Hillary Clinton's advisers reportedly wanted her to immediately apologize for the email scandal. She refused.

Hillary Clinton at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute 38th awards gala.

(Image credit: Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images)

published 13 October 2015

When The New York Times story about Hillary Clinton's private email server broke on March 2, 2015, her top advisers' immediate reaction was that she should apologize — for "at the least, a political mistake," Politico reports.

[Campaign chairman] Podesta, often speaking on the road or from his home in Washington, counseled transparency and disclosure... Clinton’s new pollster and strategist, Joel Benenson... advised her to take responsibility for what had been, at the least, a political mistake. Campaign manager Robbie Mook and communications director Jennifer Palmieri — who would later help coax the candidate into issuing an apology — agreed, according to people close to the situation.Even Mills, Clinton’s most trusted and protective adviser — a lawyer who had been aware of the server setup as Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department — agreed on the politics. [Politico]

But Clinton wasn't ready to say sorry or to take responsibility for any sort of a mistake, even to her own staff. Instead, Politico reports, she "repeatedly" told her staff — and the rest of America — "I have done nothing wrong."

"It sounds crazy, but I think she simply wasn't equipped to deal with all this," a longtime Clinton ally told Politico. "She's never been a great candidate, OK? She needed time and campaigns don't give you time. … She was blindsided, and I think only now, after all this crap, is she finally in the right headspace." Another Clinton adviser called the email snafu a "cancer" on the campaign. Yet another commented: "She's her own worst enemy."

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Nearly six months after her staff's initial urgings — on Sept. 4, to be exact — Hillary finally came around to apologizing for using a private email account while secretary of state. "That was a mistake," she told ABC's David Muir. "I'm sorry about that." But for every month Hillary had waited, her poll numbers had dropped.

Read the full story on Hillary's email scandal at Politico.

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