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Huma vs. the “Night Stalkers” | Vanity Fair

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/huma-abedin-life-after-clinton

Huma vs. the “Night Stalkers”After a stunning election loss, the knives
appear to be out in Clintonworld.
December 14, 2016 5:00 am

By Aaron P. Bernstein/REUTERS.

“Maybe I’m just pissed off, but I really don’t give a shit about what
happens to *Huma* <http://www.vanityfair.com/people/huma-abedin> to be
honest with you,” one close adviser to *Hillary Clinton*
<http://www.vanityfair.com/people/hillary-clinton> told me recently. He was
irked, in particular, at Abedin’s seemingly superfluous breach of decorum
during a post-election event. On the day after Hillary Clinton’s stunning
loss to *Donald Trump,* <http://www.vanityfair.com/people/donald-trump>
this person said, Abedin appeared within the rope line while Clinton
greeted her morose and woebegone supporters. “You’re staff, O.K.?” this
adviser continued. “Staff is staff. You’re not a principal.” (A
spokesperson for the Clinton campaign notes that Abedin was seated
alongside the rest of the campaign’s senior leadership team that morning.
Abedin declined an interview request.)

In the bizarre month since Clinton’s loss, few people besides the candidate
herself have seen their fortunes overturned as significantly as has Abedin,
40, the glamorous and charismatic former vice-chair of the campaign. For
two decades, Abedin has been a fixture inside Clinton’s inner circle; she
began her career as a college-aged White House intern and rose to become
Clinton’s deputy chief of staff at the State Department. As a former
adviser to *Bill Clinton* once put it to me
<http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/01/huma-abedin-hillary-clinton-adviser>,
over time Abedin morphed into “a mini Hillary” herself. She wasn’t merely
an aide, but rather an amalgamation of adviser, best friend, confidante,
and perhaps even surrogate daughter. Abedin “inspires loyalty, and she’s
loyal back,” one Clinton aide told *Amy Chozick* in her widely read dissection
of Clintonworld
<https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/magazine/hillary-clinton.html?_r=0>
for *The
New York Times Magazine*, in 2014.

In fact, according to Chozick, Clinton appeared to countermand those who
suggested that Abedin should be relegated on behalf of the sexting antics
of her spouse, the randy former congressman *Anthony Weiner*
<http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/anthony-weiner-sexting-investigation>.
Clinton, Chozick reported at the time, appeared more concerned with
quarantining the so-called “night stalkers”—sycophants and hangers-on from
her many decades in public life—who might try to re-exert their influence.
Abedin, meanwhile, was widely expected to get a big job inside a Clinton
White House.

*VIDEO: The Evolution of Hillary Rodham Clinton*

But amid Clinton’s stunning post-election hangover, some inside the inner
circle wonder if Abedin became overwhelmed by the attention, and shut too
many people out. “She was enjoying the red carpet and enjoying the photo
spreads much too much in my opinion,” one Clinton insider told me. “She
enjoyed being a celebrity too much.” The close Clinton adviser elaborated
that Abedin and the other tight-knit circle of people may have suffocated
Clinton, preventing the campaign from taking in outside counsel. “The real
anger is toward Hillary’s inner circle
<http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/10/hillary-clinton-inside-circle-huma-abedin>,”
the Clinton insider told me. “They reinforced all the bad habits.” For
instance, the suggestion had been made that Clinton should show her
gregarious side, by, for instance, appearing more often on *The View*. (She
appeared once, but *Bernie Sanders
<http://www.vanityfair.com/people/bernie-sanders#intcid=dt-hot-link>,* her
rival for the nomination, appeared a handful of times.)

According to this person, however, the inner circle nixed that idea. It
seemed, this person elaborated, that even minor suggestions about changing
the narrative fell on deaf ears. “Right away,” this person continued, “it
was either regarded as an intrusion or a naïve suggestion or maybe someone
has an agenda. And so people just stopped bothering. Where in most
presidential campaigns the circle grows broader and broader, hers grew
smaller and smaller.” (A spokesperson for the Clinton campaign refutes this
characterization, noting that the campaign may have had up to three times
as many people on their plane during the election’s final weeks.)

In the month since the election, Abedin, once ubiquitous, has essentially
vanished from public view. She was absent from the recent, and public,
campaign exhumation
<http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/why-trumps-aides-have-been-such-sore-winners>
that occurred at Harvard’s Kennedy School, during which her former
colleagues tussled with Trump supporters such as *Kellyanne Conway* and *Corey
Lewandowski.* Recently, the *Daily Mail* captured
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3997904/Huma-Abedin-spotted-taking-retail-therapy-one-day-reports-surface-estranged-husband-Anthony-Weiner-broke-afford-sexting-rehab.html>
Abedin shopping at the Lululemon store on lower Fifth Avenue with her
four-year-old son, *Jordan,* in tow. The story followed a report
<http://pagesix.com/2016/12/02/anthony-weiner-too-broke-to-stay-in-sex-rehab/>
in the *New York Post* noting that Weiner, in the wake of his most recent
sexting scandal, had cut short his rehab stay after about 30 days,
supposedly because he ran out of money. (His family had wanted him to stay
for 90 days, at a cost of around $1,000 per day, *Richard Johnson* reported
in Page Six, and his parents reportedly took out a mortgage on their home
to help him pay for the cost of the treatment.)

Compounding Weiner’s financial woes, in early December, the New York City
Campaign Finance Board fined him
<http://nypost.com/2016/12/01/anthony-weiner-gets-screwed-by-city-auditors/>
more than $65,000 for a variety of infractions related to his mayoral
campaign. Weiner apparently spent $600 of his campaign funds on
televisions, another $1,539 on his personal dry-cleaning and cell-phone
service, and more than $115,000 for a group of expenditures after the
campaign was over. Weiner was also ordered to repay some $195,000
<http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2016/12/cfb-orders-anthony-weiners-campaign-ordered-to-repay-195-000-in-matching-funds-107757>
in matching campaign funds. *Preet Bharara,* the U.S. Attorney in the
Southern District of New York, is reportedly investigating
<http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/politics/first-on-cnn-us-attorney-investigating-weiner-sexting-allegations/>
Weiner’s latest round of sexting, along with the F.B.I. and the New York
City police.

Aside from Weiner’s public *mishegas*, Abedin has her own problems—namely
coming to grips with the blame
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/us/politics/huma-abedin-anthony-weiner-clinton.html>
directed at her for the new stash of Clinton e-mails that ended up on his
personal computer and that became the focus of F.B.I. director *James
Comey’s* now infamous late-October letter to Congress. In the wake of her
loss, Clinton told donors that Comey’s letter had cost her the election
<http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/clinton-blames-comey-for-election-loss>.
Fairly or not, many people blame Comey’s letter with abruptly changing the
narrative about Clinton at the penultimate moment of the campaign (despite
his subsequent November 6 letter saying nothing new of substance was found
on the computer).

But perhaps Abedin’s biggest challenge is that she may soon have a new boss
for virtually the first time in her life. The Clinton insider reiterated
that Huma, who has spent 21 years at Clinton’s side, might need to prepare
for the reality, moving forward, that her “juice” was “tied to Clinton’s
ascendancy.” Nevertheless, this person continued, “she’s someone that will
be sought after either personally or through business from many rich, very
rich connected people.” He concluded: “She’ll do very well for herself.”

On December 15, Clinton is having a big party in Manhattan at the Plaza
Hotel, once owned by Trump, for her campaign donors, as a sort of thank-you
and keep-in-touch farewell. It is expected to cost more than $100,000 and
be paid for with excess campaign funds. Clintonworld insiders will be
interested to see if Abedin shows up or whether she chooses to skip the
celebration to stay at home to nurse her wounds.
Full Screen
</magazine/photos/2015/10/photos-how-hillary-clintons-loyal-confidants-could-cost-her-the-election>11
Times Hillary Clinton Had Something Worth Whispering
U.S. Chief of Protocol, Ambassador Capricia Penavic MarshallPhoto: By Greg
E. Mathieson Sr./MAI/Landov.


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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