rather than carrying two devices to handle two different accounts as she would have had to do had she used an official State Department e-mail account:

First, when I got to work as secretary of state, I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two.

Looking back, it would’ve been better if I’d simply used a second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time, this didn’t seem like an issue.

Why didn’t it seem like an issue at the time? The Associated Press reports that it wasn’t an issue because Hillary was using multiple devices for her e-mail:

Hillary Rodham Clinton emailed her staff on an iPad as well as a BlackBerry while secretary of state, despite her explanation she exclusively used a personal email address on a homebrew server so that she could carry a single device, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. …

They show that Clinton, on at least one occasion, accidentally mingled personal and work matters. In reply to a message sent in September 2011 by adviser Huma Abedin to Clinton’s personal email account, which contained an AP story about a drone strike in Pakistan, Clinton mistakenly replied with questions that appear to be about decorations.

“I like the idea of these,” she wrote to Abedin. “How high are they? What would the bench be made of? And I’d prefer two shelves or attractive boxes/baskets/ conmtainers (sic) on one. What do you think?”

Abedin replied, “Did u mean to send to me?” To which Clinton wrote, “No-sorry! Also, pls let me know if you got a reply from my ipad. I’m not sure replies go thru.”

The response from Clintonland to this inconvenient report? Sure, Hillary used the iPad, but apparently didn’t inhale:

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said early Tuesday that the secretary used her iPad from time to time, primarily to read news clippings.

So much for the convenience excuse. Hillary had no problem handling two devices, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise for someone who has their own entourage, as any SecState would. That’s been one of the more subtle forms of nonsense about her excuse anyway — the idea that handling two devices at once would have been too much for her to handle. Most people juggle communications across multiple devices even without the resources at Hillary’s command, many of whom have to keep work and personal e-mail separate. Were we supposed to say, Poor little rich high-ranking government official?

For that matter, was the argument that Hillary Clinton can’t handle two mobile devices even with a support staff supposed to recommend her for the role of President and Commander in Chief?

It’s been obvious that Hillary has been lying all along. The AP’s report this morning only confirms it. Now we need to find out what Hillary wanted to hide by using a private e-mail system.

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