AP Photo Clinton worried about Fox media storm over 'mother' and 'father' passport issue

Hillary Clinton worried about a "huge Fox-generated media storm led by" Sarah Palin and others with the State Department's 2011 announcement that it was phasing out the designation of "mother" and "father" on U.S. passport applications.

State announced in early January 2011 that it would be replacing the "mother" and "father" designations on U.S. passport applications with "parent one" and "parent two," as reported by Fox News and The Washington Post the following day.


On the morning the Post article was published, Clinton made clear in an email to chief of staff Cheryl Mills and deputy Jake Sullivan that she was not defending the decision.

"Who made the decision that State will not use the terms 'mother and father' and instead substitute 'parent one and two'? I'm not defending that decision, which I disagree w and knew nothing about, in front of this Congress," she wrote, according to emails released by the State Department on Wednesday.

"I could live w letting people in nontraditional families choose another descriptor so long as we retained the presumption of mother and father. We need to address this today or we will be facing a huge Fox-generated media storm led by Palin et al."

Mills responded a little more than a half hour later. "Reaching out to folks to find out," she responded.