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At 10:33 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2015, Hillary Clinton's lead speechwriter sent around an email with the subject line "Script." In it is a draft of a video address to supporters where Clinton would try to explain the private email system she used while secretary of state "directly, in one place, at one time, as best as I can."

This came just three days after an explosive exchange at a press conference between Clinton and a Fox News correspondent, where Clinton was asked whether she had ordered her server wiped clean. She shrugged and said, "What, like, with a cloth or something?"

The campaign knew it had a problem. In trying to find a way out, it considered a short video, less than 10 minutes, to supporters. But apologizing did not come easy.

The remarks — part of a large and growing WikiLeaks release of emails hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's personal Gmail account — propose Clinton go to lengths, arguably unseen in the campaign from the candidate, to try to explain why she used the private server. She would do so in clearer, more complete and more personal terms than other statements she had made. She would have been apologetic, at times, taking responsibility.

"I can't do it all again," she was to say. "I can only tell you it was a mistake, regret it, explain it, and help State and others fix any challenges it caused."

But she would have also been defensive, at points, noting unapologetically that she wanted her privacy: "I knew no matter what I decided to do with them, I was in for criticism. So I chose to keep a modicum of privacy. I hope you can understand that."

Instead, five days later, Clinton held a news conference, where she addressed the controversy in a more abbreviated way — but picked up some of the same tone of the prepared video address that never was to be:

The campaign is not confirming nor denying the authenticity of any of the hacked emails.

When asked to comment for this story, campaign spokesman Glen Caplin responded, "We now know the FBI believes the Russians are behind this hack and that a Trump campaign associate was back-channeling with Julian Assange. On Day 5 of the WikiLeaks propaganda campaign, the question is what did the Trump campaign know, and when did they know it?"

These "stolen documents," as Caplan describes them, give rare insights into the inner workings and strategy of a campaign that has been remarkably disciplined and largely leak free. But it doesn't take hacked emails to know the Clinton campaign and Clinton herself have struggled with how to explain her use of a private email server while secretary of state. That's what makes these draft remarks so interesting.

Think back to that time, mid-August 2015. Clinton was dogged by questions about her email server. At times, she was dismissive. At other times, she was overly legalistic. She still hadn't formally apologized, and aside from her initial press conference about the emails, Clinton hadn't voluntarily addressed them at length. It's with this backdrop that her top advisers drafted these remarks, which would seem were meant to be put into a video for supporters:

This version of the remarks was emailed to a tight circle of advisers by the campaign's chief speechwriter, Dan Schwerin. The next email in the chain released by WikiLeaks has feedback from campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

"Still think it is way too long and has too many tangents that are distracting and press will chase," Palmieri writes. "Also, I don't think it has our core argument that nothing she sent or rec'd was classified at the time. I will make more edits and send back around."

At 11:29 p.m. that same night, campaign manager Robby Mook sent around his own draft that didn't say anything about "unsolicited forwards." Then, at what appears to be 2 a.m., press secretary Brian Fallon adds his own feedback on the messaging in the draft remarks:

These newly leaked draft remarks are clearer, more comprehensive and more personal than anything Clinton was saying at the time.

On Sept. 7, 2015, Neera Tanden, a former Clinton aide who heads the Center for American Progress, emailed Podesta apparently concerned about how Clinton was talking about the email server.

"This apology thing has become like a pathology," Tanden wrote. "I can only imagine what's happening in the campaign. Is there some way I can be helpful here? I know if I just email her she will dismiss it out of hand. Are there people she can hear from that will have some impact?"

"You should email her," Podesta wrote. "She can say she's sorry without apologizing to the American people. Tell her to say it and move on, why get hung on this."


But before Podesta's email had even been sent, Clinton had given an apology of sorts in an 

"I do think I could have and should have done a better job answering questions earlier," Clinton said. "I really didn't perhaps appreciate the need to do that. What I had done was allowed; it was above board. But in retrospect, as I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I'm sorry about that. I take responsibility."

Clinton never did deliver the remarks her campaign aides drafted. It's not clear why. And when asked about the draft, the campaign is only responding by pointing the finger at Russia for the hack.


In the end, it will never be known if these remarks would have put Clinton's email troubles to rest sooner. Probably not. Even just this week, Clinton had to answer questions in writing under penalty of perjury in an ongoing lawsuit about her email server from a conservative watchdog group.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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