Cultural and political image of Hillary Clinton During this time, the blended name "Billary" came to be used to refer to Bill and Hillary Clinton as a pair. Sidney Johnson, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said of the couple that "[s]omething would come down and you wouldn't know which one of them thought of it, where Bill stopped and Hillary began. That's why we called them 'Billary.'" One observer notes that "[t]he Clintons originally warmed to Billary because it suggested the public would get two smart politicians for one, but it soon became a term of derision for those who saw Hillary Rodham Clinton as too
Hillary Clinton email controversy in response. On November 12, during a conference call to top donors, Hillary Clinton attributed her presidential election loss to Comey's announcements, saying they stopped her momentum. In January 2017, the US Justice Department started an investigation of Comey's announcements. According to Comey's June 8, 2017, testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch had asked him to downplay the investigation into Clinton's emails by calling it a "matter" rather than an investigation. He said the request "confused and concerned" him. He added that Lynch's tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton also influenced his decision to publicly announce the