The State Department under Hillary Clinton was the most "unabashedly political" it has ever been, according to a New York Times reporter who authored a book on her tenure as secretary of state.
In an interview Thursday
with MSNBC, Mark Landler said everything was viewed "through a political lens."
Landler relates that in 2012, for example, when Clinton offered to travel to the Middle East to broker a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, the White House was skeptical of her motives.
"Among the president’s advisers after she made this risky, politically dangerous proposal, the debate was 'well, is she just doing this to make herself look good?'" Landler said. "So on both sides, the relationship never stopped being viewed through a political lens.”
In his book,
"Alter Egos," Landler said he wanted to focus on those kind of political maneuvers.
"One of the things I tried to show in this book is how the State Department has never been so unabashedly political as it was," he tells anchor Andrea Mitchell.
"And there was all sorts of polling, they continued to look at her poll numbers throughout her period as secretary of state…. The relationship [with the White House] never stopped being viewed through a political lens."
Lander works as both a White House correspondent and State Department reporter, while Mitchell also covered the State Department during Clinton's tenure.
"Those staffs were going at it and she, you know, populated her State Department with political advisors," Mitchell said.
In his book, Landler suggests the Clinton State Department’s insularity stemmed from conditions that were set in place when she agreed to serve as President Barack Obama’s top diplomat,
the Daily Caller reports.
The book recounts how Clinton surrounded herself with longtime allies and operatives, many of whom prioritized her future political interests, the Daily Caller reports.
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