FAREWELL . . . FOR NOW: Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton thanks staffers yesterday. (
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WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton threw herself an elaborate going-away party at the State Department yesterday, with a triumphal farewell that had the feel of a campaign rally to launch her next ambitious pursuit.
On her last day as secretary of state, Clinton climbed a bank of stairs inside the flag-draped formal entrance to the State Department and addressed a throng of about 1,000 staffers who gathered to salute her.
“I’m proud to have been a part of you,” Clinton gushed to applauding aides.
One staffer who had a hand-made “Thank You!” sign was standing so that he would face Clinton before the event started, but handlers moved him so he was behind her — and in view of cameras when she spoke.
Additional staffers were bused in from an auxiliary office in Virginia.
When Clinton finished her remarks, a woman yelled out, “2016!” Then, Clinton glad-handed staffers and walked out the front door.
“We’re going to miss her a lot,” said Michelle Neyland, a staffer at State. If Clinton decides to run for president, “I think most of us would be supporting her,” she said.
Clinton said she would “take the weekend off and then I may start thinking about all the various offers and requests and ideas that have come my way.”