Hillary Clinton reportedly wanted to be Bill's chief of staff

Hillary Clinton was up for the challenge.

(Image credit: TIM CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

published 25 August 2016

When her husband assumed the presidency in 1993, first lady Hillary Clinton faced a lot of criticism for taking on a public, policy-based role when she headed up the push to make health care universal. Nine days before Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president, in fact, the first lady-elect was already sitting in on meetings regarding health-care reform. But according to one former Clinton adviser cited in a comprehensive Washington Post article on Hillary's failed health-care push, "health-care task force leader" was not initially the front-facing title Hillary wanted in her husband's administration:

Dick Morris, a former Clinton adviser who is now a critic, said the idea [to lead a health-care task force] emerged from "a whole series of phone calls and a meeting at the governor's mansion" with [Hillary]. He said she first proposed becoming White House chief of staff — an idea Morris said he discouraged. She pondered attorney general or secretary of education, he said. Morris suggested she consider leading an important task force that would boost "her own credentials and her own accomplishments," he said. [The Washington Post]

The Post notes that Clinton recounted events differently in her 2003 autobiography Living History, where she says "Bill first broached the idea" of her leading the health-care task force. The story delves deep into how Hillary's first major government project crumbled beneath her — including how it led to the first time she ever had to wear a bulletproof vest. Read the whole extensive report at The Washington Post.