Posted on 09/01/2015 6:46:46 PM PDT by markomalley
Emails released by the State Department Monday night show that the leader of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's top unions, had direct access to the office of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Several emails show that requests from Tina Flournoy, union President Randi Weingarten's assistant at the time, for private meetings or phone calls were given priority by Clinton.
For example, in a July 20, 2010, message to Clinton's private account "HDR22@clintonemail.com," Flournoy, using her American Federation of Teachers address, said: "Have a little issue I would like to discuss with you over the phone. Not a long conversation but need to do one on one. Thanks I know you're pretty busy with a few things."
Clinton forwarded the message to State Department aide Lauren Jiloty, telling her, "Plz add to call list."
The work of a secretary of state does not overlap much with domestic education policy, the teachers union's main area of concern, so on the surface there would appear to be little reason for Clinton to devote much time to the union. However, both Flournoy and Weingarten are longtime personal friends of Clinton.
Flournoy was a campaign adviser for Clinton's 2008 presidential bid and worked on both of Bill Clinton's presidential campaigns. She is currently Bill Clinton's chief of staff. Politico rated her as #28 in its list of top 50 "Hillary influentials."
Weingarten and Clinton became friends about a decade ago when the latter was a New York senator. At the time, Weingarten ran the United Federation of Teachers, the union's state branch. Weingarten arranged for her 1.5 million-member union to endorse Clinton's presidential bid in 2008. She secured an early endorsement again last month, even as most others in the labor movement have held off because of concerns over Clinton's stance on key issues, particularly international trade.
When the news broke in March that Clinton had conducted official State Department business on a private email account, Weingarten was quick to defend Clinton, inadvertently revealing on Twitter that she had known about the private address long before it became public.
The closeness in evident in the emails. In a Sept. 12, 2009, message to Clinton, Flournoy says, "Randi and I would like to visit with you re: child labor issues — if that's possible, whom should I contact to schedule?"
Clinton responds, again using her HDR22@clintonemail.com account, "I would love to see you and Randi." Subsequent messages show her instructing aides to set up the meeting.
A January 2010 message shows Flournoy telling Clinton that the union had sent a dozen members to Haiti to help health and education efforts and concluding, "Please let us know how we can be helpful — Hope you're well."
In a November 2010 message to her aides, Clinton suggests recruiting recruiting retired teachers through the teachers union and its sister union, the National Education Association, to help out education efforts in Malaysia. "I'd like to develop that (idea) since both have the $ to pay for it," she told then-under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs Judith McHale.
The messages involving the American Federation of Teachers officials represent among the few instances in Monday's email release that Clinton discusses anything tangentially related to organized labor.
A representative for AFT did not respond to a request for comment.
Females destroyed America. Remember that. It was a whitey-hating Communist feminist who raised 0dungo, too. Remember that.
Ditto that. Feminists have done great harm. The worst thing to ever happen to our culture has been women leaving their family duties and letting government raise their children.
Freaks have to stick together. I can name every teacher I ever had. Kids these days can’t remember who their teacher is during the current school year.
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